Hi kigo!! (^-^) Hope you're doing okay, miss ya!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻 I have a question for you , and I'll send it as an ask so that anyone who has the same problem as me can benefit from the answer.
How do you come up with a title for your fics? 😭 is there any rule you go by, like i dunno, taking a quote from the work itself? I have the plot ideas, I write the fic, and then, I stare at my draft, wondering what title I should give it 😓🥲In my notes app I currently have one fic titled 'Fanfic' (very creative ik) and the other one is 'FREAK FREAK FREAK' to remind me it's the one with smut 😭 All your fics have really good titles and I was wondering if there's any sort of secret to figuring out something that fits‼️
I genuinely cannot sleep but I’m deadass so tired so I MUST answer this ask. I MISSSS YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU 🥹❤️❤️❤️. Freak freak freak is so iconic and actually also a good title imo 😭. (I’m very much looking forward to that fic, nudge nudge nudge) Also!! I’m flattered you think my titles are good, those are gotten from hours of migraine and looking around thesaurus and the dictionary 😭
EXPLANATION BELOW ->
THERES NO SECRET!!!
Writing is like mechanical work, on the outside it looks nice, but on the inside it’s greasy or straight to the point.
if I have to be honest I’m also terrible at naming fics as well, there are times where I genuinely couldn’t post becuase of not liking the title I currently got. But sometimes it’s the complete opposite where I got a banger title but an ass draft. Sometimes I just scroll to my fic and just find ONE pretty word I can use, and use it 😭
That said I think you got one way, i usually find titles and it’s a quote from the fic but tweaked. But my general rule of thumb (in my opinion) is that a title doesn’t usually have to be over the top cool. I personally find a phrase or words that summarizes the entire story. And you could use thesaurus to find banger and vibrant synonyms!!
Examples and some thought process behind some titles, so you get the gist of my method.
obvious titles
1) mergers and acquisitions (uhh it’s obvious it’s about mergers and acquisitions + them fucking)
2) strawberry milk (higu fic) becuase strawberry milk is the inciting point of the story where reader gives him a milk carton and then yearning begins
3) my least favorite is mama and papa porcupine title for my new series but it grew on me and it’s also kind of cute. also meant that titles usually doesn’t have to be short too, and could be long as hell
4) my fic, still in the drafts, is about Sherlock getting seduced by a singer in 1940s au and liking it, the title is ‘audience for two’ and it’s currently my favorite title haha. the way I got this title is so simple 💀 audience because singer sings to an audience, and two becuase there’s Sherlock and reader BUT fun thing is, audience for two can also mean another thing, where a situation is only exposed to two people (ahem, fucking, ahem)
less obvious/ as in not objects, quotes from the story
—my favorite way of titling fics becuase it’s genuinely fun to find idioms or phrases
1) my favorite title is ‘burn the midnight oil’ acd Sherlock fic because the phrase itself means you gotta work hard to get something and I’ve been wanting my entire life to use this phrase as a title and FINALLY
2) for better or for worse (fic is about higu and reader’s marriage, about them going through thick and thin) not explicitly stated in the story BUT it summarizes the entire conflict (my favorite title)
3) ‘devil’s advocate’ — Higuruma’s role in the story, and ‘HIMAWARI’ quite literally sunflower but Japanese.
4) my medical fic midnight blues doesn’t have any relation to the story, but the reason why I chose this title is because when I was writing the fic, I always imagined the visuals/imagery of my fic to be in a blue tint sort of grading, that’s why I chose this phrase
how I write titles
1) idioms/phrases/ words relating to the story, that either summarizes the story, or is an important objects/or aspect of the story
,my favorite way to do this is just go through pages and pages of idioms becuase those are genuinely so good as titles, they’re punchy, double meanings,
, play around with alliteration, three word/sentence structure, verbs, descriptive words, and you’ll find a title in no time!!!
,motifs, imagery, repetition,sequence (Here, and The Other) example of a title I whipped out of my ass, every word in the English language is a must use!! Even articles!!! Even adverbs!! Even your grandma’s basement!!
— best way to do ask to find a title is, what is the entire gist of the story? if you could, try to find several words to summarize it
— when you read your fic, what word or imagery keeps popping up?
