My titles usually arrive before the stories - I have whole lists of titles with no stories attached. *pout*
And some stories were written just so I could *use* a specific title.
Mostly, my titles come from lines of songs or poems or quotes or some variation thereof ("Such Corruptions Out of Such Sweet Things" is an inversion of a line from Walt Whitman). Sometimes they're directly related to the fic ("Razor's Edge," "Ladyfingers"), sometimes they're ridiculously oblique unless you're privy to my thought process.
When I first started writing fic, I was very much with the one-word titles, but they're very lacking in interest, so I try not to do that much anymore.
What about sharing story titles with a well-known author? So many fics out there. It has to happen more often than not
It's not the fact that the *author* is well-known so much as the *title* is - I had a story I was calling "Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart" (from a Stephen Crane poem), but I *knew* there was a well-known West Wing story with that title (and it turns out, an XF one and a BtVS one etc.), so even though my story wasn't West Wing, I changed the title before I posted (to "How Bitter a Thing" from er, As You Like It, iirc).
But I have stories called stuff like "Comfort" and "Confrontations" and "Enough" which are so generic I think many people would have used them.
If someone else wrote a story and called it "The Intimate Art of the Close Shave" or "Love in the Traffic-Choked Streets," I might be a little put out, because I thought those were pretty unique.
Otherwise, I'm pretty neutral on other people's titles. Summary, author and pairing are more likely to attract or repel my attention.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-07-18 11:39 am (UTC)And some stories were written just so I could *use* a specific title.
Mostly, my titles come from lines of songs or poems or quotes or some variation thereof ("Such Corruptions Out of Such Sweet Things" is an inversion of a line from Walt Whitman). Sometimes they're directly related to the fic ("Razor's Edge," "Ladyfingers"), sometimes they're ridiculously oblique unless you're privy to my thought process.
When I first started writing fic, I was very much with the one-word titles, but they're very lacking in interest, so I try not to do that much anymore.
What about sharing story titles with a well-known author? So many fics out there. It has to happen more often than not
It's not the fact that the *author* is well-known so much as the *title* is - I had a story I was calling "Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart" (from a Stephen Crane poem), but I *knew* there was a well-known West Wing story with that title (and it turns out, an XF one and a BtVS one etc.), so even though my story wasn't West Wing, I changed the title before I posted (to "How Bitter a Thing" from er, As You Like It, iirc).
But I have stories called stuff like "Comfort" and "Confrontations" and "Enough" which are so generic I think many people would have used them.
If someone else wrote a story and called it "The Intimate Art of the Close Shave" or "Love in the Traffic-Choked Streets," I might be a little put out, because I thought those were pretty unique.
Otherwise, I'm pretty neutral on other people's titles. Summary, author and pairing are more likely to attract or repel my attention.