Naming Your NaNo Novel

[Jessica]

You've been spending these past few weeks working hard on your NaNo novel's plot, characters, setting, and all of those important details...but you forgot one thing--Your novel's title!

For anyone that is in this pickle, what kind of advice do you suggest? ((I may or may not be having this problem...))

[Tony]

If you can't come up with the final title yet, because you only have an outline, for instance "Death of a Salesgirl" if you think she might make it. Use a working title "Salesgirl Be Wary".

[Irene]

That's a different approach Tony, I tend to stick "WIP[genre][date]" and a list of theoretical titles on the first page of the document that I mess with.

[Tony]

I have a lot of stories as WIP, varying from a few hundred up to 14k. I am ashamed to say I had 37 of them when I totted the little devils up a few weeks ago. So, calling them "WIP[genre][date]" wouldn't help me find the one I want to work on. I do keep a spreadsheet with titles, genre and total so far, so I can keep track. Often I will think of a solution to a stuck story while doing something completely different. Some stories are not stuck, just ideas sketched out that I want to do once the current one is launched.

[Irene]

Tony wrote: "I have a lot of stories as WIP, varying from a few hundred up to 14k. I am ashamed to say I had 37 of them when I totted the little devils up a few weeks ago. So, calling them "WIP[genre][date]" wo..."

Yes, that would be a problem. I tend to make myself finish things out before I get more than three really going otherwise I will end up with more than 37 :)

[Tony]

Part of the problem is that I thought of writing 26 short stories for my next collection, one for each letter of the alphabet. I started with "Alibi" which ended up 25k, and now working on "Break", currently 6k WIP. I've got word sketches for "Cries", "Double", "Expresso", "Fool", "Ginger", and finished "Trading-up" a couple of months ago.

[Irene]

Tony wrote: "Part of the problem is that I thought of writing 26 short stories for my next collection, one for each letter of the alphabet. I started with "Alibi" which ended up 25k, and now working on "Break",..."

Oh, that does make more sense though! Are you working on these for NaNo?

[Tony]

No, those are my everyday stories, for NaNo I and hoping to finish my 4th novel, a contemporary romantic drama.

[Dwayne]

Jessica wrote: "but you forgot one thing--Your novel's title!"

Working title. Don't bother worrying about a real title before you write your piece. Give it a fairly generic title and move on. The real title will hit you somewhere in the process.