Saturday, August 13, 2011

How Do You Pick A Title...

I'm sitting here trying to come up with a more apt title for my books. "Crowning Absolution" covers the whole thing and not each individual book, so I was leaning towards something like "Guardian of the Realm: Age of Deception".

The Age of Deception would be something more like the series title of course. Or even Age of Absolution just to keep that in there. But I have yet to come up with separate titles for all three books.

So is there some secret formula for coming up with a title? I've checked out the internet, trying to research this a bit. I've also come across an article with all of the over used words for fantasy titles. I have to absolutely agree with the author, those were some over used words!

I'm sure it will come to me when I am not thinking about it. I may just come up with something completely alien, like when I combine Elvish with Latin or Drow. But it can't be too difficult to understand.

We'll see. Any suggestions?

11 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Make them match in some way.
I knew the title for my first book, but since I'd never planned more than one, I had NO idea what to call the second one. Felt really dumb sending it to my publisher as 'unnamed sequel.' But, they came up with an awesome name!
Good luck, Mel.

Mel Chesley said...

I think I might have something. I'll bounce it off you guys next week, see what you think. :D

Sarah McCabe said...

Crowning Absolution seems like a strange name to me. Almost an oxymoron. Absolution is a word with such a specific meaning, I would be careful how you use it.

Mel Chesley said...

Yeah... at the time it worked. But as I revise, edit and chop this whole story up into three books, it doesn't work at all anymore.

Melissa said...

Titles are always hard. If the theme is similar in each book, maybe you could tie them together that way. My three books deal with deception and betrayal and I've incorporated these words into each title. Good luck! :)

Christi Goddard said...

I am the suck at naming things. It can take months or longer before I figure out what to call something, so I'm no help. I'm still trying to figure out a minor character's name since I want to change it now that I'm done with the MS.

Mel Chesley said...

Oooh now I am good at character names. Give me a brief description and I'll sock it to ya. ;)

Wendy@FabNouveau said...

Hey Ms. Cal....I'm sure it will come in a dream or first thought in the morning. LOL - How about a one word title followed by the more worded subtitle of that book. I'm thinking of the way Raymond Feist names some of his series, eg:
Krondor: The Betrayal
Krondor: The Assasins
krondor: Tears of the Gods
I suppose this would also be unformed by what you want to be the focal point of your cover, the cover art or the title. Not really helpful but there you have it.

Mel Chesley said...

Ooh, yeah I like those titles of Mr. Feist's books. I think the focal point of my books is the impending war between two kingdoms. A war that has been ongoing and the final battle is coming to a head. This will be it, the knock down, drag out mother of all battles between these two kingdoms.
But then there is the underlying stories and the focus is currently on two characters that have nothing to do with either kingdom. At least that is what the beta readers have said. That underlying focus just came out in the writing, I had absolutely no intention of making them the main focus.
But it still works.
I think I came up with something for the titles, I'll bounce them off you all next week and tell me what you think.

Jamie Gibbs said...

I tend to go for series' that use a similar format in their titles e.g. A song of Ice and Fire has Game OF Thrones, Clash OF Kings etc. Looking forward to seeing what ideas you've come up with XD

Wendy@FabNouveau said...

The book sounds wonderful already. I'm already thinking Lord of The Rings here...LOL