Comments on: How to Write Titles

By: payne86

payne86 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:56:32 +0000

Well, its froom the point of view of the villain. Its in a fantasy world with vampires, angels, large creatures called demons, werewolves, elves, dark elves and of course humans. The main villain/ main character is xander, who is a vampire and the leader or king of his race. He fights against the other races with aid from the werewolves. Its more or less a large series of wars and battles involving 2 families, the argyles(xander) and the merimovs, who fight for different reason but equally want to change the world. Its very violent and action based with a 3 part series involving the family line through generations. The 1st series is bloodbath, its all about a war between races to eventuually take over or change the world after a huge corporation known as metal corp technology takes over all main stream tech(its not very advanced but is still tech). The 2nd series is called summoning, where we follow hunter, the son in the merimov family, on a journey to find a way to cure a “demon” inside of him. Upon the journey he meets and be friends a group of treasure hunters who together find an ancient relic that’s said to save the world. When they open the relic a teenaged girl drops out. Hunter eventually finds true love and how to cure his demon while once again aiding the world against the evil metal corp. The 3rd series is the clensing where the humans have been busy wiping out the other races due to events from the previous 2. With almost every race extinct, the great grand son of the now deceased xander has to stop metal corp one last time with the aid of old friends and family of his grand fathers. The 2nd is more or less a love story with action in it and the 3rd and final one is similiar to the 1st with violence and action.

So I hope that helped, I need a title that can interlock the 3 stories together.

By: B. McKenzie

B. McKenzie — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:05:54 +0000

Uhh… what’s the story like? Could you give me at least a few sentences of description? What’s the main character like? What’s at stake for him/her?

By: payne86

payne86 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:34:07 +0000

I’m having trouble with a good title name for my 3 part vampire fantasystory. Its supposed to be (blank): the bloodbath, followed by (blank): the summoning and then (blank): the clensing. Any ideas or anything would greatly help me

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:45:55 +0000

Hmmm I like Destroying the World and Other Fun Ways to Spend Your Free Time

The main characters are all juniors and seniors in high school. I can describe the mcs if you’d like

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:04:38 +0000

Okay, bearing in mind I don’t know what the target audience or demographics of the main characters are, I would like to hazard a few related suggestions.

–Destroying the World to Save It [alternately "Blowing Up" instead of "Destroying" for a more casual feel]
–Destroying the World and Other Fun Ways to Spend Your [age-appropriate phrase like Summer Vacation or Off-Hours or Vacation Time or whatever]
–Planet Busting and Other [interesting phrase related to the plot].

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:51:13 +0000

Yeah it is a ridiculous comedy. The storyline is that the aliens want to destroy Earth to prevent the return of a race of parasitic organisms. They have warned earths heroes to no avail, so they take matters into their own hands and accidentally give the mcs powers. I haven’t exactly worked out why the heroes are helping the aliens yet. But yes they are trying to destroy the Earth

By: B. McKenzie

B. McKenzie — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:30:30 +0000

Is it a ridiculous comedy? (Also, are the heroes trying to destroy the Earth or save it? It sounds like they got their powers from a villainous set of aliens).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:37:00 +0000

What would be a good title for a story about heroes who accidentally got their powers? By accidentally, I don’t mean they were walking by a secret laband it exploded. I mean that there were five other people who were supposed to receive powers from an alien race, but through a ridiculous series of mistakes, the main characters receive the powers, and the alien race has to set about destroying the Earth with the mcs, who are nowhere near as gifted as the five original candidates were. What do you think?

By: B. McKenzie

B. McKenzie — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:17:39 +0000

I think it depends what the acronym is.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:19:49 +0000

Would having the acronym but with the proper meaning underneath work if it gave the reader the impression of what the novel will be about?

By: CK

CK — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:57:19 +0000

I think there should be some mention in the article for serialized/periodical style works, as opposed to strictly novels (be them graphic novels or otherwise). Naming obviously follows slightly different conventions for them, or at least makes some things forgivable that aren’t suited to the single-story structure.

Mainly, allowance for character names or single words. Sure, most people won’t give two hoots about a story simply called “Peter Parker” or “The Adventures of Clark Kent,” (assuming you aren’t already familiar with those obvious names. But using the title “Superman” falls under both single-word titles AND names, and yet is clearly acceptable for a traditional comic book. Yeah, you change the title a bit if it’s a stand alone graphic novel or special collection of comics, like a trade paperback edition called “The Death and Life of Superman” that collects all the books that dealt with his death and then return.

But there are countless highly popular comic book titles that are both a character’s name and a single word; Batman, Green Lantern, X-Men, X-Factor, etc. Perhaps you could amend the article to make mention of these particular types of one-word, character name titles, specifically addressing when it is appropriate to use them.

But hey, who am I to tell you how to do your job? For the record, I did appreciate the article, and fully plan to come back to it the next time I’m on a title hunt for a new story. Thanks!

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:11:06 +0000

I like ____ of the Serpent, but I’m not feeling Duality. I would have no idea what that story’s about.

By: Rog

Rog — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:01:31 +0000

what about something along the lines of “Duality of the Serpent” would soething like that work?

By: The Jedi Penguin

The Jedi Penguin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 03:22:44 +0000

I came across a book today titled The Bad Queen. I was slightly shocked that a book was allowed to be published with a title like that. Especially considering it was about Marie Antoinette, who had so many different defining traits…

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:36:51 +0000

Yeah, Payne, it would help me to know more about the story. For example, here are some questions I’d usually ask an author working on a title.

–Genre/subgenre: We’re talking about superhero action, right? (Or is this some other sort of superhero story?)

–What are some things distinguishing this from other superhero stories?

–What’s the central goal of the main character and/or what’s at stake if he loses?

–What’s the inciting event? (What event throws the main character out of his status quo/comfort zone?)

–What’s the main character like? (Anything that makes him more interesting to prospective readers or suggests his role–however, please note that using the character’s name in the title does not necessarily accomplish either)

–What’s the main antagonist like? (Same as for the protagonist)

–What’s the setting like? (Time and/or place)

–What’s the author’s style like?