insert catchy title here
while ago I wrote a blogpost about titling in which I quoted a Writer’s Digest article entitled Beg, Borrow and Steal. The article itself explained that because for the most part you can’t copyright a title, when it comes to titling a book you can borrow from anywhere. This is perhaps why most episodes titles of Grey’s Anatomy are also song titles. Which got me thinking… I have well over 1,200 songs in my iTunes library and at least as many on Spotify. Which means that of those songs… there has to be at least one that could possibly inspire a title for the third and final novel of the Secrets of Witches trilogy. And not just song titles either… lyrics. And inspire it did.
I now, thanks to a new album I found on Spotify, a working title for book 3 that I will share with you all a little later, once I’m sure it’s more solid, but I’m pretty happy with it.
Titling your novel is probably one of the most difficult aspects of this job, because there are a lot of things to consider. Should it be a literal title or a title that actually makes you think? Bridge of Memories for the record is not a literal title. It’s a metaphor representing the “bridge” between Eric and Elizabeth as he reads over her diary (memories). Goddess of Carnage is, definitely more literal than the first title because it’s largely about the end of the world, but it does have some metaphorical symbology which one could assess while reading the book. Then of course there’s the final title which is like the first not entirely literal. Depending on what your book is about sometimes it’s better that the title not be too literal. Something tells me grapes don’t have a tendency to be particularly wrathful on their own, and there’s nothing particularly casual about a vacancy caused when someone has an aneurysm. And if you couldn’t tell I was trying to be funny… I really don’t know what to say about your sense of humor.
Where do you find your title inspiration? In music? Lyrics? Television? Some obscure quote or does it, as sometimes happens, just come to you?
PS: Sorry about the super late post today and rather late one yesterday.
