Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Titles or Character Names, Which is Harder to Come Up With?

I still have not joined the Insecure Writers Support Group, but today on other members's blogs, I saw the question of the month:

IWSG Day Question: What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?

Anyone who has read my blog recently will know that I have been trying to come up with a title for my current work. One suggestion I'd gotten was Smile, but then I alerted the person who suggested that one of this book:





I could use that title myself, but it would just be too confusing to have two different books aimed at similar age groups with the same title with a similar storyline. I have also toyed with the analogy "behind bars" for the title, but have since decided against that one since it can be misleading (though the phrase is used in the book). 

I have decided to list some of the titles I came up with and some that were suggested:

The Truth About My Teeth
Getting Wired
The Tale of My Teeth
The Truth About Being a Metal Mouth
My Teeth: My Whole Teeth and Nothing But My Teeth
My Teeth Make Me Me*
The Tracks of My Teeth*
Confessions of a Metal Mouth*
 (* titles suggested by others)





As for character names, sometimes I have a hard time coming up with any, but other times I have one in mind almost immediately. Yet many times, I ask myself how I chose any particular name. I've had an obsession for the name Bob for so long, but have done my best to avoid overuse of that one, in this instance relegating it to the name of the old man across the street. I've been questioning myself on how I chose Martin as the name of the protagonist of my WIP. I'm just not sure how I chose that one. Or Roderick  and Everett for some classmates of his, and Jana and Janelle as twin classmates. Not to mention the names of the three mean girls--Rebecca, Sarah, and Natasha. How many of you have asked yourself how you chose any particular character name?

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3 comments:

Cherie Reich said...

I like the title Confessions of a Metal Mouth. Good luck finding a title!

Elephant's Child said...

Titles would be very, very hard for me.
Somehow the characters name themselves...

The Cynical Sailor said...

Great title ideas! My fave is "Confessions of a Metal Mouth." It would make me want to pick up the book and check it out.