Let's have a thread for this :)

Comment with a link to where people can see your creative works and "ASK ME". People will reply with one/some of your titles. You then let us know where that title came from, why you chose it, your thoughts behind it.

Go!

Link to my AO3

ASK ME :)

okay, here's a question. why are so many of your titles in lower case only?

Good ask :) They didn't always used to be - you can, in fact, date when I started doing it. I always thought that titles had to be Titles With Capital Letters, but then I noticed other fanfic writers using lower case and I read some e. e. cummings (and I read a bit more poetry, must have been in the mood), so I decided to experiment. Not all writing experiments stick *grins* but I found that I often liked the look of lower case for titles, particularly for longer titles.

As a general rule I now tend to use lower case for long titles, titles stolen from poetry or from within the fic itself, or titles that just...feel descriptive of stories, a part of them (ten times as long (to put yourselves back together), should you need us, history is what you've travelled on and take with you). As opposed to titles where I still used capitals which are Titles, definitive, names (The Summoning, Palindromes, Driver Choses The Music).

Here's my link. Ask me! :-)

Works on AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaFlyer)

Well you've already explained a bunch of yours below *grins* (although you should share the story of Diamonds and Rust as a I title because I loved how excited you were over that). As you say, you do a lot of short titles, unless for Five Times fics, so I'm going to ask why the deviation with "Show a Little Faith (There's Magic in the Night)" ? Was it because it was a song lyric (as described in your A/N) or something else?

Well, that - "Show a Little Faith (There's Magic in The Night)" (http://archiveofourown.org/works/1177731) was an odd choice for a title, and one I kind of regret. In fact, in the wee hours of the morning I blame that title for the fact that this little story - which I am actually quite proud of - hasn't done better than it has. I adore the line from the Springsteen song, as such, but in hindsight I don't think it works as a title (even if it fits the story) precisely because it says too much. It's one of those moments where, I think, my choice of title violated the "show, don't tell" rule. But I think I'm stuck with it now.

As for "Diamonds and Rust", well, I came across this old Joan Baez gem and started listening to it - really listening to it - while cooking dinner, on my computer and the little bluetooth speaker my husband gave me for it because he can't stand the tinny computer sound. And it struck me just how many echoes there are to the Clint & Kate relationship:

"Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond..."

Hello, Clint!

And this (Kate!):

"...Yes the girl on the half-shell
Would keep you unharmed.."

And then that whole "we both know what memories can bring, they bring diamonds and rust" - which at the end of the Fraction run pretty much sums up where they are, and they choose to go for the diamonds part in that glorious shooting scene at the end.

Yeah, another story I think that deserved a wee bit better than it got, but I'm happy with it and that's what matters.



Edited 2017-01-16 06:47 pm (UTC)

Does it bother you when you see other people's fics with long titles or just when it's your own? I suppose 'bother' is the wrong word...puts you off? *is curious*

Love how Diamonds and Rust fits with Fraction & Aja's Hawkeyes *happy sigh*

Well, to be perfectly blunt, one of the things about really long titles is that they're very, very hard to remember. Like, I will end up looking for the fic where x, y and z happens but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called. This is especially the case when it's a line from a song I've never heard, or a poem I haven't read. Nothing for my data banks to file it under quickly. Do such titles put me off? Honestly? A little, yeah. Including that one of mine, now. Oh well...

Edited 2017-01-22 05:46 pm (UTC)

Wouldn't ask if I wasn't interested in knowing :) I've had that searching problem, but for me the length of the title isn't what makes me remember it or not. I think more if it's directly related to the fic and quirky.

Well, I guess I have a limited attention span and if a title is a whole sentence, I am doomed. The fic I will remember, yes. The title, at best vaguely... Like, my favourite fic of yours I just had to look up the title for (I tried to remember first ...). I remembered bits ("... and what you take with you") but not the whole thing. And that's even though I love that fic passionately. :P

I will also cheat and just remember who something is by and go through all their stories - bless AO3 *grins*. I have FAR TOO MANY bookmarks on my laptop, so that's stopped being helpful unless I have lots of time to trawl through and has the downside of having the link to lots of old fics having gone. Least those still have the title in the save so I can search and see if the author uploaded it onto a new archive.

That...would be a title from a poem that you've probably not heard of *sheepish grin* - history is what you've travelled on and take with you. (Also squee :D ) Sometimes I am in favour of the thing someone else mentioned on here of borrowing from Friends - The One With Where Clint Is A Tattoo Artist. Because I know I think of other people's fics like that, ha.

Edited 2017-01-22 11:00 pm (UTC)

Well, in your case I always know how to find it (bookmarked, plus you plus title fragments). :P And yes, it's The One With The Tattoos.

Broken links to favourite stories is a heartache. I still miss Workerbee73's pieces. A friend had the teenage makeout fic downloaded so I have that, but not my real fave (whose title I forget...)

Fair enough *grins*

I have fragments of 'small acts of kindness' but get grumpy about the gaps and I have a bunch of others saved as .mobi files. (Are you thinking of Equilibrilists or History's Mistakes maybe?) One day I will figure out how to make those readable :/ But it's all the fics from the days before ff.net and AO3 took off that were hosted on specific sites now closed down from misuse and old journals and platforms. Sad.

here's my AO3! (http://archiveofourown.org/users/andibeth82/works)

Ask me!

Edited 2017-01-14 03:09 pm (UTC)

Handily you often say in your notes where you get titles from, so I can't ask about some of them ;p but I love titles based on apt quotes and lyrics. How about the story behind these titles:
all i know is a door in the dark
my flaws are open season
And for "archer's paradox" you put in your notes "the effect produced by an arrow flexing as it leaves the bow" as the definition, but what you made you hit on that?

I love this ATTF even though I have nothing constructive to say since I have the worst titles in the world and those who have ever beta'd for me know it. I usually have things loosely listed in g-docs as "Bucky/Nat Kitchen" or "Marvel/West Wing Thing" or "Dark Smut" or whatever. And in the document itself I usually have "I HATE TITLES" or "INSERT TITLE HERE" or "HELP!" in the space I reserved for the title (right above the space I put the dates I wrote the thing and possible tags to remember to include when posting.)

Mostly, at the very last moment just before hitting post at A03, I dig around for quotes or song lyrics that vaguely go along with an idea or theme in the fic and occasionally get something decent. Hence, A Glimpse of Sky, which came from some little poem I found with google luck or Bring Me Pain, Give Me Pleasure, which came from some very off-putting song lyrics I happened across and kinda fit the fic. But if you look at my titles, it's clear I do it by the seat of my pants and totally SUCK at it.

I'm always amused when I beta for people and they have drafts saved with things like that though :)

It's interesting seeing how many of us steal from poems and lyrics!

Titles. Are. Important. So this is going to be long. (I’m writing it on the TGV to Paris, ha!)

For me, a title has two functions: it needs to be punchy and interesting enough to draw someone in, but also provide something extra for the story itself. Like, pulling together the underlying theme, establishing a mood, providing a twist (humorous or otherwise) or a little jolt of recognition once the reader exits the story. Basically, I really, really want titles to be clever.

Because of the punchy cleverness thing, I generally prefer very short titles (one or two words). I like titles that evoke a mood, and/or maybe have a dual meaning. “Hello, Darkness” is Clint waking up deaf - of course it's taken from "Sounds of Silence"; “Hearth” intended to evoke the central warmth and undervalued strength and importance of Laura Barton and her home; “Free Lunch” (a Star Trek: Voyager fluff piece) is NOT about not having to pay for your food - think “Free Willy”…). “Double Deuce” is the name of a hick roadhouse tavern, yes, but the phrase also means flipping two birds at once; “Bound” refers to both the handcuffs Clint and Natasha start with, but also the bond they build between them; and so on.

Sometimes, my writing process starts with a title; sometimes I end up wracking my brain over one when it becomes obvious a working title is not, well, working. I definitely prefer the first approach! Some phrase or word may strike a chord, and I find myself looking for a story – sometimes for months. I get these from lines spoken in a movie or on the news, a work of art, or a line from a song and they can be used just-as-they-are or with a sense of irony. Examples for these from my stories are endless – “Off the Shoulder of Orion;” “Rain on the Scarecrow;” “Locust Wind”; “Diamonds and Rust”, etc.

I lovelovelove when Good Fortune hands me a title. Like, I walked out of Ironman 3 knowing I would write a story called “Second Mouse”, as in the Aldrich Kilian quote how the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. (All my “Bondvengers” titles nested in my brain way before I had a story, and in the process helped immensely in establishing a mood.) For “Second Mouse”, the title also dictated the structure/plot arc of whatever future story I was going to write – someone works really hard to get something, fails and someone else runs away with the prize. But that’s pretty obvious, so I decided to build in a second “second mouse” – one that will sneak up on readers only at the very end, and not because it’s part of the plot, but because they bring to the story their knowledge of what will happen down the road. (That last bit, the title as foreshadowing of something outside the plot I also used for “Seventh Crow” -- … seven for a secret never to be told… --- which points the reader towards the events of “Spectre”).

And in case you’re wondering, the latest title I got handed to me, this time by a science show hubby was watching, is “The Principle of Terrestrial Mediocrity.” I mean, seriously. How could I not??



Edited 2017-01-13 10:52 pm (UTC)

I wonder what the split is between being someone like you who often starts with the title and builds a story on it, or someone like me who comes up with one at the end or somewhere in the middle. I love your ironic titles and I have no idea what The Principle of Terrestrial Mediocrity but it certainly sounds title-worthy!

Titles. Ugh.

Only one of my stories evolved from the title ("Flip You for It"). In every other case it was a nerve-racking ordeal to come up with a title. Besides the aforementioned "Flip You for It," there's only one other that I'm particularly fond of: "Dinosaurs and Hydra and Yetis, Oh My!" Nothing else of mine falls into the category of clever or enticing.

Here here! It's so HARD. Gah. I hate tiles so much and often think I should title them like Friends episodes - The One With The... (insert situation)

"Luis tale from Antman"!!! Man, what an idea for a breathless narrator thingy .... *starry eyes*

I like things like that for story collections :)

Where does the 'oh my' thing at the end of titles/phrases (usually about dangerous things?) come from, do you know?

"Lions and Tigers and Bear, OH MY!" from The Wizard of Oz? That's all I can think of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etx-nDCZzLo

AHA! Thank you :)

Most of my titles come from song lyrics and poems (very original, I know :P). I try not to use actual song titles, as that often feels a little too on the nose for me, except for 'After the Bombs' because it was too perfect not to use. My favourite titles are 'Thursday's Child' (which I've just realised is my most popular one-shot fic, who would've guessed...) and 'Here I Dreamt I Was A Soldier,' which is the title I had planned right from the beginning.

I love "Here I Dreamt", both as a title and as a story.

Did you find it different writing something when you had a title from the start?

Not hugely. A greater sense of purpose, perhaps? I went into that story with a very clear idea of what I wanted to do.

Interesting, that the title was as clear as the story :)

There are rare cases that I have a title for something when I start writing it, but usually, I write the whole story and title it after (or close to the end.) I've gotten to the point where I've written the whole story and know I can post, and then realize, CRAP I NEED A TITLE. And then have to go searching for one. And I'm picky about finding the right titles, because I want them to FEEL like they're good for the fic in addition to working for the fic itself.

Anyway, most of my titles come from song lyrics or poetry, or books/book titles. I also use Broadway shows on occasion, and sometimes I'm even witty enough to make up my OWN title, ha. And I have been known to whine at friends for help.

I have shopped titles to my best friend. Usually her gut is the same as mine, which helps.

Loving the number of us that steal from lyrics, poetry, other books etc :D

well, we steal the characters and the worlds, so ... :P

True! *grins*

I never start a story with a title. Sometimes I get one early on, mostly I start playing around with ideas midway through the fic in the hopes that something will stick by the end, and often I have to go on a title search when I've finished. Like a lot of you - yay, fic writers unite *grins* - I take titles from lyrics, poetry, other books, quotes etc. If I can find something suitable I like to lift something out of the fic itself (eg. maybe not soon, Driver Choses The Music).

My most recently awkward title was "ten times as long (to put yourselves back together)" which went through a LOT of titles before I settled on this one. I spent ages googling quotes and poems about trees and growing things, but none of them seemed right. I wasn't finished writing the story yet, maybe 80% done, and I was trying to clarify things in the opening paragraph when I realised that the sentiment of things taking more time to fix/heal than they do to be broken in the first place was something that would also work well for a title. And I was sure I'd got that from somewhere...which I had. it's from Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. So I stole the original quote as a title.

Other people's titles that catch me eye I think are ones that are what i'm looking for at the time - so they're amusing/poetical and that's the kind of thing I'm after - or they're quirky in some way (I bookmarked a fic called "Maggie Fotzgerald and the Saltwater Drip" before I'd even read the summary, because I wanted to know what that title was about and it's a title I remember).