Saturday Night and I Ain't Got Nobody....

[said_scarlett]

It's Saturday night and I am sleepy and bored. I ran some errands, cleaned the stove, wrote a good bit, played some Sims and now I'm pretty much just vegging. I started my Fantasy Fest fic and it looks like it's going more in the direction of angst than fluff. But really, with the subject matter, I think it would be difficult to do it any other way.

This brings me to a question. I never can title my fics before I'm done with them. The only exceptions I can think of are 'Shelter From the Storm' and 'Mother is the Necessity of Affection'. Other than that, the titles are generally stuck on at the end after much wibbling and re-reading and worrying. I suck at titling. It's one of the hardest things for me. So: a poll on titling!

[Poll #564145]



Feel free to add any other information you feel like in comments. I'm really curious how other people go about titling fics, and with how little/much ease.

Comments

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

Well, if I can't figure out what to call the fic, I either entitle it by a line of whatever song I am listening to at the time or I take out a Shakespeare play and use a line from that. I a lot of my titles and chapter titles are from the Sonnets.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Songs seem to be a huge inspiration. I've only titled two or three of my fics from a song, if I'm remembering correctly. Maybe I ought to look into that! ;)

[karasu-hime.livejournal.com]

My answers apply to art.

I find titling pieces so very difficult!

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Gah, I imagine art would be massively difficult to title!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It really depends, for me. Sometimes I start out with a title, or know from the minute I come up with the fic what the title will be. Sometimes I know by partway through, sometimes by the end... and sometimes I sit around forever agonizing over a title, never fully satisfied with it.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

OT, but do you know where Kari is? I've been IMing her for hours with no reply, and she's not idle. I'm getting worried....

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Her mom was coming over tonight, so I'd imagine she's with her. I've only talked to her very briefly via LJ today, but I remember she said she'd be busy with her mom all night tonight.

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

Most of the time, a title just pops into my head while I'm writing, and even if I try to come up with something better, it will just stick. I've learned to go with that usually.

Fic title finding.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

I do that too, finding the title in the middle of writing. Often I'll get the idea and the plot and the start and end points, and then the title kind of changes the angle slightly.

I have occasionally found a title for a fic pretty much out of thin air,after I've finished the fic and it's all out of my head, and the title sort of fits in a way, so I go with that, because trying to find something witty which references something profound is just too much trouble (especially for my fic-soaked brain, I have little to pull quotes from).

I did title the chapters in a long fic with five to ten word summaries of the chapter's plot. These went down very well. I liked it because it was easy, and I could easily find where I had written certain scenes.

I do have several titles which still need fics written for them.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, yes, I know how that is. Though they rarely pop up while I'm writing!

[diea.livejournal.com]

OMG! ICON! ALAN! DARK HARBOR! SQUEEEE!

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Hah, yeah, same here!

[diea.livejournal.com]

I don't write fic much, so my answers pertain to my poetry and chapters to my story, but yeah titling sucks ass. I hate it too. That's why most of my poems have one word titles. :)

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I usually grab a couple words or a short phrase from the text that pack a punch or sort of embody the whole thing. Unfortunately, I can't always find them. x_x

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my biggest problem. I can never use anything from my fics, or I don't think I can, at least.

[zinjadu.livejournal.com]

I answered "Other" for number one, cause sometimes I title them in the middle, before or after I'm done. It really depends on when I figure it out.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the general consensus. Though most it's during/after.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

When all else fails, lyrics/song titles.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jesabelle_/]

I name my fic when I'm done with the first chapter.

[kaflower.livejournal.com]

*waves*

Hi there! I'm so excited to see what you'll come up with for this plot line...

Cheers! And happy writing!

Kryssy

[annakas.livejournal.com]

The first other means that sometimes I title the fic when I start writing and it fits, other times I have already written the fic and then am pulling out my hair to find a good title for it.


annakas

[simmysim.livejournal.com]

I usually end up making the headers for my fics in the middle of writing them, when I want to take a short break from the story or something. The title will either come to me in a burst of inspiration while writing it, or never. >:P That's why a lot of my fics have been lately, "Wherein Draco Learns the True Meaning of Christmas" and whatnot.

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

In my case, I usually have a devil of a time coming up with names for stories - focs or originals. Usually, I come up with the name afterwards, but with longer works I have noticed that the name comes somewhere in the middle - when I have a substantial chunk worked out, and know the story.

[claripup.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... Well I normally struggle with titles... and I nearly always title them once they are finished. There is nothing more annoying then having a story finished, but not being able to post it cause you can't think of a title!! But sometimes I will write a story to fit a title... generally I'll hear something, a line of a song or a random comment by someone and think 'Wow what a cool title for a story about....' And sometimes I write it...

[christhiane.livejournal.com]

Q1/2: I usually give it a title duringthe process, but not if they're really short. Then I just throw something on top of it if I even bother at all.

[athenakt.livejournal.com]

Regarding whether I title something before or after writing the fic, I've done both in my time. However, the majority of my stories received their title before they were completed. For a couple of them, the title came with the concept. The two I'm plotting out now actually received their titles just as I was falling asleep one night- on the same night. Knowing my memory, I promptly got back up, dragged out my notes for the stories and wrote the title for each.

Now- are they good titles? That I think is a different story. ;)

[ldybastet.livejournal.com]

I usually don't have much trouble with titles, and often the story itself triggers the title. I said other to the first question, because it's different with different stories. Some, I have the title to almost before I start writing, others I have to wait for a title. It can be because of the subject, genre, or a phrase that I write, and sometimes I'm not immediately sure why just that phrase or word jumped at me. But I almost never rename a fic.

[jadedofmara.livejournal.com]

I answered other to the second question because it's a bit more than just depending on the fic, because lately I've taken to changing the title as I write. More often than not, I start with a concept (of late) and the title describes that concept, but as I go along and the story gets fleshed out and the details begin to emerge, the concept is changed just so that the title may no longer be appropriate, and sometimes I have another title ready and waiting, but other times not.

[lingzer0.livejournal.com]

Via the Snitch--

Sometimes the title just comes to me, and I end up writing the fic around that. Other times, I go with a working title until something strikes me. Sometimes I'll even rename one if I come up with a better title.

[liadlaith.livejournal.com]

I usually title about half-way through the fic, when I've got an idea of what it's really like and where it's going.

[dramaphile.livejournal.com]

I tend to come up with my fic titles at that point in writing where I have to actually save the story and give it a name (although, occasionally, it gets named something like "fic for lynnie" or "genderfuck" if I get really stuck. But most of my fics get a title somewhere around the middle.

[kinky-kneazle.livejournal.com]

Usually I title somewhere in the middle. A line from the fic will jump out as a possible title, or some phrase will come to me.

Then again, sometimes a title will be the catalyst for an entire fic being written, and sometime I'll get to the end and say to my beta "come up with a title! I got nothing!"

But usually, the middle.

[nimbus1944.livejournal.com]

It varies. Sometimes I'll be reading a book or poem and get a great story idea from one line. James Whitcomb Riley's poem Little Orphant Annie set me off like that, and I borrowed his title.

When the fanfic gets written first, I might base the title and any chapter titles on the main subject; so, a fic on muggles plotting land development on the Hogwarts property has surveying terms for chapters and is called On This Spot, and a fic on chess has chess terms and is called Feints. If I'm stuck, I may take a few keywords from the story and look in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, or go googling, to find a title from a quote, song lyric or title that sounds right for the story. From that I got titles like The Last of Life, By Lux of Luna, and Though The Frost Was Cruel.

Aaand, some are a little bit of both methods. The song Can You Read My Mind?, led to a story, but in the end I gave it a completely different painting-like name, Still Life With Flowers, based on story elements.

I try to credit the idea sources by quoting a few lines at the beginning of the story.

[sailorsimba.livejournal.com]

The only time titling was easy for me was when I was writing a story based on a SCUSA thread--I'd decided from the beginning that the title of the fic was to be a the same as the title of the thread. Otherwise, though, I just choose a title that's not horrible. I really, really suck at titles.

[maryrose3.livejournal.com]

I usually have to title the story before I start it because I'm very anal about it. Only once did I start posting a fic without a title and it really bothered me a lot. I was very relieved when I finally titled it. I got one fic with a really lame title; I hate it but at least it's got one.

[katiescarlet.livejournal.com]

I sometimes title stories after I've written them, but most of the time the title comes to me sometime in the middle of writing. And I'm super-picky about titles so it's not easy to come up with them.