What's in a title?

Instead of landing on a finalised name for my latest, and almost completed, short story (currently title Bulldog). I got thinking on what exactly makes a great title. Obviously its natural to look to the greats without feeling even a sense of the underlying reality, that is that even the authors and producers of the iconic backbones of cinema and literature likely struggled all the same. Now this blog entry isn't at all a massive time wasting distraction from my actual editing work, in fact it might actually turn into a side quest that could lead to a name suddenly appearing on the screen!

Jaws, Star Wars, IT, Misery, The Shining, Hunger Games, Frankenstein, Dracula and Dune stick out as the absolute best titles in recent and distant memory. Naturally you would want something punchy, timeless and a word/phrase that will encapsulate and visualise your entire premise to the reader perusing your book cover at the store (and by store I obviously mean online). 

When it came to naming my first two books, Organ and Digging Graves, I danced around the ideas for a brief while but they did in all honestly come rather quickly into form. Organ was just a simple gruesomely playful method of getting the lump growing from poor Oscar Ruben's side into the forefront of the readers imagination, keep our hero suffering. Originally it was titled in the doc as "Oscar", but even as the walls closed in on the final draft this felt very uncomfortably pretentious. Almost inspired by Stephen Kings Carrie, this just felt like a pale imitation to a great horror title. Eventually I decided upon Organ, and fell in love with the title, its gross and visual, perfect for the novel. But the question still persists, what can I learn from this and can I choose a name for the new story? 

Digging Graves is the opposite, its so "face value" that it felt almost ridiculously short sighted NOT to just name it Digging Graves, after all its a book about exactly that. Having the short stories and poems essentially already to go from my diaries and notes did allow me to spend a little more time fixating on the books title, cover and blurb. Nothing glamorous was really needed, it didn't need to be a title I would expect to be standing the test of time. It just needed to be descriptive enough for the readers little radar to ping as my book bobbed and wobbled on the surface of the fiction ocean.

And yet, I still have no title for Bulldog, beyond its codename that is sounding better and better as the days go past. When the miracle lands on my lap, the birth of my horror novelettes name will be something worth celebrating with a stiff unpleasant swig of the half empty whiskey bottle in the cupboard and a slice of some hardening vegan cheese occupying the door tray in the fridge. If you are interested in keeping up to date on my writing beyond this brain sewer system of a blog, follow me on BlueSky, its the place I post most frequently in regards to books and design processes. Some memes occasionally as well to tickle the soft uninspired spots in the mind. 

I also ran out of photos to use that felt appropriate, so here is a photo my cat sleeping under the duvet. 

Take care and listen to the radio you horrendous beetles!