So, you’ve got a cool idea for a book. Or, maybe, you’ve just finished spending months or years of your life pouring your ingenious idea out of your head and down onto paper. You’ve shed tears, bashed your head against the wall and finally, finally nailed down a satisfying character arc. You’re ready to share your baby with the world!

There’s just one problem.

You don’t have a title.

Your baby, is nameless.

You can’t start bragging about – I mean, showing it – to people until you come up with a name. But, you’re a writer! How can you be expected to perfectly encapsulate the epic highs and lows of your definitely-over-the-minimum-word-count baby in just a few words? Or worse, one word?

It takes you paragraphs and countless pages to paint a picture.! Trying to downsize your epic idea for the back blurb was bad enough, but now you’re expected to downsize it again?

Before you turn your anxiousness into a full-blown panic spiral, I want you to listen to me: breathe. It’s going to be okay.

I’m going to tell you some hopefully helpful tips that have helped me in my titling-things journey.

Sit back, relax, and take a read.

1. Don’t Overthink It

I know, I know, ‘titles are the first impression of your book anyone will get! The title is how people find/recommend/talk about your book to others!‘

Listen, I’m not saying that titles aren’t important. What I’m saying, is that getting all twisted up in knots over finding one perfect word or phrase is only going to drive you insane. Obsessing over it will only actually stall the process and get you more frustrated – not solve the problem.

Take a breath, slow down, relax.

You can’t poop out a good title, and trying to force one out when your brain isn’t in the right state either won’t get you anywhere, or worse, will saddle you with a title you actively hate. But then you’ll be stuck because you can’t think of a good title because now you’re so twisted up with fear and panic and there’s no more time before your deadline…

That wouldn’t do anyone any good, so I need you to close your laptop.

Yes, I’m serious.

Go for a walk, watch a movie, call a friend, vacuum, do your laundry, paint your lawn – I don’t care. Just go do anything other than staring at your untitled work. Try to take your mind off it. Give your subconscious time to mull things over, and then come back to it in a few hours, or hell, even a few days. (Assuming your deadline allows that)

2. Try Picking a Title First

Leaving titles to the last minute was something I used to do all the time back when I was in school. I thought they were so important, they deserved the most amount of my attention, and how could you properly title something if you weren’t finished writing it, anyway?

If you’ve been a writer for any length of time, you know why that line of thinking is dangerous.

Instead of taking all the time I needed to focus on finding the perfect title, I ended up scrambling at the last second to not-hand-in something with a shit/clearly-last-minute title like Story for English 37, or worse, Untitled.

To avoid spinning my wheels in the last few minutes before a deadline, I started making myself title the short stories we had to write for English class first. Before I was allowed to write one word of the story that was already forming inside my head, I had to title it. The page would stay blank until I thought of a title.

And, do you want to know what I discovered?

Titles came to me a lot faster than when I used to leave them until the end!

By forcing myself to think of a title first, I had managed to hack my brain into not-over-thinking because of my eagerness to get passed that part and actually start getting the story out of me.

It sounds fake, I know – I thought that it would stall all my work forever when I first came up with it – but just, trust me.

Try it and you might be surprised how well it works.

What have you got to lose by trying it just once? Either it’ll work, or you’ll be stuck in the exact same title-less boat you’re in now.

3. You Can Always Change The Title Later

I know generally for marketing purposes, people don’t like when things change their name. You’ve spent time, money and effort into getting this one name recognized, why would you want to tear that all down by changing it’s name?

Well, just like editing your book, you are in charge!

If the title you chose just no longer feels right, you can absolutely change it! Call it a second edition, an update, the Author’s Version, whatever – if you don’t like the title, you have the power to change it.

Sure, resubmitting for a new ISBN and/or a new copyright patent might be annoying, but isn’t a small annoyance a small price to pay for you to have a title that you’re actually happy – and, dare I say – proud of?

Also, sometimes just knowing that changing something is on the table can bring a kind of relief to your brain. Just like knowing cancelling plans is on the table, it might give your brain the little break it needs to actually slow down and breathe.

This isn’t a runaway train, you can stop, rewind and change directions at any time.

Do you want to know something funny?

Since I started telling myself changing the title was an option, I’ve never actually felt the need to.

I don’t know if it’s because my subconscious secretly picks something that works based on the story that’s already in my head, if all my ideas are just easy to find titles for, or hell, maybe I’m just insane enough I can find the logic in any title I end up picking – but I’ve never once actually gone back and changed a title once I’d already picked it and finished writing.

Ever.

4. Your Title Can Be Anything

A random word, a line from a song you were listening to when you were writing it, an in-joke, your favourite colour, your dog’s name… There’s no rule that says your title has to perfectly encapsulate everything your book is trying to say in one word or phrase.

Hell, there’s not even a rule that says it has to be on-theme at all!

Just look at some emo/alt songs! Over half of them are really long lines ripped from poems that appear to have nothing to do with the actual subject matter. And a lot of them are still great hits and beloved by millions!

Don’t believe me?

Look up some of these song’s lyrics the next time you have a few minutes to kill:

All Time Low:

• Keep The Change You Filthy Animal

• Get Down On Your Knees and Tell Me You Love Me

• The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver

• The Girl’s a Straight Up Hustler

Panic! At The Disco:

• Build God, Then We’ll Talk

• I Constantly Thank God for Esteban

• I Write Sins, Not Tragedies

• Lying Is The Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off

• Nearly Witches

• She’s a Handsome Woman

• The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage

• There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered, Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet

Yes, those are all real songs and their actual titles.

Granted, you can argue some of the above titles match the general vibe or do match the over-all theme of the songs, if you squint and tilt your head a little. But the rest? Don’t match at all – and that’s okay!

A matching title isn’t a requirement for people to enjoy your work. Sure, it can be beneficial to have a title match the themes of the work, but hey, we’re crazy creative types, right?

Our ideas can’t always be confined to conventional rules.

Also, sometimes you can pick a title that you know is relevant, but other people won’t ‘get’ it right away – that’s okay, too!

Not every book is meant for every reader. It might take you some time to find your true audience, but I promise the readers who do get it, will love it!

Back in high school, one of my English teacher’s submitted one of the short stories I’d written for class to one of the writing contest things they had. A different teacher was in charge of gathering the submissions and organizing them into a collections book, so we’d have something to take home and marvel over one of our stories was in print.

What I didn’t know until I was handed the book and asked to read my story outloud to the group, was that that teacher had apparently not only changed the title, but she’d also rewritten a few of the sentences and changed one of the character’s names!

Needless to say, I was not happy.

I asked her after the presentation part, and she flippantly told me she didn’t understand the title I’d chosen, and thought the one she’d chose ‘fit the material better’. She said absolutely nothing about the other edits she made.

My English teacher had found me a little after that and she asked me about the story. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but it was something like, ‘your voice seemed a little… lost, in this one. Is everything alright?‘ I told her what happened and then asked if she wanted to read the original – which I had on me because that notebook never left my bag – she agreed, read it and then told me she was confused as to why the teacher felt the need to change the elements she did!

I still have no idea why she changed them, either.

At least the title I could kind of see – it was a little bit of an in-joke between me and my English teacher – but it also actually goes with an element of the story! It’s not an overtly obvious element, unless you really like numbers, but it goes nonetheless.

I don’t understand why she didn’t just ask me to explain if she didn’t understand, or at least give me a heads up that she would be changing elements!

Anyway, if anyone would like to read that original short story, I published it – exactly as I intended – in my book First Try. It’s the short story titled 500.

If you don’t understand the title, I’ll understand. No hard feelings. I know what it means and the people I actually wrote it for know what it means, and that’s enough for me.

And hey, who knows? Maybe one day you will get it, and then you’ll end up gaining a deeper appreciation for it.

Just like your audience might with your not-on-the-nose title.

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