Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Title Block

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name . . . America. Okay, I love that song. I love that album. Ah, the memories . . .

But, this post isn't about a favorite song from my quickly fading youth. Oy! Okay, my youth's really not fading quickly . . . I hope.

This post is about a project I started a year ago . . . and haven't titled. That's right, there's no snappy title for this project. I have - gasp, the horrors - title block!! Ha!

For the life of me, I cannot come up with a title for this manuscript. Nothing. Nada. Zip!

I haven't had this problem before. Oh, I've changed titles on projects many times. That's fairly easy to do . . . because I had a starting title.

This time . . . nope, nada, nothing, zippo, zilch!! No title. No clue for the title. No nothing.

Title block.

My belief - hopefully not mistaken - is that, in time, a brilliant title will come to me.

If it doesn't . . . well, I can see the opening line of the query now: My untitled project is complete at ## words.

Uh-huh, a lead balloon has a better chance of flying than an agent has of not laughing his/her head off and sending me a response email that says AUTO-REJECT!

So, hopefully, somewhere in the nether reaches of my slightly depraved mind, the brain cells plan to synapse sometime in the near future so I'll come up with a title.

S

5 comments:

Lemur said...

I know where you're coming from. On my novel in progress, I'm just calling it after the main character until inspiration strikes.

Another writer friend of mine says that the title is usually somewhere in the body of the work. So you might look over your ms. and see if you can find some phrase that strikes you. Much luck!

The CRITTER Project and Naked Without A Pen

Barb said...

For me this is one of those situations that when I leave it alone, and stop thinking about it, it will come and gently land on me - a bit like a ladybug.

It will come.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Aww, sometimes titling your work can be the hardest part! I've never struggled with titles, really, but I have writing friends who have. It can be a toughie! You can always put up a list of options and have us vote. :)

Scott said...

@Lemur – I keep looking within the MS, but no luck so far. Maybe during the edit process.

@Barb – hmmmm, I wrote the rough a year ago, set it aside, thought about it off and on since then and . . . no luck, but, maybe through the edit process.

@Michelle – great suggestion, but . . . first I’d have to come up with titles, and I’m totally blocking on this one. I rarely block on titles. Most times, I have the title first and then go from there. Not on this one. Ha!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Awww, yeah, I meant if you do come up with some. I hope you do!