I’m reaching the stage in my manuscript where a title would
be useful. I know it’s not essential, but it would help me.
I could go down the Harry Potter or Jane Eyre route. Both characters are expertly named. Harry’s is an ordinary
name for a far-from-ordinary boy. Jane sounds plain, with a touch of something
extra in the surname, just like the heroine. In Rebecca it takes the entire book to find out what Rebecca was
really like; at the same time we never learn the first name of her successor.
Clever!
A more oblique way of naming a
book for a character is found in The
Woman in White. We meet her at the beginning of the story; she is pivotal
to the plot, but it takes most of the book to find out why. In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the title alludes
to the notion that although the tenant is central to the story, no one knows
anything about her.
My story is about two people and so they should both be in the title. Romeo and Juliet works for Shakespeare,
but probably not for me. Perhaps I could use The Prince and Pauper idea,
but my main characters are not so easily categorised.
I could take my inspiration from Pride and Prejudice. Angry and Stubborn?
No, I need alliteration. Snappy and Snotty? Artful and Ardent? I’d better keep
thinking.
The 39 Steps is an important clue to solving the mystery. Do I have
three or four words that are key to my story? I don’t think so. Austen, Adams
and Eliot went for place names – Mansfield
Park, Watership Down, Middlemarch. Kellerthrale is an important place in
this story. Kellerthrale? Does that work?
How about taking an important
object from the story like The Silver
Sword. I do have something I could use, but if I give it away in the title
it may spoil the read.
House of Cards is what I would call a clever title. It describes
the book perfectly while giving nothing away. On the other hand My Family and Other Animals tells us
everything about the book and yet I am still inspired to pick it up. Oh! for a
title like, To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men. Perhaps I’m simply not clever
enough.
I’ve just discovered there are
entire websites dedicated to finding titles, which is heart warming. I am not
the only one who struggles. Perhaps I should take a look.
I may take some time.
