How clichéd are your titles

[Andrew Okey]

A little bit of (something like) light relief whilst we all wait to receive our latest batches of rejections.

The Bath Short Story award people have posted an interesting article about story titles (here: Your BSSA 2018 short story entry — final checks and balances) and they've listed the Top Fifteen all time titles - that is, the story titles that most regularly recur in entries to their contest.

So, how clichéd are your titles? Rather than you all nervously clicking on the link to find out , here are those 15 titles in full:

Dust, The Gift, Home, Hunger, Homecoming,The Box, Monsters, Lost and Found, Sacrifice, The Hunt, Flight, Heartless, The End, Alone, Legacy.

I didn't think most of these were so bad (though I'd hesitate to start reading any story called "Dust"). I have to say I felt a surge of relief that my entry, "Gone to the shops", wasn't going to be instantly hobbled by its title. Only its content.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

The fifteen most used titles, as listed in the article somehow speak of the long-distance loneliness of an author beset by doubt and demons.

I believe that there are a number of hooks that snag a reader's attention, and one of the most important is the book title, though, that's not to say that an author's name is irrelevant. Put it this way, if Russian author Varsonofy Panteleimonovich Bagration-Mukhranskii attracted attention from Western literary agents and publishers, one of the first things they'd suggest he do would be to shorten his name to something pronounceable and memorable, such as Victor Bagski.

I pay particular attention to the titles of my Cornish Detective novels, accepting that there'll inevitably be some clichéd elements to them, for they're genre writing and it's what readers expect. After overhearing how some people choose a book to read, I've gone with titles that I hope intrigue potential readers:

Who Kills A Nudist?

The Perfect Murderer

An Elegant Murder

Sin Killers

The Dead Need Nobody

It's an instructive exercise to peruse the titles of threads in the Colony, to see which ones have been viewed the most.

The title of anything is bait.

 

[Tim James]

Titles are always a problem for me. But curiously I seem good at suggesting them for others, or so they've said.
Sometimes I will leave it with just a working title, or no title at all, until I've finished it and then think about what to call it.
I'm not sure I pay much attention to what writers have or are calling their books. If a title fits my book then I'll use it.
Of course it doesn't do to copy the titles of currently "hot" books, unless you are deliberately attempting a rewrite of one. And then you may be in trouble regarding copyright.

 

[Andrew Okey]

The fifteen most used titles, as listed in the article somehow speak of the long-distance loneliness of an author beset by doubt and demons.


I pay particular attention to the titles of my Cornish Detective novels, accepting that there'll inevitably be some clichéd elements to them, for they're genre writing and it's what readers expect. After overhearing how some people choose a book to read, I've gone with titles that I hope intrigue potential readers:

Who Kills A Nudist?

Paul - "Who kills a nudist?" may just be the best novel title, ever.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Many of those titles play on what, in heritage interpretation, we call 'universal intangibles'--concepts that evoke emotional response, regardless of a reader's demographics. Concepts like home, love, loneliness, fear, friendship, family...we all may think of different things when we hear those words, but we all have an emotional response to them. In heritage interpretation, we try to link those universal intangible concepts to whatever resource it is we're interpreting, to foster emotional connections between the visitor and the resource. It helps make them care about the forest/historic house/hot pools/or whatever they're visiting. I imagine the same thing works with book titles--evoke those emotional concepts, and a reader is more likely to pick up your book.

 

[Amber]

I don't think my titles are cliche but I'm not real attached to them either. I think the less elaborate a title is the better. There's no reason to get fancy or overly clever.

 

[Chase Gamwell]

"Deus ex Machina" was already taken by another recent novel, so I started out with "Disengaging from the Machine" and then tried to soften the title by changing it to "When I Break Free" and this sounds so generic it could be anything from a novel to a self help book. I hoped that an ironic picture would take away the banality, but maybe not. I could take the title in an Alice in Wonderland direction, but I wanted to keep that aspect of the story subtle. "The Odd, Curious, and Unexpected" was suggested by Alix and it isn't bad but while it describes the story, it doesn't really describe what the story is about, so I'm conflicted there. "My Adorable Apotheosis" would apply, but it gives away the gimmick at the end of the story. Meh. Maybe that is better than 'When I Break Free', after all.

How about go with deus ex machina in a different language? If that’s the title you want to go with, it would be interesting to carry the sentiment via a unique linguistic approach. And it becomes especially relevant if the language is related to the setting of the novel.

I think most of my titles have been decent: Over the Edge (murder mystery), Infinity’s Heir (space opera with an immortal protagonist), and Aiko’s Dive (deep sea sci-fi). Though, now that I describe them they very well COULD be considered cliche.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...