This is something I learned from reading Ray Bradbury's wonderful book called Zen and the Art of Writing. He suggested making up titles.
Titles can be made up from anything around you:
The Door, The Swing, The Garden, The Tree, The Coffee Mug
They can be made from bits of poems or songs:
The Dark Sacred Night
The Girl With Looking Glass Eyes
Fire and Rain
They can be mythic:
The Depression of Hercules
Persephone's' Fall
They can hint at fantasy:
A Fairy's Way
The Door at the End of the Universe
Or they can be whimsical:
I Want to Fly But I’m a Monkey
How I Chewed My Cud and Ate it Too
I love to make up titles. I have pages and pages of titles in one of my many three ring binders. When I want a little inspiration I read through them. More often than not a title steps off the page, or mysteriously seems to be highlighted or bolded. Many is the story and even novel that is been inspired by a title.
I have pages of names. Titles? not so much :)
ReplyDeleteOne writer whom I respect said his titles for his short stories come last. By that time, the key image and ideas have crystallized. I love Bradbury's work.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love doing this too!!!
ReplyDeleteI love titles, too. Sometimes one will just hit me, and I'll be inspired to write something new. I have one percolating in the back of my mind right now...
ReplyDeleteI love titles too! Somestimes of think of them when I drive by something or find awesome words strung together. Great post!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Critter had a Blast in LA. :0)
Titles fill me with ideas too. Or sometimes people will come up with the most beautiful or hilarious or interesting phrases and I'll mull them over all day, imagining a story behind them. One of my husband's Turkish Cypriot colleagues who grew up in the U.K. said she had "a little bit of England floating around in my brain". That's been driving me wild ever since -- it just has to be a story, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe title always comes to me first...something will just come to me and the story will follow...some stories aren't as good as the title...grin...
ReplyDelete