Title Angst

Titles.

They make me all adlkjslijsiou daufcsvhshflcj

I am not a writer who’s ever been good at titling my works. Even in my fanfiction days, I struggled to title the fics I posted most of the time.

I settled with APPARENT for my manuscript. It’s not a title I’ve ever really loved.

I think it works on some levels, but it’s not… it’s just not. And of course, I always have THIS conversation when I talk about it:

Other person: What’s your book called?

Me: Apparent

Them: A parent? Like a mom or dad? Oh, so is it like lit fiction about being a single parent or something?

Me: Um. No. Not exactly. It’s A-P-P-A-R-E-N-T. And it’s a young adult fantasy.

Them: Oh.

A beat.

Them: Is that like porn for teens?

*headdesk*

I want a GOOD title. Something that conveys my genre. Something that has the FEEL of my book, BUT doesn’t give stuff away. AND OH MY GOD IT FEELS IMPOSSIBLE.

The good news is I found this post from Carina Press about an exercise to try to title your book. I’m not there yet, but I think the brainstorming is helping. Hopefully I’ll have some sort of epiphany.

But I mean… if anyone has ideas… I’m open to them.