I'm currently writing a story with the working title "The Month of Two Suns." I can't help but think that "The Day of Two Suns" sounds much more dramatic, not to mention much more like a good fantasy story. A month is just too much time. It's hard to remain excited/scared about anything for a whole month, even if you're living in a fantasy world that has no TVs or Internet. The first few days you might run around and bump into things, but sooner or later, you have to eat something.
"Month" is, naturally, the amount of time the two suns appear in the story (which is to say, the sun and a comet), but I can't help but want to change it to "Day". If I see anything titled "Month" in a journal, I might just skip it, thinking it's just too long to bother with. I don't have the imagination at the moment to follow a whole month's itinerary, even if it's stuffed full of swashbuckling action and rip-roaring adventure (what exactly is the origin of that expression?). And the story isn't about the whole month anyway, just the end of it.
Do you think this hard about the titles for things? I know it really doesn't matter, since it's just a working title anyway. So, what did YOU spend your free time today doing?
The Charming Mr. Wheaton
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My Dearest Gentle Readers,
It is with the greatest pleasure that I am able to inform you that on this
very day I was so delightfully privileged as to meet t...
15 years ago
I think it's worth it to think this hard about a title - it could make the difference between selling and not selling. So, what do we want to happen? ;)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read your story!
Sometimes titles come easily for my stories, but more often it's like pulling teeth. Right now I'm kicking around a story whose working title is "Black and a Darker Shade of Black." I really like that one. XD
ReplyDeleteI find titles really crucial. if i have a good title, i'm a lot more excited about the story, and more likely to work on it.
ReplyDeletepersonally, i like my titles somewhat mysterious: right now i have stories in my file entitled things like "Searching for Sapi", "Rain Down the Windowpane", "Gemini Spring", and "Kiss Me Once (Before the Dark)". then of course there are the classic one word titles- "Circulation", "Statistics", or "Mordecai".
that said, i really like "The Month of Two Suns" better than "The Day of Two Suns"- i tend to like longer, more involved stories, and "day" makes it sound short and quick. and less mysterious. you can think of an explanation for a day of two suns. but a month? harder. is it a metaphor? is it an anomaly? the reader doesn't know. but it's something not easily or quickly solved, that's clear, and that makes it interesting.
:)
EE Grey, that is some of the best writing advice I've gotten in a while. :D
ReplyDelete