I got a New ARC in the mail a few days ago. A debut novel from CBC’s Jamie Fitzpatrick, called You Could Believe in Nothing
And I thought, what a great title.
And maybe I only thought that because two weeks ago I finally gave my agent a finalized, ready to shop manuscript.
But I’m not happy with the working title: Two Empty Hands
Every song, short, and novel I’ve ever written, the title jumped out. Not this time.
I did some research into titling novels … and thought I’d apply it to appliable-to Atlantic novels, to help and educate you writers and publishers in dealing with title block.
Approach one: Make your title something about a character or a tagline (Applied to: Jessica Grant’s Come, Thou Tortoise)
Approach 2: For a collection of shorts, refer to a moment in a pivotal story (Applied to: Jessica Grant’s Making Light of Tragedy, and Alexander MacLeod’s Light Lifting)
Approach 3: Ensure Your Title Captures Tone (Applied to: David Adams Richards’ classic, Mercy Among the Children)
Approach 4: Capture the moral point of the novel (Applied to Kenneth J. Harvey’s Inside & Chad Pelley’s Away from Everywhere)
Approach 5: Combine a Character and a key Possession (Applied to: Lisa Moore’s Aligator and Kathleen Winter’s Annabel)
Mixing these tricks to better title this year’s Winterset Shortlisted Titles, Sam Martin’s That Ramshackle Tabernacle, Russell Wangersky’s The Glass Harmonica, and Craig Francis Power’s Blood Relatives
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How on earth did I miss this post?! Jeeze I am slacking in my daily SaltyInk reading!
For what it’s worth I like “Two Empty Hands” without knowing what the subject matter is. It renders me curious.
I laughed out loud at “It’s Your Brother’s Wife, Man.”
Firmament could be: “Half Sentences poised in the Present Tense”
in my reading, in theory, one should cap a title at 6 words, what else you got
Angels can be pricks
that’s, seriously, a fantastic title …
Ahem!
Are you sure that part of your inspiration for this wasn’t the website with the same name: Better Book Titles? I just wondered. I love literary humor and I love books in general because of what a great writer I am. I am Aldous Huxley.
http://www.betterbooktitles.com
Sincerely,
Aldous
it was, absolutely, hence the title of this article ”Better Book Titles: The Atlantic Edition.” I love that site. Thought the homage was clear. But my own struggle to title my new novel is why I wasted an hour of my life on this
You’re the best, and I love you. I’m sorry for doubting your intentions. I would have never been able to re-title these books since I haven’t read them and cannot read them now, since I am dead.
Great work.
Sincerely,
Aldous
Should you ever come back to life, Hux, I think your sense of humour might enjoy Jessica Grant’s Come, Thou Tortoise …
Gold star, Chad. I totally agree with Chris. This really should be a regular feature.
Ooo do mine next!
What fun this is…should be a regular feature, really.
And good luck with the new title. Keep at it – some great title will eventually come to you.