Okay, how much time you got...?

Titles - are Very. Important. To. Me. Sometimes I hear a phrase or a snatch of song lyric or whatever, and I think "this will make a great title". Then it rattles around in my brain, producing colours and feels until I can find a story to match. ("The Principle of Terrestrial Mediocrity" was one such, as were "Diamonds and Rust" and"Second Mouse". I'm currently batting around the phrase "Better Angels" in my head...) Other times I have the story idea and start writing, with a working title just for the purpose of saving the file - a title I KNOW will be discarded for something better. (Thus "Cuffed" became "Bound", "The Mission" became "By the Book", and "Hand on the Throttle" became "Heart and Soul". And I'm sure one day even "Saved Sex Scene" will find its place in the Pantheon...)

I generally like titles that are pithy and short; some people use, like, whole sentences or verses from a song and I can never ever remember those if I want to find the story again... For me, I also like it if the title has a double meaning ("Free Lunch"), or delivers an extra little punch of recognition once you've finished the story ("Bound", "Locust Wind"). From other people, I like witty things like "Congratulations on an Excellent Kill" or "Culture and Other Balls of Twine" - those will catch my attention any day!

For summaries I do both short and punchy lines ("Tony, rattling around" or "Kate is back; there's going to be laundry") or whole long excerpts that I think people may find intriguing - and like the same thing from others. Whatever you do, don't say "I suck at summaries, just read it!" (Luckily that phenomenon seems limited to FFN!)

Oh, and ... feel free to ASK ME!

It's always interesting hearing you chat about titles, because you always sound very certain of them; like once you've landed on the right one then that's it. I like double meaning titles! And both the witty ones you mention are ones that stuck in my head :)

I find the 'I suck at summaries', or 'I don't know what this is, oh well', or 'haha, don't hate me' kind of summaries and tags put me off. I mean, I'm British, self-depreciating humour is fine, but let the story stand. You created something, it's a gift, don't talk it down :/

I'd ask you about titles, but you explain a lot of them in your notes when they're from quotes and such *grins* and then you have your solid 'Five Times' and self-describing ones; talent!

Pffft. But I like to be asked... *pouts*

But yeah, I tend to be pretty certain once I find one. Sometimes they're a bit blah, but I reallyreally only screwed one up badly. Thought about going back in and fixing it. Is that cheating?

Edited 2019-01-21 10:12 pm (UTC)

Aww :) See, I really like The Western Shore as a title and partly because where it comes from fits so well. Hmm...how about you said If It's Gone is from a song, but why did you pick that song especially?

I don't think editing is cheating. With a title though people might think it was a new fic, or not be able to find it when they loved it? Personally once I've posted something I let it stand as it is, because that was me at that point in time and then I can track that I'm getting better - which is the flip side to cringing at some past writing *grins*. Am I allowed to ask which title, but really: why do you think one of them is screwed up?

If It's Gone is from the Stones' Ruby Tuesday, and I didn't pick the song so much as the line, "Yesterday don't matter if it's gone", which hit me one day as being rather useful for Clint and Natasha to get over themselves post Civil War... :P (I am a creature of simple explanations.)

As for the misfire - well, it's another song title, "Show a Little Faith (There's Magic in the Night)". My beefs are several. First, it's too bloody long. Second, the parenthetical addition, even if it's part of the song, just looks precious. And third, with that addition, it says WAY too much, becomes unsubtle, didactic. Ick. And finally, in retrospect, the whole thing just wasn't right. There's so much better title material in the image of the train, and if I could I do it over again, I'd probably call it "Tracks" or something like that. :P

Ooo that's a good lyric in relation to Civil War, yes :)

Maybe cut it to 'Show A Little Faith' or 'There's Magic In The Night' if you want to lose the brackets whilst keeping the title recognisable? But if it bugs that much, then I guess change it "shrugs*.

ugh, titles! Mine are usually from songs or poems that connect thematically with what's going on. Sometimes I know what the title will be while I'm writing, but more often I finish and then start frantically scrolling through the playlist I've listened to while writing, or googling things like "poems about finding yourself" or whatever...

Working titles are always just complete idiocy, though. Sometimes, if I'm planning to write at work, it'll have a relatively benign working title (i.e. "Totally Real Work Document") but otherwise... I mean, two real WIPs I have right now are literally titled "*fart noise*" and "let's get SELF INDULGENT" because, you know, I'm very mature.

Summaries are THE WORST and I HATE THEM but I usually try to find a section of the fic that works so I don't have to make up a summary and can just be done...

And... Ask me!

(highly relevant tumblr post!)

Edited 2019-01-20 11:01 pm (UTC)

SAME. With the often frantically googling to try and find some inspiration.

...I hadn't thought about working titles. I guess I refer to them like Friends episodes - the one with the X in it, the one where they go a road trip, the thingy AU. Now I feel like I should be having more fun with these lol.

Ask: gravitational effects of the moon (because I just really like that one)
Also, so if you get a lot of titles from lyrics is there a... particular thing you go for when matching a title to the story, like theme or wordplay, or just what sounds good, or...?

ACCURATE TUMBLR POST IS ACCURATE.

Honestly, how in the world did people find fic titles before the internet?? :D

gravitational effects of the moon is one of the rare fics I have that's not from a poem or song! Since the most important parts of the story (well, the first chapter, since I expanded on it...) take place under the moonlight, I wanted something to do with that. Also, I liked how the moon has literal gravitational effects but also shifts both Natasha and Clint's figurative sense of gravity!

I tend to make music playlists while I'm writing, so I start by looking at those. Usually I go thematic over wordplay, mainly because that's easier to find I think :) And of course, it has to sound good!

Right?! :D

I felt like that one was a lyric or a poem, but since you didn't credit it I figured you'd made lyrical poetry up yourself. I like the double meanings! I also like how 'gravitation effects of' is kind of science and factual, and then you have the moon which can be associated with romance and myth and all that jazz; just nice juxtaposition.

Wow, do you do a playlist every time, is tha part of writing for you? Is that usually things you've recently listened to or could be anything? (I like music but I'm the kind of person that buys one CD or makes one playlist and listens to it A LOT FOR AGES before I decide I need something else in my life.)

not lyrical poetry, just a lyrical line! (I quit writing poetry long ago... it really was never that good!)

I didn't use to make a playlist every time, but now that I have spotify it's become such a habit that i do it automatically. I also have playlists for various characters and ships... like, twenty of them... IT'S A PROBLEM. I just really love music!

Whoa - play lists... I'm lucky if there is one song I can associate with a fic (but if there is, I can't get it out of my head...)

Oh, I 100% get that way too! For me, making playlists give me reason to explore new music. I'd say only some of the songs are really on theme and the rest are about mood, or maybe evoke a specific scene. I made one to go with the radio AU I wrote for franztastich and from there it sort of... got out of hand...

Ha, I love that it snowballed from a radio AU :D

I tend to do titles and summaries last, because I feel like they should say something about the fic or encapsulate what it's about and I rarely know what I was trying to say until the end. Also because they're hard ;) I try to get titles from words, phrases, or ideas within the fic, then i'll turn to song lyrics, poetry, or quotes, googling to try and find something that sounds like what I'm going for. Some titles come in the middle of a fic - probably when I've got a handle on what it's about.

For summaries, I'll often quote from the fic or use the prompt a fic is based on. Sometimes I'll say what kind of AU or fusion it is so people know what they're going into, because taggging is also difficult (!), but that's a bit... bland. (Never ask me to write an elevator pitch *grins*)

ASK ME

OK, for the ask: " maybe not soon "

Also, why did you particularly use the lower case, here or elsewhere?

maybe not soon is a quote from the fic itself, from Scott in the first section where Scott's thinking that he knows he's going to visit his kid, however difficult it is and whatever he needs to do to manage that, but 'maybe not soon' - like he'd like it to be soon, and as soon as he can, but he doesn't know. Not just 'not soon', a bit more hopeful than that but not optimistic enough for soon. And that's the vibe I was going for for the whole fic really, that things will get better but maybe not soon. (Then I got to echo it in the last section with Tony, when Vision says that Zemo has succeeded and Tony's reply is 'Maybe. For now.' Because Tony is the futurist and he's gonna fix it not soon, but next, the immediate after the now.)

I can't say for sure why I started using lower case for titles, and why for some and not others. I used to be very much a Captialise All Words In A Title kind of person, because That's The Way I Was Taught. Then I would have seen someone else in fandom doing lower case and been curious, and probably discovered e.e.cummings and the like. I can tell you it looks where the evening splits in half was the first time I did it, and that that title comes from a poem where those words are lower case. I suspect because it was poetry and a middle line, and for an experiment, I tried it out. Titles since then where i've used lower case are usually poems, quotes, lyrics, or trying to be that vibe, or the fic is more experimental. Or it just didn't feel like a Title with a Capital T *shrugs*. Some do, like that's the story's Name. Which is to say: it's kind of odd and I blame poets.

Thanks! :) As for the lower case thing, it sounds something like the way I came to writing in the present tense...

Oh my god, when did the present tense thing start?! I looked up one day and fanfic seemed to be in present tense, which wasn't for me, and then I tried it and now I find it hard to write in anything but!