A Title by Any Other Title

What's in a title? Wouldn't a title by any other title still smell as sweet? A title is a title is a title, right?

With apologies to both Willie and Gertrude, I find myself thinking about titles and their importance not only for that potential buyer out there once we finish our masterpiece, but even--and maybe especially--as guideposts and north stars for us as we work through our drafting and fine tuning. We recently published a marvelous short story in Flying Island by a talented young writer who mentioned that they really struggled with titles and sometimes didn't even have a working title for a project. We chatted about titles and their importance and how they indeed can sometimes evolve as we progress, but my point was that having at least a working title can and should inspire and guide us as we work.

Speaking of evolving titles, the original title of my civil war manuscript (see these posts, Knit One, Purl Two and Unravelling the Yarn) had been Come Retribution, which had apparently been one of only four code phrases used by the Confederates during the war. While still finishing up the first draft, I had a chance to pitch a New York agent at a week-long workshop and, having never done it before, I launched into my ramble and forgot to even mention the title. When I told her the protagonist finally realized her goal had to be "to strike a single hour" from the war, her face lit up and she stopped me to ask "Is that the title?" Of course, being reasonably bright, it only took me a few seconds to catch my breath and nod "Yes, do you like it?" She loved the title and asked me to send her the full manuscript whenever I was ready. She ended up considering the novel for seven months and testing the concept with a couple editors before finally deciding to pass on it, but the name stuck.


Anyway, I'm often amazed that writers in our Indiana Writers Center classes and workshops submit pieces with no titles at all or only some simple placeholder that gives neither the reader nor them any guidance or inspiration.

So, what's the purpose and goal of a title?

I'd say it's twofold, at least. I remember Clint McCown (Haints, War Memorials, The Weatherman) at my first Antioch Writers Conference asking the class what was the purpose of the opening sentence of a novel or story. After listening to a number of stumbling attempts at some subtle and sophisticated literary tropes from the group, he finally revealed that it was "To get the reader to read the second sentence." Duh! A title is just the same only more so since it's the primary tool--okay, maybe along with the cover art and author name if you're Herman Melville--that entices a reader/buyer to open the book and look inside, or, in a short story collection or website, to turn or scroll to that story. In a sense, then, your title is an aspect of marketing.

More important, for the reader and even the writer as they draft and refine, the title should reflect and condense and summarize the essence of your novel or story. It stands for and represents your story and, yes, you, the writer. It also guides and echoes the depths of the story or novel and should resonate those elements after the reader has finished. And, ideally, it may even give the reader an "Aha!" moment of some sort. We all can list the memorable titles of the novels and stories we've loved, and I always encourage writers who struggle with this to consider and understand how those titles intersected and expanded the work itself.

And where can we go for inspiration and ideas for titles for our work? That sounds like a good topic for another post!