Some thoughts on fic titles

[regshoe]

I find that my fic titles fall into two categories. Sometimes the perfect title, usually a quote from something, springs fully-formed into my head along with the initial idea for the fic, and I think it's so brilliant that I am extra-motivated to write the fic by the thought of getting to use this amazingly brilliant title. Sometimes I write the whole fic without having a clue what the title is going to be; I then go hunting for suitable quotes and either find one after some effort or fail and come up with an invented phrase to use as a title. Some are in between—sometimes I'll find a title during the process of writing, after a little thought about what might be suitable—but it certainly feels like most fics are at one extreme or the other, and I get the impression this is a fairly common experience with fic titles.

I usually go with quotes as titles, and I was wondering idly about my habit of using folk song lyrics for everything. So I decided to make a graph! Here are all 67 of my fics published to date categorised by where the title comes from:


That's 31% from folk songs and ballads, 19% original invented titles, 16% from the canon I'm writing for, 12% from books, 9% from non-folk songs, 6% from poems, 4% from plays and 1% Other (that's 'The Ladies of Briarfield', which is an invented phrase playing on the title of a related canon—so maybe ought to be 1/3 each in the 'invented', 'canon' and 'book' categories?). The distinction between folk songs, non-folk songs and poems is a bit fuzzy; I've tried to categorise by the context in which I learnt each one.

I was correct that more of my fic titles come from folk songs than anywhere else, but it's not actually a majority. I'm disappointed at the number of invented titles—these tend to be the ones that took a lot of effort to come up with something I don't like very much, and looking through them now, I'm only really happy with about a third of the invented titles, whereas I like most of the quote-based ones. The rest of my sources are more diverse than I appreciated! My most-title-quoted authors, apart from the ever-reliable Trad, are Shakespeare (three titles) and Oscar Wilde (two titles, plus another related one from Alfred Douglas).

What about other people's fic titles, then? It's actually fairly rare that I recognise the source of a quote in someone else's title, which is perhaps a sign that I should worry less about the intricate perfection of my own, but I very much appreciate nice quote titles when I do ('here in your arms is cured' is an especially good and adorable one). I like a well-chosen canon quote, especially when it's recontextualised in a clever or funny way ('Scarcely a Cloud in the Sky' uses a quote from the beginning of canon for an AU epilogue fic, which I think is lovely in its sense of things coming full circle and the characters finding new happiness despite the hardships they've been through; 'If Fate Should Reverse Our Positions' is another great bit of recontextualisation, turning an offhand remark into a huge AU). And you can always just explain the title quote—I like when titles and epigraphs interact in clever ways, and having the quoted source appear within the story itself can be a really nice opportunity to add depth to the fic and its world ('That Good Faith, To Which an Enemy as Well as a Friend Is Entitled' is a great example of that). Much as I enjoy good titles and think they add to a fic, titles pretty much never influence my decision of whether to read a fic, and don't form a large part of my overall opinion of the fic itself once I've read it.

Unfortunately my current longfic WIP is looking like it'll be the 'can't think of a title at all' type, which is sad—but I suppose I've got plenty of time to come up with something... and meanwhile I have another semi-WIP whose title is going to be the best, most clever and hilarious quote ever at least to me, so that's good motivation.

Comments

[garonne]

Very interesting! I am fascinated to see how many of your titles are quotes, and from how many different sources. I had sort of noticed that trend in your titles, but of course it's always nicer to see the actual numbers.

I also have such a pie chart on my computer (and similar ones for things like which century each fic is set in). But my title pie chart is much more boring than yours, because the majority of titles are what I have categorised as "Boring Noun Phrases": The Red Notebook, Last Request, The Golden Bird etc.

I do have a category that I call "invented quotes", which is when I couldn't find a suitable quote, so decided to invent something that sounds like a quote but isn't (e.g. A Thousand Dreams in One Drop of Ink or Where Comfort's Found) And I have a grand total of 1 canon quote in ~85 fics. I am very impressed with your ability to find suitable canon or other quotes. I always spend ages searching and not finding anything... For that FotH podfic I did with Luzula recently, she came up with Instances of Grace, which is a quote from the 1747 General Pardon and which is just perfect. I had previously titled the fic with a "Boring Noun Phrase" :D

[regshoe]

I'm glad I'm not the only one making fic data pie charts—yours sound great, especially the tracking which centuries you're writing in!

And I love the 'invented quotes' (you've definitely fooled me—I can remember thinking about A Thousand Dreams in One Drop of Ink, 'ooh, what a lovely quote, I wonder where that's from?' :D ). Aww, and I do like Luzula's historical-source fic titles for FotH too, that one is nice.

[sanguinity]

My own feeling about titles is that 1) they should focus attention on some central theme of the work, and 2) they should be memorable and recognizable, serving as a nicely utilitarian "handle" by which one can find or refer to a story later.

I haven't run the numbers, but I'd guess most of mine are what you're calling 'invented', with a goodly number being a (perhaps modified) quote from the story itself. Usually when grrlpup is doing her copyediting pass on a story of mine, she'll grab a dozen or so distinctive phrases or ideas from the story, I'll throw in whatever thoughts I had, and then we'll workshop them all together over a couple of evenings of doing dishes, trying to come up with something that's elegant and catchy and appropriate (bonus points if it's clever). Sometimes we find something we love; a lot of times we come up with something good enough.

And then there are times that I've backed myself into a corner: "Hornblower's Lost Honour" is an offhand joke, but I've been referring to the story by that moniker for two and a half years, and consequently all my tumblr circle knows this story by that title. (Which is to say, it meets the second criterion so strongly at this point that I'd be shooting myself in the foot to call it by anything else.) "Langstroth on Bees," another offhand working title which I've been using for even longer, is going to be the same way. *shrug*

[regshoe]

That's a good philosophy of titles—and a good system for coming up with them! I definitely think more about the first point than the second when picking titles, but you're quite right about having a title you can remember and use to refer back to the story.

As for the working titles, starting out as a joke and ending up serious is definitely something that's happened to a few of my fics... And aww, I like 'Langstroth on Bees'—is that a Holmes story? :D

[sanguinity]

Yes, Langstroth is a Holmes story! I began it back in... *consults email* ugh, 2014, and I have, I dunno, 65K or something already written. I could maybe/probably finish it in another 20K or so? (*knock wood*) I was thinking that now that Lost Honour is almost off my plate, I would make a push at finishing Langstroth in 2023.

[regshoe]

Oh, wow—you're not resting on your laurels after Lost Honour :D Good luck with Langstroth, then!

[sanguinity]

Thank you! I've already started my background reading for the next chunk of story so... fingers crossed!

[hyarrowen]

You're writing a Holmes bees fic?! Cos I was thinking along the same lines - I used a Langstroth hive back in the day. But I was thinking of a ficlet, not a super-epic!

[sanguinity]

I am! Part of the impetus was seeing someone express doubt that mere bees couldn't possibly interest and occupy someone as intelligent as Holmes in his retirement -- I confess that I saw red. I'm not a beekeeper myself, but bees as a genus are fascinating (as is most of natural history!), and there is definitely more than enough there to occupy someone in devoted study for a lifetime. Consequently, there are many many bees in this story: Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Bombus spp., Lasioglossum xanthopus... It's not really about the bees, but they are very much a source of principal occupation for Holmes, and one of the central questions of the story is whether bees can replace crime in his and Watson's relationship.

But I take it that you are, or have been, a beekeeper? I've been hoping to find a beekeeping beta for this story.

[hyarrowen]

"seeing someone express doubt that mere bees couldn't possibly interest and occupy someone as intelligent as Holmes"

goodheavens. No womnder you saw red. The BBC radio adaptation with Clive Merrison and Michael Williams did this (as everything else) very well - Holmes realising that bees have their own language and taking it from there.

Will PM you regarding bee-beta-ing rather than take up regshoe's comments, hope that's OK...
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[sanguinity]

Lion's Mane is an amazing episode! I mean, their whole series was strong, but their LION was sheer brilliance. I also really enjoyed the Further Adventures written by the same principal adapter, also starring Merrison (Williams having unfortunately passed away); Bert Coules, imho, has a stronger idea of what makes a good Holmes-and-Watson case than ACD did.

And yes, we can certainly discuss that in DMs!

[regshoe]

:O What a horrible thing to say—of course the natural history of bees would give Holmes more than enough to do in retirement! (The leader of the bird surveys I do is a bee specialist, and the titbits of facts he tells us walking past one popular solitary bee nesting spot on the route are clearly a tiny part of a very wide and endlessly interesting world.) That sounds like a very good reason for writing it and a fascinating idea for a story.

[sanguinity]

It's a bid sad, really; I can't help but think that they don't know how interesting a place the world is!

[isis]

This is very cool! I usually either know the title as I start to write, or despair to find one at the end.

I think most of my titles fall under the "invented" category, in that they are quotes from the fic itself or refer to a theme in the fic. Sometimes they're pastiche references (e.g. "Staves and Spells (and so the army swells)" for a Hamilton/Dragon Age crossover, which is a reference to a Hamilton quote but a pastiche rather than an actual quote) but I had to go back 30 fics in my works to find one with a canon quote, 36 for a song quote, and 52 for a poem quote.

[regshoe]

Now, significant quotes from the fic itself is a type of title I've never been able to get the hang of (I think I'd have put them in a separate category, if I had). I do like them—it's such fun to be reading along and come to the line used in the title and recognise it. I suppose my 'The Ladies of Briarfield' for a JSMN/Shirley fusion (playing on 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu', with a place name from Shirley) is kind of doing a similar thing to your Hamilton/Dragon Age title.

[lirazel]

Yay fandom diagrams! I love that you made a graph!

I really relate to your first paragraph about how sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard--titles are slippery things!

[regshoe]

I do like making graphs :D And they certainly are...

[scintilla10]

Oooh, this is interesting! I haven't dived into my whole AO3 history, but a quick browse suggests invented titles and song lyrics are the top ones for me.

It's rare for me to know the title in advance of writing - sometimes it comes to me from a theme/line of the fic during writing, but more usually it's scramble at the end to find a suitable title. XD

[regshoe]

It was interesting, starting with a vague impression of how I do titles, to look at the numbers in detail! And I sympathise about that scramble to find a title when you've finished writing the fic—it's so annoying...

[luzula]

Interesting! And thanks for the titles of mine that you quoted with appreciation. : )

I think that, over the whole of my writing, titles that I made up myself are by far the most common. In FotH fandom, I am always happiest when I can find some apt quote from a historical source. In the epilogue to the That Good Faith series, the quote is from the parliament speech in favor of revoking the Dress Act, which I was quite satisfied with. Second to that, I prefer a canon quote or a title which references canon.

Since writing novel length fic is new to me, chapter titles are also new, and I like them very much! For some reason, they are much easier for me to find than fic titles, possibly because the pressure is lower.

[regshoe]

I do like the apt historical source quotes :D And chapter titles—although I've only done them for a few fics so far—are good fun! I agree about them being easier than fic titles, and that seems a very plausible reason why.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

This is a very cool analysis! I approve of using songs for titles, I like to do that too. I also use random poems, and lines taken from canon, and sometimes "invented" titles, which are basically lines I take from the fic itself, because I have no other ideas... "can't think of a title at all" is a real thing! XD

[regshoe]

Oh dear, I know it is...! Although I often don't recognise the songs and poems, I always appreciate your poetic titles and epigraphs—they're so elegant :D

[theseatheseatheopensea]

XD Now I'm laughing because I'm thinking that I've used titles inspired by Abba and Tom Waits, and they are not exactly elegant!! (But they are definitely awesome and that's what counts, right?)

[regshoe]

Hey, some fics want delicately poetic titles and some want awesome ABBA titles, it's all good stuff :D

[hyarrowen]

I have the same experience too. I love it when I get the perfect title straight away, even if it mean writing a multi-chapter epic. The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations is a good friend in many instances. Wish I had the oomph to make a nice pie-chart like yours, but alas.

I have huge respect and envy for authors like Tolkien or Ransome who can come up with memorable chapter titles as well as book titles (among other reasons.)

[regshoe]

Aww, Tolkien's chapter titles are indeed lovely! I'm quite fond of Broster's, too—the table of contents for The Wounded Name is a beautiful thing. I've started doing chapter titles in my longer fics recently and I find that they are fun to come up with.

[hyarrowen]

I must try chapter titles! The don't seem to have as much importance as fic titles, now I come to think of it. They don't have to grab attention and summarise the story in the same way.

Broster obviously has a lot of fun with TWN chapter titles - I just checked and they're Romantic with a capital R.