Code Name: Halloween is a Holiday Founded on Plagiarism

[rinue]

I am terrible at coming up with titles. I feel bad about this because my choice of whether to buy or a read a book usually hinges on its title. I like titles. I care more about them than about cover art, or price, or publisher. If the title is good enough, I don't read the blurb on the back; I skip straight to a random page, sometimes a few of them, and see what I think. Half of the convincing has been done.

It would be nice for me if I were better at titles, which are like talismans. A title gives people the impression that the work is fully envisioned and will be completed. Otherwise, you are stuck with conversations that go:

- Oh, well, you know, that short story about a woman who loves a robot, and a couple of short scripts, and a longer script, and this nonsense poem, and a little bit more of that humor book.
- So not really anything solid, then.

Sometimes I think about giving projects code names, like "Bodyguard" or "Project Z" or "Elephant Moon Shoe," so that maybe people will think I have a title that I am just not telling them. Today I came up with the title "Hot and Bottled," but it does not match any of the things I am working on.

Comments

[narcolepticcat.livejournal.com]

but titles are also deceptive - we all know my roster is plauged with projects whose names suggest goodness, significance, humor, rastafarianism, etc. and yet ... there is often little to nothing behind them.

and in order to finally name the novel, you'll recall, i had to break it down and untitle it...

so ... do the work, make the codenames, and i'll help you call it all something awesome - for free even ;) lol