Novel titles

Okay.  Sounds simple, right?  Not so simple, though.  Novel titles.  Why are they so difficult to come up with?  Well, there are many reasons, some of which I can’t even describe, but here are a few that I can explain.

First, you don’t want to give away the entirety of your novel with the title.  Why read the book if you give away the point, the plot, or the epitome of the meaning of your novel with the title?  None.  Exactly.  Even though I’d like to make my message clear with my novel titles now and then, I have to trust that my readers, should I ever have any, can and will figure the message out if I’ve written the novel well enough.

Next, you don’t want to copy someone else’s title.  Titles are one of the few things that are not copyrighted in most cases, and thus, can be reused over and over again.  If you happen to title your novel after another novel, though, people wishing to actually read your novel might have a frustrating time finding your novel and mistakenly get someone else’s work.  That’s why you want a unique title.

Speaking of unique titles, they can’t be lame-sounding in being unique.  You have to somehow come up with something that makes sense and avoids giving away your entire work.  You want it to catch people’s attention, and you want it to make them wonder.

Just like any good literary work makes the reader ask what happens next at the end of every page, your title should make them want to know what the novel is about enough to buy it in the first place.  The title should be intriguing and pique the interest of a person browsing or wandering by if you’re going to get any sales.

Finally, you want your title to mean something.  What if your novel hits the spotlight?  You don’t want it to have a mundane or meaningless title.  You want it to be memorable and meaningful.  You want it to resonate with people.

Those are just a few of the challenges I’m facing with choosing what to call this thing I currently call “My Manuscript”.  I need to come up with a name for this body of work that I’m pouring all this time into.  Sometimes it’s hard to even come up with blog post titles, so I guess this blog is great practice!  So, thank you, my readers, for making me better!