[Gagged Man]

The most important thing, for me, is the title to the story. It sets the scene and gives the reader a little indication of what's going to happen.
The thing is, you see, that I can never get a good title. It's always the last line of the story such as "It Always Rains On The Unloved" or something I said in the stroy such as 'Black Stetson".
How do you get your titles?
Any advice for a poor, poor man?

Thanks for the replies (hopefully),
Gagged Man

[milamber_reborn]

Don't go for something obvious and preferrably keep it reasonably short. Maybe a theme or something in the novel that is important, but not obvious. You don't want to describe the plot in the title.

eg. Robert Jordan - The Wheel Of Time Book 9 - Winter's Heart.
(The book is not specifically about the wheel of time of winter, but they are relevent to the story and sound cool)

Lord Of The Rings - More to the point and sounds catchy, but doesn't give away what's going to happen

The Hobbit - Simple, but only mentions the main race.

There is no rule to a title, but make it either catchy or effective, or both, unless you are aiming for offbeat.

Hope my rambling helps.

[Holbrook]

Most books I find the title has a reference to a place or person, or a fragment of action in the book, or reflects the mood or tone of the book.

It is something that the author has latched onto while creating the piece.

Some though I have read plan the titles before they begin work, others after.

I usually use a "working title" until it is nearly finished. This could be anything from a line or phrase from the work or something silly....

The work I have up here "The Hat Man" had various titles, "The courting of Wizards" "A Tale of the Weeping Lands" "When Jack Went Back"

The title came about as in the first draft, and is still in part of it. The main character did not know the name of "Albert" in the beginning, so I needed a "handle" for him, and as his hat plays a large part in the story it was "The hat man said"

Jacquin was here at the time and we were talking about this piece and I just happened to say. "well the Hat Man is going to do this...."

Jacquin thought it was a good phrase for a title, so it is his fault:D

The latest piece is called "Within and Without" or the other way round "Without and Within".... it sums up the type of story which is an alternate world story, when one character travels from one world to another......