Why am I so bad at titles? Honestly, I suck at it. Truly. I also sucked at headlines when I was a journalist, which made sub-editing a difficult process (not helped by the fact you had to fit the headlines into a certain space, and could only use a limited range of font size…)
Ah, but I am digressing. I think titles are important – they are part of the information that an author gives the reader about what is happening in the novel, and can even give clues as to genre and so on. I wonder if maybe I should put more effort into the title earlier in the process of the novel, so that it gives me a strong theme on which to think as I write. Battle for Odana came relatively early in the process of that novel (during draft one, in fact) and it really helped me with the re-write. On the other hand, I didn’t come up with Love in Control as a title for book one of Balance of Power until I was getting to the “this is getting ready to give to readers” stage. Both titles work equally well for the books. But again, the title of the trilogy is there – Balance of Power – and it’s helping to guide the development of the series…
This book, the sequel to Love in Control, isn’t at the ‘getting ready to read stage’, so I’m not sure I know it well enough to title it, yet maybe I should come up with a title in order to direct my writing. I’ll keep musing on that – my muse has been good at eventually giving me the answer lately.
Otherwise, the novel is coming along well and I wish I had more time to work on it (damn you, life!). In the past three weeks, I’ve added 20,000 words to it and it’s getting to a very exciting, tension packed part of the book. I’m working hard to hide certain information from the readers, while giving them clues to try and work it out themselves. I’ve got the couple back together again, but there’s still things to be resolved before they can finally pledge their love and live happily ever after. And meanwhile, I’m slowly but surely planning the major climax, which is going to involve something so mega-cool, I can’t wait to write it!
And I’ve been enjoying the fact that my brain is turned onto this, and any time I’m facing a problem, it’s coming up with an answer within a day or so, so the momentum isn’t stopping. The subjectivity and objectivity I spoke of in an earlier post are really working hand-in-hand at the moment and it’s an intriguing and enjoyable process.