The Art of Choosing a Title

February 20, 2010 4:07 PM

The Land of Underwater Birds - a novelist looks at the art of choosing a title for your novel.
posted by empath (34 comments total)

Just wonderful.
posted by hermitosis at 4:20 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Rumpus! They're great (Full Disclosure, I did a thing for them a while back)
posted by The Whelk at 4:26 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Titles are my best loved procrastination tool, and yet I am absolutely wretched at them.

I so disagree with Puchner that The Heart is a Lonely Hunter stinks as a title. I've always loved it. That and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, "The Most Dangerous Game," The Executioner's Song, "Lamb to the Slaughter," Leaves of Grass, and Maus. And of course Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

My least favorite is The Botany of Desire. Before I had heard of Michael Pollan, a friend and I saw the book and laughed so hard we cried.
posted by sallybrown at 4:28 PM on February 20, 2010

Oh and how could I fail to mention one of the all-time greats: Everyone Poops.
posted by sallybrown at 4:39 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

You've got to read Sea Oak by George Saunders. It is brilliant.
posted by ovvl at 4:41 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Tropic of Cancer love that one.... I love mysterious titles. I know probably a bad idea, but ones like "Gravity's Rainbow."
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 4:43 PM on February 20, 2010

Mules in Horses Harness, later changed to Gone With The Wind.

Actually, many excellent titles are suggested by editors and publishers.
posted by ovvl at 4:48 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

When I was in high school, I read "Slaughterhouse 5" during summer reading because I thought it was a horror novel.

I was pleasantly surprised.
posted by empath at 4:53 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's a cookbook!
posted by teraflop at 5:05 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Galileo and the Declawed Cat
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:06 PM on February 20, 2010

I was pleasantly surprised.

Insofar as your gut instinct was confirmed?
posted by joe lisboa at 5:08 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Gladys Pemberton Strikes It Rich" is not a bad title.

And as for avoiding "The Allusion to Another, Much More Famous Work of Literature", hm, really? No Things Fall Apart? No Far from the Madding Crowd? The Sound and the Fury? Ulysses? No, uh, Shamela? Ok, most of those are actually quotations, but the point, surely, stands. Tons of works are named, and named well, through alluding to or quoting from something that came earlier. (Between Norwegian Wood and Winter's Tale I prefer the former as to title, but I also prefer it as to book, so it's hard to say what's driving that.)

Basically, you can do anything, as long as you do it well. The fact that the fugienda occasionally have "bad" in their names attests to this. Yes, you shouldn't have a bad Kundaresque title. That, one would have thought, went without saying.
posted by kenko at 5:31 PM on February 20, 2010

… No Joseph and His Brothers?

Part of the problem with "Runaway Grandma" is that it's hard to imagine how it could plausibly have become the title of anything worth reading. It does get cuter than "A Likely Story Outside of a Domestic Setting", though not a whole lot (and it probably infringes on some of the other rules) and yet, in context, it works.
posted by kenko at 5:35 PM on February 20, 2010

Insofar as your gut instinct was confirmed?

I guess it kind of IS a horror novel. But no, that it was much different than what I expected, and an amazing book.
posted by empath at 5:35 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Damnit! And I thought I had the perfect title for my new novel, which is an exploration of a man's psychology as he deals with his wife's infidelity: The Escape From Pirate Cove.
posted by Consonants Without Vowels at 5:35 PM on February 20, 2010

How could you see a title like that [Frozen Dog] and not put down everything you were doing—ordering a latte, scoring some drugs, operating an air traffic control tower—to read it?

Note to the casual reader: Eric Puchner's readers are, like, pretty exciting people.
posted by clockzero at 5:36 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Sea Oak" actually calls up images of Vikings in my mind. I don't know what the relationship between Vikings and oak trees was, but I can imagine "sea oak" being a kenning for "ship". Fare the whale-road in your stout sea-oak!

Like if the Vikings used dugouts, or something. Maybe "Sea Oak" is about a Polynesian who winds up in Scandinavian waters.
posted by kenko at 5:41 PM on February 20, 2010

"Kundaresque" should be "Kunderaesque" supra. We apologize for the error.
posted by kenko at 5:45 PM on February 20, 2010

Even if we end up cutting the original “creative beginning” of a novel or short story—the part of the novel or story, often, that we’re most attached to—this doesn’t mean it’s not an essential part of the writing process. In some ways, it’s the most essential. The same goes for titles, I think. I’ve heard students tell me they come up with their titles first, before they have the slightest notion of a plot. I see nothing wrong with this, so long as they’re willing to give up their “creative title” when it no longer serves the story.

I guess that explains Hot Tub Time Machine.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 6:16 PM on February 20, 2010

I have often thought that one can't improve upon "Golden Rapture" as a bodice-ripper title. Over the years I tired many times but failed.
posted by of strange foe at 6:46 PM on February 20, 2010

The Purely Descriptive: Big Spankable Asses.
posted by Dumsnill at 7:35 PM on February 20, 2010

One of the best critiques of a title I ever heard came in a college writing workshop -- one student observed of another's title that "...if I saw it in the table of contents of an anthology, it wouldn't make me want to read the story."

And now that's all I can think of when I try to find titles for things, because at the end of the day, that's what you want. I think this same person came up with a title for her own work that she nicked from a short story: "A Part Of Something Complete And Great", which I still love.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:44 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

There was an episode of Dinner for Five with Dave Eggers as a guest. He was seated next to Joe Pantoliano, who honestly had no idea who Eggers was, so he introduced himself. "Oh, you wrote a book? What's it called?"

"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."

And the camera just lingered for this perfect moment, the whole table silent, Joey Pants' cigar quietly smoldering, and I swear for just one second Eggers must have thought that his ass-kicking had finally arrived.
posted by steef at 8:01 PM on February 20, 2010 [6 favorites]

I've had a title in the back of my mind for YEARS.

Ahem

The 17 And A Half Daughters of J. P Hansen.
posted by The Whelk at 8:55 PM on February 20, 2010

I was always read a book with the word "naughty" in the title. Two-word titles are the best. Naughty Stewardesses. Naughty Sailors. Naughty Robot.

It just screams to be read. Oh, and I will read you, my naughty little paperback.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:17 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd read it, Whelk.
posted by rubah at 9:19 PM on February 20, 2010

Yeah, I have to disagree with a lot of this guy's "rules" about titles. But then, I think both of the previous titles to his novel were a lot better than "Model Home", so what do I know.

However, I will agree that "The Land of Underwater Birds" is a terrible title.
posted by Target Practice at 9:59 PM on February 20, 2010

Is there a reason that criticism and meta-commentary is almost always better than the original text that it's commenting on?
posted by destro at 10:25 PM on February 20, 2010

My all time favorite title is The Curve of Binding Energy.
posted by Bruce H. at 11:35 PM on February 20, 2010

I've never read the book, and for all I know it's quite good, but the title Five Quarters of the Orange makes me re-taste my lunch.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:00 AM on February 21, 2010

"Gladys Pemberton Strikes It Rich" is not a bad title.

Yes, it really is. For most stories it could describe, it's just... bland. It doesn't fit a book of any depth at all.

It could be good, if it were told from the point of view of a gossipy woman in a small town. "Why I Live at the P.O." style.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 7:25 AM on February 21, 2010

For a long time, I have been noticing lots of titles along these lines: "The _________'s Daughter." What is up with all the daughters in middlebrow fiction titles?

I also dislike the faux-poetic titles, such as "The Art of Racing in the Rain," "How to Breathe Underwater," etc.
posted by jayder at 9:32 AM on February 21, 2010

For a long time, I have been noticing lots of titles along these lines: "The _________'s Daughter." What is up with all the daughters in middlebrow fiction titles?

Wives too. Book clubs and reading circles are mostly populated by middle-aged women and the publishing industry has figured out just how many books they buy.
posted by 256 at 9:52 AM on February 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Looks like my new book title is Error establishing a database connection.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 4:43 PM on February 21, 2010