In Pursuit of a Title

Well, NaNoWriMo isn't going too badly. I'm still scheduled to finish ahead of time, even accounting for two days off from writing due to a really persistent cold that has been keeping me in bed instead of writing at 5 am like I'd planned. It's probably because my husband was so impressed how I managed to bolt out of bed at 5 for about a week and a half. Then the combination of sleeplessness, coughing, and eventually Nyquil shattered that illusion.

But I hope to recover in the coming week. Being Thanksgiving week, I only have three days of work, so I will be able to indulge my night-owl productivity more than usual. Hooray for that!

Now that the book is what I'd call mostly roughed out, I think it's about time to stop calling it WRIIINanoDraft. (That's the lovely file name it has right now.) It deserves a real title, and I historically rot at titling anything.

The current phrase I'm looking at to entitle this installment of the saga is...

Valor's Worth
The Windrider Saga, Book III

I already know the line of dialog from which that title will come, and it will fall in the denoument of the story. But, as is always the case with writers, I have a habit of getting attached to things before I've really evaluated what my readers will think of it. And if this book is not for my readers, who is it for, after all?

So, what do you think? A sufficiently poignant and hook-ish title, or should I keep looking?

Comments

  1. KessieNovember 17, 2012 at 12:42 PM

    Hey, that's a pretty good title. It's better than my Nano's title, which is "Zombies and Unicorns".

    Rachelle Gardner has an article on how to title your book. I'm going to work through it when my first publishable hopeful gets closer to being shopped around. http://www.rachellegardner.com/2010/03/how-to-title-your-book/

    Takes some research and some thought, but I think it sounds great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RebeccaPMinorNovember 18, 2012 at 1:57 PM

      Thanks for the link, Kessie. Good stuff! And I had to laugh about the zombies and unicorns...there's a combination I would never have anticipated.

      Delete
  2. Patrick, Ṣạraph.November 20, 2012 at 11:26 AM

    I like the idea of zombies and unicorns. I have something like that combination in a story idea I have called The Riddle of the Spear.

    I like Valor's Worth very much, the only thing I would mention is that if I saw it on a shelf I would think it was a non-fiction, inspirational book. (I actually like it better as a title for a Fantasy story though.)

    Perhaps a slightly longer quote from the book? Perhaps putting it in quotes would help?

    ReplyDelete

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