Fic naming

[shieldmaiden]

As someone who often struggles immensely more with coming up with titles for fics or chapters than with coming up with the stories themselves, I'm a bit curious as to how the rest of you decide on names for your stories. Do they just pop into your head, or are they inspired by something else? (Figured I'd put it here instead of help, since this is an inspiration-related question. ;D)

[eggowaffles]

My titles just kind of occur to me... I find it helps if I read the titles of chapters in the actual book, though, because sometimes something strikes me...

[Raksha]

I rarely have too much trouble with titles. If I'm not sure a title is strong enough, I ask one of my betas. I do think a good, catchy title is important; since it's the first thing the reader sees.

SURVIVOR - my movieFaramir piece. An appropriate title for the story, since it tells the tale of what happened to him between the suicide charge and his return, hanging off the horse's stirrups, to Minas Tirith, and the aftermath in the HoH. The title just came to me. I toyed with the quote, I think it's from MOBY DICK but it's also from the Bible - And I alone survived to tell thee - but I couldn't nail the original quote and thought SURVIVOR simpler and better for the story.

I get my story titles from ordinary words that fit the tale (as in SURVIVOR, or REFUGE - one of my Silmarillion-based ficlets, because that's the main theme of the piece, or RISING STAR - Elboron's birth, or WATER SPORTS - 100 words of Faramir/Eowyn marital bliss), and sometimes special Tolkien words or concepts (STEWARDSHIP, NAERAMARTH - an Elvish word from the Tale of the Children of Hurin that really fit the ficlet I wrote about Nienor; or COMFORT ME NOT WITH COOKIES - the title of my parody fic, stolen and slightly altered from Denethor). My Wormtongue ficlet was titled SERPENT'S EASE, inspired by the "Serpent" titles in some of my favorite episodes of Stargate SG-1 (concerning a villain who was also called a Serpent or a Snake, though he was much better-looking than poor Grima). I happily stole THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING (my Eomer ficlet) from classic Star Trek which in turn took it from Hamlet - it just fit my ficlet perfectly...

There's an Old Testament Bible quote in my head which wants me to write a Galadriel ficlet to fit it - I hope to get to it eventually.

And my two unpublished (still in draft) named themselves with little help from me...


RAKSHA THE DEMON

[lindahoyland]

It all depends for me I had problems with the title of "Facing the Darkness'' 'Shadow and Thought' began life as 'Chasing the Rainbow" "I was stuck with 'Burden of Guilt' until I discussed it with a fellow writer.The others were easy I'm now working on one called "Web of Treason " but it may change !

[nyquil]

I usually don't even bother to name them until they're finished. My stories start off as "Faramir1" and "Éowyn3", and I have the occasional "Farawyn4" to deal with..... (I even have a "Lothímer2" in the works right now.)

But of course there are the multi-chapter stories that demand a name after the first chapter. So the titles for those tend to be pretty basic (The River Poros, Lachduliel, The Haradrim Situation). New Memories was divinely inspired , and so the title just popped up on the computer screen as easily as the rest of it.

[lindahoyland]

"Burden of Guilt " was "Aragorn and Faramir" story for ages !

[shieldmaiden]

I seriously think that I've only had two titles that ever came easily. One was "An Act of Desperation" (first thing that popped in my head, and it actually fit) and the second was "The Best-Laid Plans" (stolen from the Robert Burns quote). I've seriously had better luck with other people coming up with names for me; I can think of at least three of my stories right away that other people named.

And this is OT, but Raksha, you're into SG-1? Didn't know that. Great show.

[lindahoyland]

I enjoy SG 1 too !