How do people arrive at the titles for their novels & do you start with them, figure them out at the end or get them half way through? Also, what relationship does the title have to the work (e.g. is it a phrase used in the novel, a sort of summary of the content or something that came out of nowhere & sounds good)?

Am 50,000 words into yet another attempt at a novel & so far it's got no other title but "Gunk", which on reflection might not reel them in. The only other title that occurred to me was:

Who's that Trip-Trapping over my Bridge?

Does that sound ludicrous for a novel aimed at adults & if not, what associations does it trigger (it's not a rewrite of The Three Billy Goats Gruff...)?

Any guidance received with abject gratitude.

Titles are the devil: the best ones swim up from one's instinct, so it's hard to know how to go about finding them. Sometimes the perfect title arrives full-formed, but sometimes it doesn't. Going through the novel purely with that in mind, looking for a word or phrase is one way. But it has to be purely - I don't find titles jump out at me when I'm doing some other kind of thinking/looking.

Somewhere in the threads are links to a two-part blog entry about titles, which someon posted. Absolutely fascinating about why titles work, though not much help when you're struggling. Everyone knows a good title when they hear it, they just don't know how to find it.

Emma

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I rather like 'Who's that...' it's one of those titles which isn't normal title-shaped. Two drawbacks: it doesn't give much guidance as to what sort of story it is, and I think there'll have to be a very clear reason why it's called that, otherwise your reader will be irritated by waiting for the reason and not finding it.

Yes, it's tricky... My problem is that I desperately want to call the novel something - working away at it without a title feels a bit like being introduced to a stranger at a party & having a fascinating conversation with them without bothering to ask their name...

I sort of know why I hit on that particular title, given the themes of the novel, but you're right that it doesn't really give the reader any clues - unless of course you happen to own the same 70s Ladybird edition of The Three Billy Goats Gruff that I have at home, and even then it requires further extrapolation.

Further thought needed...

I would let your mind play around with words and phrases till the novel's finished. There's no hurry. With luck, something snappy and relevant will drift into your consciousness all unbidden. GET IT WRITTEN DOWN AT ONCE - I can't stress that enough. However startlingly brilliant a title it appears, you may find that if you leave it for a few hours, it vanishes like a dutiful bream.

Some titles just seem to be be there, while others are a real pain. Sometimes, a line of your own dialogue or phrase can work as a title.

JB

I wish I could get that dutiful bream in there somewhere, but fear it's not that kind of novel...

it vanishes like a dutiful bream.

Lammi

Emma


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"I wish I could get that dutiful bream in there somewhere"

Couldn't it be swimming under the bridge?

It could be, but the troll would probably get it. It's a particularly ferocious one judging by the pictures.

Sorry, the bream isn't my own. It's one of H H Munro's.

Curiously, RJH, I'm using Ladybird books as inspiration for my new novel, too: Tiptoes the Mischievous Kitten, and Helping at Home. Neither of them will be much use for titles, though, I suspect.

Ha ha, I have all three of those ladybird books at home, and any parent who has read the Billy Goats Gruff story to their kids will recognise that phrase RJH - possibly even from their own childhood.
I hate thinking up titles for my stuff. Either it comes like a bolt out of the blue, or never comes and it has to stay as eg. Untitled 3 all it's life, or the more prosaic 'The Girl the Cat and the Wizard', which basically does what it says in the title.

- NaomiM

basically does what it says in the title.

Well, it didn't do Four Weddings and a Funeral any harm, did it?

I'm in another round of fretting about the title of my new novel. How about Three People, Two Plots and a Beheading?

Emma

I think you have to shoehorn the word 'beheading' in there somewhere, Emma.

Oh, well, since we're quoting from childrens-fic, you've got dear old Alice In Wonderland's "Off With Her Head"

We have

Tiptoes the Mischievous Kitten

in our bookshelf & I've just scanned it. Interesting plot compression in the last couple of pages I thought - Tiptoes hides in the shed after last straw bout of mischievousness, vowing not to return to the house until she's learned to be good. She duly returns on the next page with three kittens in tow and takes up occupancy in her old basket (presumably having learned to be good? Hmmm). Doesn't look much good for novel titles though.

It's one of the 497 series, what my friend "Ladybird Helen" ( http://www.ladybirdflyawayhome.com/index.htm ) calls the Defective Animal series. Fantastic artwork. My all-time favourite is The Sleepy Water Vole. Was Britain ever so sunny?