The Perfect Title
Posted on | October 4, 2008 | Leave a comment | Print This Post
Every writer has their idiosyncrasies when it comes to writing. For me, finding the right title, book image, and theme song is an important part of kicking off a new manuscript.
I’m not talking about what happens with the end product, the completed manuscript which is getting primed for publication, but what happens in the beginning, when you’re just trying to get your thoughts on paper and hoping that it will all come together in a brilliant, cohesive sort of way. Coming up with a working title and finding inspiring stock images on Getty Images or Corbis does a lot for setting the tone of a book. I might tear out a picture from a magazine and stick it on my wall. It doesn’t matter if the art department comes up with something entirely different in the end. What matters is that you are sufficiently inspired to write, and to keep writing, until your book is done.
And you have to have a theme song. Something’s got to be playing in the background while you work, at least some of the time, and it may as well be something that dovetails with your book. Just ask yourself what your characters would be listening to. Or, if your book were to be made into a movie, what would be the opening song?
I just found the perfect title and cover image for book #4. The theme song is a tad trickier, which tells me that this manuscript may or may not make it. Why? Because if I don’t really know what kind of music fits with the tone of my book, then I don’t really know the tone of my book. I’m still in the discovery stage, which means that my ideas aren’t fully fleshed out, which means they may or may not work in the end. I know this might sound odd, but most writers will agree that finding a good idea or plot isn’t the hard part. Finishing the novel is.
Still, finding the perfect title is a good start. Even if the title changes in the end (always a possibility if you have a publisher), if it can push you across the finish line, then it’s more than done its job.
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