I need a title!

[Kristina]

Uhhhh! I'm about done with my short story for the anthology and I cannot think of a good title to save my lift. How do you guys do it? Any tips?

[Scott]

I usually like to take a famous title/quote/saying and tweak it. For example one story I wrote was called "Vengeance Served Hot." (Playing off of Revenge is a dish best served cold)

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Gosh, I'd love to help, but when it comes to titles, I'm terrible! I did two entries. The first one I named after...wait for it...the first sentence in the short story. Genius. I do not have it. The other entry was a fun, impulse submission, just a cool dream I once had presented exactly as it was written when I wrote it down upon waking, including the title, which was 'dream' and then the date.

Don't use these as suggestions. They are not good.

[Gard]

I'd just use 2 other things you know work even if they have nothing to do with the story, example:

Twilight of Thrones

or

The Da Vinci Stone

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

I don't know about that, Gard. If I saw those titles I would expect parodies of some sort. Twilight of Thrones would definitely be Twilight crossed with Game of Thrones. I'd keep away from things that can be so easily associated with something else. Plus, I tend to feel cheated if the title to a story doesn't match the content in some way. The best titles lead me to imagine what kind of story I may be about to read.

[Michele]

I hope Gard was joking there.

If all else fails you can call it after the main character, or the villain, or whatever it is that causes the turning point in the story (the catalyst).

[Doug]

I like Scott's suggestion. Think about whether your story collection has any overarching theme, then search for quotes on that theme. I'm working on a collection about childhood and adolescence, and I found a cool poem, "On Turning Ten," by Billy Collins. I'm going to take the title from the last stanza, and call the collection Nothing But Light.

[H2oyea]

There's many things a title can be based on

-the conflict
-the goal
-the twist
-the lesson
-the result
-the workings of the world

You don't have to spell any of this out in the title, but you can mention something related to the above.

[Kristina]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I might have an idea now :P