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Jun
25
2011

What’s in a Title?

Titles can be fickle.

Sometimes I have a title in mind as soon as the story idea comes to me or the characters start talking. Sometimes my initial idea is close but not quite right. Maybe it has some elements of what my story is about, but still doesn’t showcase the whole book the way I want it to. Those times I don’t mind so much because I’m usually not in love with the title to begin with, so it can be fun to brainstorm for ideas.

Other times, like with my current wip, I have the title firmly in my head. I wish I could say that’s a good thing this time, but I don’t think it is. The title I really like for this story and have always liked for this story is Star Struck. It encompasses a lot about the story, is fun and memorable. I *heart* this title. But I can’t keep it.

I did a little research on Amazon and discovered that there are already a bunch of books with a similar ‘Star Struck’ title. So now what do I do? I keep hoping that as the story comes together a new title will come to me, but so far it hasn’t. Nothing. Nada. No good original title to be found.

So what do you do when you can’t come up with a title you love more than your working title? Do you have some tips and tricks to get you thinking? Do you use a title that might be similar and hope for the best? Do you write it and sub it as your working title and hope that when it gets contracted, you and the publisher will come up with a better one?

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Heather