How do you title

[donutsweeper]

I cannot be the only one with this problem.

Titles. Coming up with titles for stories is ridiculously difficult for me. And between conscifanmo, mag7fandom stockings and Yuletide I've had to come up with 25 or so titles in the last MONTH. The last few of which are absolutely lame and rather dreadful, and having a title is better than no title but.....

UGH.

Titles.

Why must you be so hard?

(And, as an aside, summaries? I hate you too)

Comments

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

YES! Yes, so much yes. Titles are the worst and summaries are almost as bad. I hate titles. I mean, sometimes they just appear naturally, but sometimes I just want to name them 'the story where blahblahblah happens'. And then the summaries have to make people interested without giving too much away and gah! Someone teach me how to do these and I will love them forever!

Also ending stories. Some stories just don't want to end and I hate them.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

It's not just me! *clings to you*

It's so hard! So, so, SO hard. UGH.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I sometimes go here (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/) and type in a key word from the story and see if there's a saying or idiom or phrase that could work.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oooh *bookmarks* Thank you for the link!

Sometimes (when I remember) I head to http://www.quotationspage.com/ or http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ and do the same thing, although it's only occasionally useful.

[noirrosaleen.livejournal.com]

Depends, really. I tend to do punny things, or if they're Sherlock stories sometimes I go look at the story titles for things to play with or flat-out steal. Sometimes I ask betas for their ideas, too.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Punny titles can work sometimes, very true.

[qafkinnetic.livejournal.com]

Titles are the bane of my existence. I have SUCH a hard time with them. Half the time I just end up stringing words together randomly. Or using song lyrics. Also, yes, summaries are obnoxious too.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I've done song lyrics (or lines from poems) too upon occasion. That can work, but not always. *sigh*

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

Dude....I did drabble-a-day and not only to title, but also summarize all that crap.

When in doubt...I-tunes. Go on shuffle until SOMETHING works.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I've done song titles/lyrics occasionally. They don't work that well for me.

Oh lordy, I forgot about your drabble-a-day thing. Holy crap