Recently, one of my good writer friends has been having trouble coming up with a good title for her young adult novel.
Recently, at a critique meeting, one of the critiquers said that she did not like the title of my book…that she would not pick it up off the shelf.
Burn? you ask.
Eh, a little. I still think my title is appropriate for the book, but I can see her argument. So I’ve been trying to think up a couple alternative ones if it has to come to that (read: if future agents/editors don’t think the title will work).
It’s nice to know that this ‘title trouble’ is not a recent epidemic. We should take comfort in the fact that George Eliot had about six different titles set for Mill on the Floss and that she is not alone. Emily Dickinson was apparently so stressed out about titling her poems that she didn’t bother. Ditto Shakespeare’s sonnets (though there’s a rhyme and reason to his order…)
Anyone else have trouble with titles? Generally I don’t have much of an issue finding one that I like…but pleasing everyone else is kind of a pain.
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