Survey: What should I name this book?
a year ago
Possible titles for a story (here's an excerpt) that I've been working on lately:
1. The Rabbit Made of Light Does Something Clever
2. The Rabbit Made of Light And His Box of Bored Gods
3. Five Bored Gods in a Small Box
4. The Bunny on the Screen Tries to Fix Everything
5. The Rabbit Made of Light Breaks His Toys
6. The Monsters of Petals' Palace
7. The Brainchildren of Papa Petals
8. You're a Jerk, Rumbleroy Rabbit
9. Life-Like Responses
It's a classic "too many ideas, no way to know which will work" scenario. After two months of working on this thing (and probably at least several more before I'm even close to done, this thing's getting huuuuuge and that scares me), I'm too involved to have any idea which of these titles (if any) will seem cool and/or appeal to the curiosity of others. (Especially others who are oblivious to the deeper meanings in most of those titles.)
So, eventually (or now) I'm going to have to focus-group this stuff. Opinions please!
1. The Rabbit Made of Light Does Something Clever
2. The Rabbit Made of Light And His Box of Bored Gods
3. Five Bored Gods in a Small Box
5. The Rabbit Made of Light Breaks His Toys
6. The Monsters of Petals' Palace
7. The Brainchildren of Papa Petals
8. You're a Jerk, Rumbleroy Rabbit
9. Life-Like Responses
It's a classic "too many ideas, no way to know which will work" scenario. After two months of working on this thing (and probably at least several more before I'm even close to done, this thing's getting huuuuuge and that scares me), I'm too involved to have any idea which of these titles (if any) will seem cool and/or appeal to the curiosity of others. (Especially others who are oblivious to the deeper meanings in most of those titles.)
So, eventually (or now) I'm going to have to focus-group this stuff. Opinions please!
One thing I've learned; Titles can be hard. They must sum up with simplicity, yet not be cryptic about their meaning. Sometimes, the perfect one just has to hit you at the exact moment during the creative process.
Why, right in front of me are three simple examples:
- Super Mario Maker. - So... this is a Mario property. It's the one where people make things. And... it's super. (I guess.)
- The Maze... of the Kings. - Guessing a game about running mazes made by kings. At least that is my guess.
- Star Wars. - Two words that powered an empire of a series and a main stay of eternal fans.
A lot of the other items on my list are intentionally slightly cryptic; most of them refer to metaphors used within the story (with varying degrees of importance). The intent there is that I'm hoping someone will start reading just to find out what exactly a phrase like "Made of Light" or "Something Clever" or "Box of Bored Gods" actually means.
Some of those title ideas probably could be simplified a bit.