A Rose by Any Other Name?
Creating a title for your novel. Plus, library news.
I’m terrible at coming up with titles. A Reddit discussion on titles shows that I’m not the only one. I have a giggling admiration of anyone who can title their collection “Paul’s Glowing Balls.” There’s so much there. The literal glowing geodes, the weird double entendre describing Paul’s testicles.
I’m not that wacky. When I search for ‘How to come up with a title,” I get ideas for titling based on SEO. I’m told that SEO is all important for blog posts and internet articles. But the title of a novel is trickier. It must nod to the theme or to a major incident. The author hopes there will be an ah-ha moment for the reader.
With these thoughts in mind, I have tried a number of titles for the novel I’m currently revising. Here’s the quick description:
Two women, molested by the same predator as children, take divergent paths in healing that will pit them against one another in a battle over community morals. When high school teacher Margaret O’Rourke helps the lesbian daughter of a prominent conservative Christian, there’s hell to pay.
Of course, there’s a lot more to it: old friendships repaired, the protagonist’s fight against censorship at the high school where she works. I’ve had three titles that I thought were great.
Waterside Road: this is my first and my favorite. I know many novels are named after the street where the protagonist/major characters live, but that’s not what Waterside Road is. The waterside road is a road that runs along a river. It is the source of life for the community. If someone ‘poo-poos on the waterside road,’ they are going to poison the water source for the entire community. Metaphorically, a person who takes a dump on the waterside road does something that causes the whole community to suffer. That’s what the antagonist does in her fight to ban books. Even though a student explains what a waterside road is in the text, someone seeing a thumbnail of the book cover online would have no idea what the book is about.
Bookends: this feels like fun to me because the protagonist and the antagonist come from the same place and have the same childhood trauma, but they go in opposite directions to heal. and they have books between them, one fighting for access to the books, one fighting against. I also thought Book Ends would be a good title, nodding to the above but also noting that book bans bring the books to an end at the school. But then I figured that querying an agent with that title might cause them to reject me out of hand, thinking I don’t know how to spell ‘bookends.’
Promiscuous Reading: I like this because it can refer to promiscuous reading the way that John Milton did—wide reading on a variety of subjects, chosen perhaps casually without an agenda. It can also be the thing that the book banners are trying to eliminate, books with any sort of sexual content. When I recently workshopped the novel, the workshop leader felt the title might not be right because so much of the book is about relationships. Some of the participants loved it.
Feel free to shout out your favorite or make a suggestion in the comments. I’m also interested in how you solve your own title problem and whether you have a quick link to a helpful resource. What is the title of your novel and how does it connect to a theme or major event in they book?
Writer resources
Here are a few resources I want to pass along:
What I wish I knew before I got published From the TSNOTYAW podcast.
The 100 Rejections Club I mentioned last week has a free Substack
. Join other writers in our effort to achieve that 100 rejections this year in the hope of some acceptances. You are not alone!
Library Book Ban News
The Bad News
Schools, Libraries Could Face Charges For Books Deemed Controversial
‘Does that not make the point?’: Utah lawmaker cut off while reading from Sarah J. Maas book during book ban debate
“That means less than 10% of Utah school districts and charter schools combined could trigger a book’s statewide removal, opponents of the bill pointed out during the contentious committee hearing.”
The “I told you so” News (Isn’t this just what I’ve been saying?)
Library Association VP: More Trained Librarians Needed To Manage Book Challenges
The Good News
Courts now an ally in battle to stop book bans
What I’m reading
Before and After the Book Deal: : A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book. I’m not finished, so more on this next week.
Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy. I’m not done with this either, but it solves a POV problem that my writers’ workshop was discussing this week. Great forward movement in a story of murder and racism in a small mountain community in North Carolina.
Thanks for the Substack links to 100 Rejections Club! Something to consider with possible titles: What other published books have similar or the same words in the title or subtitle? On Bookshop.org, I found many books titled BOOKENDS (with and without subtitles), several niche publications with BOOK ENDS, and some risqué books called PROMISCUOUS READING, which was my fav. Though WATERSIDE ROAD doesn't float my boat (sounds kinda British historical fiction?), a good cover image could help convey the meaning. When you read the manuscript aloud, you might just hear some words that align with the themes of the old friendship repaired or relationships. Oh! I just plugged in "old friendship repaired" and "book bans" into an AI book title generator, which came up with: "Bridging the Pages: Rekindling Friendships in the Wake of Book Bans" (!?!) Too long, sounds like CNF, but BRIDGING THE PAGES could be useful? Good luck!
Titles are THE HARDEST. I just met with a few other women writers yesterday and suggested to all of them that they rethink their titles. Sometimes we need a title as a placeholder for ourselves that we become attached to but that doesn't serve the book. Each of those titles you suggested for your book have pros and cons. The Bookends/Book Ends titles seem to cutesy for the material. I also like Waterside Road but had no idea what that was until you explained. I definitely lean toward that one because it's more oblique but when you get it, you get it.