Titles and names

I'm sure you've all figured out by now that I'm a writer. Dare I say, an author (unpublished though I may be). One thing I've had other authors tell me is they have trouble with names. Character names and story titles, to be specific. I can understand the feeling, with titles at least. Names have always been a little easier for me.

I use baby naming sites and a random name generator for my character names. Sometimes I look for a specific meaning. Other times I look for a name that has the right sound and feel for the story I'm writing. I love collecting names and when I find one that I like, it goes on a list. Usually a list of characters in the story, but I'll save it for later. With Marked, I've changed my main character's name five times now. It's currently settled on Merete, but that may change again if I decide I need something else. But I like the name Merete, and plan (so far) on keeping it.

It's titles that I have issues with. Marked is the only one with a title set in semi-permeable stone. (It might change when I get it published.) Right now the rest of the stories I'm developing are named for the main character (Raghnall's story, Anila and Malakai, Caer's story) or they're named based on something key in the story (Psionics, Hackers, Fang Faces). I'll eventually come up with titles for all of them, and Raghnall, Anila and Malakai, and Caerbre do all have possible tentative titles though I'm not sure about them.

Titles have to come from a factor of the story, I think. Titles need to reflect what the book is about. It's a reader's first glimpse of what's inside, after the cover art. They're going to see the title and wonder what the book is about. Then they'll pick it up and read the back, or look at the sample chapters for e-books. It's what will draw them in and entice their curiosity.

There have been times where I've passed books by that had beautiful cover art but the title didn't impress me. If someone recommended them to me, I went back and read the cover copy or the sample chapters. But the title and cover art are what will push me to check to see what the book is about.

What about you? For all my author friends, do you have trouble with names and titles? Do you find yourself passing over a book if the title doesn't catch your attention?

Saturday World Building - Names

How often do we, as authors, struggle with naming our characters, or the places we're writing about? I know that I have trouble with names. So what do we do about it?

One of the ways I name people and places is by sound. I put sounds together until I find one that I like. Then I figure out how to spell it. That's how I came up with Sindla. Another thing I'll do is take the names of key players and mash them together to form the name of a place. That's how I came up with Erondahl.

Then there's the names of people. How do you name all your characters? Sometimes I just put random letters together to see what I get (Tuleesi). Other times, like with country names, I put sounds together until I get something I like (Tinandril). Then there's the most common way I'll find names - baby name sites and books. In my current novel Marked (formerly Only A Name), I'm using a lot of Irish names because I settled on that naming convention for the country of Lytharia. Two of the name sites I use are here and here.

A word of advice on names: if you don't know how to pronounce your names, neither will your audience. If you want to use something obscure, learn how to pronounce it. Or find something different.

Titles. Those tricky little things that we have to come up with in order to put our story out there. A lot of mine end up with working titles like "Anne and Edward" or "Psionics". Eventually I come up with a title I like that fits the theme of the book, like Marked, Cracked World, and Burning Dreams. Those titles may change when I head to publication, but for now that's what they are.

If you're having problems with a title, pick one word that describes your story and use that. Or use a character's name and say, "Today I'm working on __________'s story." Pick a sentence you particularly like and turn that into the title. Or figure out what the central theme in your story is and use that as a title. Working titles are just fine. A lot of times the original title doesn't make it past the writing of the story.