Titles. My nemesis. It is rare to be head over heals in love with a title. After all, what could encapsulate a lyrical poem? A tender memoir? A sassy fictional essay? I would like to talk to the pros about this, to ask how they found peace with their titles. Or if they cared at all.
I would like to see how many titles he burned through before settling on one so beautiful as the SOUND and the FURY. Because behind the scenes, that sound of fury is exactly what backdrops the narrative. While writing his manuscripts did he leave the top blank? Was that unsettling to Faulkner?
Various anthologies capture me with titles such as Robert Olen Butler's "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain." Heck, I want to know what's going on in that story! Count me in. Others, like Amy Bloom's "Silver Water" and Lorrie Moore's "Your Ugly Too" are so fun you want to know more. However I don't think that I will ever read "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx or "Pet Milk" by Stuart Dybek (sorry, Hougen. I know you suggested that one.)
Have you ever "judged a book by it's cover" by avoiding a story due to it's title? Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by a gem of a book hidden under a garish title? How do your title your capstone pieces, and are you pleased with what you decided on?
Oh, the dreaded title! I totally agree with you on this issue. It bothers me to leave that empty white space at the beginning, so after I get a first draft at least halfway finished, I'll make something up (no matter how dumb or ill fitting). It almost always changes (usually at the last minute), and it never seems to get as much thought as the rest of the piece. I always feel bad about that, like I owe it more attention. When you think about it, the title says something about what's to come, sets the tone, gives the reader certain expectations. It's an important part of our writing that gets overlooked, and something that I'll hopefully remedy during the next week on my capstone pieces.
ReplyDeleteP.S. "Pet Milk" isn't one of my favorite short stories; you're not missing much, in my opinion. Also, I read Annie Proulx's The Shipping News in jr. high and wasn't at all impressed...which is one reason I'm somewhat ashamed to claim her as a distant relative.
At this moment, two of my three capstone stories are still untitled, and I'm not happy with the one title that I DO have. It's like I can recognize a good title when I see one, but have no clue how to pull them out of thin air and add them to my work.
ReplyDeleteHere is a theory: You know that moment when you discovered that your story about the Kiss children was really about yourself? Sort of like the moments I have when I look back at a story or memoir draft and find out that the story I thought I was telling is actually second to another theme that popped up? Maybe titles are revealed in a similar way--that moment when we look back at what we've written and realize where the heart of it just came from. I don't know how to DO that, exactly, but I like to think that it just takes practice, and that in time, it will be just a little bit easier.
I almost never title anything until I've finished the first draft (and sometimes even then the title changes with later drafts). To me, a title needs to encapsulate the work in one way or another, and because I never know where a draft will end up going until it's been written, I don't dare lock myself into a title ahead of time. It's definitely challenging to come up with a good one! Usually titles don't necessarily turn me off to a story, but if I'm flipping through a collection I'll definitely read the ones with interesting titles first.
ReplyDeleteOn another note...why is it that artists can get away with calling 90% of their work "Untitled"? That drives me crazy! :)
I totally agree with you on this! Titles, ugh. I see some books that I can't leave alone because the title's so good--one of my friends just told me about a book he's reading "John Dies in The End." Just by reading the title I feel like I need to read the whole book. I don't even know why. How do you come up with a title like that? Can somebody tell me? It makes me envy other artists, who can get away without coming up with a title. I'm glad that you're paying attention to it, though. A good title can go a long way!
ReplyDeleteI have not had a lot of success coming up with titles for my pieces. I generally leave them without titles until they're done, and then at the end of my piece I remember it needs a name. But I don't feel bothered by the lack of a title. I used to when I was younger. But I think I have discovered that the story really comes into being without my knowing it. The title comes out of the story maybe, or the title shouldn't be ready until the story ends. Because it can change all the time as well.
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