Boarders Writing a Novel, Part 9

[Gabriele]

OK, here are mine:

The Roman books

A Land Unconquered

Eagle of the Sea

Never to Return

Song of the North Wind (not really happy with that one, but I'll keep it as working title)

The Fantasy Monster

Kings and Rebels (totally a working title)

The planned Saxon trilogy (historical fiction or maybe historical Fantasy)

Forged at the Fighting

Survivors of Spears

In War to Defend

(those are all lines from the AngloSaxon Chronicle)

[Jaime's Wench]

Journey of Pride is my novel title. I'm happy with it for now as it connects both the antagonists' and protagonists' stories. However, my last story ended up being title-less.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

Anyone else care to critique the titles I presented upthread?

[Weeping Sore]

So far, four novels of mine are planned and the names are as such (the series as of now is called technology vs beast or TvB):

The Fabled Doom

Tales of the Enlightened

Natures Wrath

The Question of Nirvana

Is this the order of the series, Littlefinger?

I like the first two titles as they are but the last two...Nature's Wrath seems a little too Captain Planet-y. The Question of Nirvana sounds like a term paper.

How about:

The Fabled Doom

Tales of the Enlightened

Wrath of Beasts

Edge of Nirvana

Good luck! I'll check the other thread to see what they are about. :)

[deleted01]

My working title is The Lion's Skin. It may already be the title of a novel, but I don't want to check yet and burst my bubble :P

[Myrddin]

Anyone else care to critique the titles I presented upthread?

To me, it helps when all the titles look like they belong together, ie follow the same sentence structure. Not that they have to, but it adds a nice symmetry.

Common title trends*:

A SUBJECT of/with/for DESCRIPTOR - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, etc

The/A MACGUFFIN - The Eye of the World, The Dragon Reborn, The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell

NAME and the MACGUFFIN - Harry Potter and the Thing that is important this book, Indiana Jones and the Current Macguffin

TITLE, with all sequels based on first TITLE - Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune

OBJECT of NAME - Sword/Elstones/Wishsong/Left Testicle of Shannara,

OCCUPATION of PLACE - Sorcerers of Majipoor, The Alchemist of Souls,

Non-structure trends:

Portion of Historical/Popular Saying to Convey Theme - The Blade Itself, Last Argument of Kings, Best Served Cold

I also like series titles to have a unifying feel to them, whether through a storytelling structure or music/art form such as:

Songs - A Song of Ice and FIre, Song of Albion

Chronicles - Chronicles of Narnia, The Lymond Chronicles, The Warlord Chronicles

Cycle - The Pendragon Cycle,

Trilogy/Quartet - Long Price Quartet, The Farseer Trilogy, Every Other Fantasy Series Trilogy

Mosaic - The Sarantine Mosaic (Ok, I've only seen one "Mosaic" but if I have my way, there'll be two in the near future - see below)

Yes, there are thousands of books that do not conform themselves to my little attempt to quantify something subjective. Above all else, titles need to be creatively compelling (not generic) and speak to the central story.

My own fantasy series is being written with the following working titles:

The Mosaic of the Lost and Broken

- Echoes of Truth

- Mists of Memory

- Shades of Myth

*(ie title trends that I am personally drawn to when scanning fantasy bookshelves. YMMV)

[First of My Name]

Littlefinger, I agree with that Vlad said of your titles, though I'd need to know more if I wanted to properly judge them.

And Myrddin, I too think titles should have some sort of pattern in them.

Jaime's Wench, have you sent your quero yet? If so, has there been a reply?

I love naming books. I don't know why. Sometimes I think of a title I think would be good and my mind just starts filling in what the book would be about. It's one of the reasons I have too much ideas to ever fit into one book series.

[Ebenstone]

Titles are important for me. I'm a big motif guy and my projects don't feel "real" until they have a title. Here are some of mine.

Seasons of Destiny:

Winter's Discord

Spring's Tempest

Summer's Glory

I hold out hope that we sell the trilogy and we realize that I can't do the third book in a manageable size and I have to split it, then it would be Summer's Sacrifice and Autumn's Glory....but we'll see.

The Weaponmaster Apprentice Series:

Jaiman Zarachek and the Sisters of Khoda

Jaiman Zarachek and the Road to Standish

Jaiman Zarachek and the Games of Althalon

The Jaiman Zarachek part is optional. I imagine these books as kind of open ended YA adventure series.

Present YA contemporary project:

The Seven Labors of Nick Jablonsky

[Francis Buck]

My first novella was a pseudo-vampire story called Perennials. I've always hated that title.

The epic fantasy I'm currently writing is called The Emperor Must Die, which is probably my favorite title I've come up with.

I have a story about samurai I'll write someday called Satori (a Japanese Buddhist term loosely synonymous with nirvana).

Also have a modern crime story called Handsome Devils, a sci-fi trilogy called Thirteen Dragons, and a super-epic-fantasy-quadrilogy-in-the-works called Anthropica.

[The Grey Wolf]

_{The titles for my first four novels [each one is a stand-alone and entirely unrelated to each other] are: 1.Spellbound, 2. The Knight, the Mage, and the Spy, 3. The City of Light, and 4. The Black Prince. I'm also brainstorming/world-building for two epic fantasy series I'm calling The Blue Rose Cycle and Pandora's Gate.TheTheThe Spell}

[Littlefingers In The Air]

Is this the order of the series, Littlefinger?

I like the first two titles as they are but the last two...Nature's Wrath seems a little too Captain Planet-y. The Question of Nirvana sounds like a term paper.

How about:

The Fabled Doom

Tales of the Enlightened

Wrath of Beasts

Edge of Nirvana

Good luck! I'll check the other thread to see what they are about. :)

first and foremost, thank you for the well wishes. :) to answer your question, yes, these are in order. I see your point about the last two titles, particularly Natures Wrath. I'll try to think up something that fits the mold of the first two.

If you want to read the plot, go here and scroll down:

I put a fair amount of details in it. Maybe it'll help you help me.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

To me, it helps when all the titles look like they belong together, ie follow the same sentence structure. Not that they have to, but it adds a nice symmetry.

Common title trends*:

A SUBJECT of/with/for DESCRIPTOR - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, etc

The/A MACGUFFIN - The Eye of the World, The Dragon Reborn, The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell

NAME and the MACGUFFIN - Harry Potter and the Thing that is important this book, Indiana Jones and the Current Macguffin

TITLE, with all sequels based on first TITLE - Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune

OBJECT of NAME - Sword/Elstones/Wishsong/Left Testicle of Shannara,

OCCUPATION of PLACE - Sorcerers of Majipoor, The Alchemist of Souls,

Non-structure trends:

Portion of Historical/Popular Saying to Convey Theme - The Blade Itself, Last Argument of Kings, Best Served Cold

I also like series titles to have a unifying feel to them, whether through a storytelling structure or music/art form such as:

Songs - A Song of Ice and FIre, Song of Albion

Chronicles - Chronicles of Narnia, The Lymond Chronicles, The Warlord Chronicles

Cycle - The Pendragon Cycle,

Trilogy/Quartet - Long Price Quartet, The Farseer Trilogy, Every Other Fantasy Series Trilogy

Mosaic - The Sarantine Mosaic (Ok, I've only seen one "Mosaic" but if I have my way, there'll be two in the near future - see below)

Yes, there are thousands of books that do not conform themselves to my little attempt to quantify something subjective. Above all else, titles need to be creatively compelling (not generic) and speak to the central story.

My own fantasy series is being written with the following working titles:

The Mosaic of the Lost and Broken

- Echoes of Truth

- Mists of Memory

- Shades of Myth

*(ie title trends that I am personally drawn to when scanning fantasy bookshelves. YMMV)

you make a good point. I only thought of titles that go with the individual book and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. But The Fabled Doom and Tales of the Enlightened sound like they could be in the same series, so I'll see how I can make those last two titles flow.

[Jaime's Wench]

Jaime's Wench, have you sent your quero yet? If so, has there been a reply?

I love naming books. I don't know why. Sometimes I think of a title I think would be good and my mind just starts filling in what the book would be about. It's one of the reasons I have too much ideas to ever fit into one book series.

I haven't yet. Going to let it rest while I prepare for next term at school. It'll help me look with fresh eyes when it comes to those final tweaks.

See, I'm the opposite to that. I have an idea and run with it to the end and very seldom have a name for it. I may even rename JoP to something that fits more with the synopsis and first three chapters of the novel... since the title at the moment doesn't fit with that too well.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

Littlefinger, I agree with that Vlad said of your titles, though I'd need to know more if I wanted to properly judge them.

And Myrddin, I too think titles should have some sort of pattern in them.

Jaime's Wench, have you sent your quero yet? If so, has there been a reply?

I love naming books. I don't know why. Sometimes I think of a title I think would be good and my mind just starts filling in what the book would be about. It's one of the reasons I have too much ideas to ever fit into one book series.

if it would help you help me, or if you're just generally interested, check out the plot here:

[The Grey Wolf]

I read the plot and find the premise extremely interesting. I can't wait to read it when your finished. Will we get to see things from Adrastos's pov as well or just the Acolytes?

[Littlefingers In The Air]

I'm undecided on an Adrastos POV. Some things just need to remain a mystery, I believe. Acolytes and Inhabitants (this stories humans) will have POVs. I have considered Adrastos epilogues and prologues though.

[The Grey Wolf]

Looking forward to it. How far done are you? [i admit I'm having a hard time getting back on track writing because the college semester just started but I will.]

[Littlefingers In The Air]

Right now the chapters finished are:

DeShone I

Malthus I

Itami I

DeShone II

Meiko I

Itami II

Marluxia I

These are all The Fabled Doom Chapters and I'm currently working on Malthus II

[The Grey Wolf]

Cool. In the first novel I'm writing I switch between POVs by paragraph rather than chapter but I want to use the 1 POV-per-chapter structure in some future works. [i like the names Meiko and Itami but Markuxia instantly reminds me of Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts.]

[Zoë Sumra]

, a sci-fi trilogy called Thirteen Dragons

Is this the one you were talking about in GC?

Sailor to a Siren is a personal in-joke: I think of it as two of the characters' theme tune. For my main series I was going for two word phrases: I'd got as far as Rough Diamond and Seventh Hell before I both ran out of titles and realised RD needed to turn into two books. Its second half is still untitled, and also unpolished. I'll work on book and title at the same time.