How To Come Up With A Cool Title

I don’t like coming up with titles. It’s not my gift. But a great title can make a huge difference in the success of your book. Here are some strong titles from my bookshelf:

To Kill a Mockingbird
A Wrinkle in Time
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Cinder
The Help
Redeeming Love
Ella Enchanted
Mistborn
Legally Blonde
A Walk to Remember
The Silence of Murder
The Book Thief
The Hunger Games
Miss Congeniality
The Secret Garden
Stormbreaker
The Maze Runner
Ender’s Game

I could go on and on.

All these titles say something about the story behind the cover. Many also hint at the genre. The Silence of Murder, for example, is about a girl whose brother is accused of murder, but he is unable to communicate what happened that night, which makes the title deeper. And with the word “murder” in the title, it’s pretty clear that it’s a mystery or suspense novel. The title To Kill a Mockingbird comes from a discussion in the story itself when Atticus likens Tom’s murder to the senseless slaughter of innocent birds. In Mistborn, Vin is a mistborn, so that title not only sounds like a fantasy story, it is a description of Vin’s abilities.

I’ve been brainstorming my next epic fantasy for a while now. I’ve been calling it Land’s End. I thought that title was perfect since it matches the story, though I did wonder if it was a problem that Lands’ End was already a clothing catalog.

My agent said yes. It was not good. Whenever I said the title, all she could think about was contemporary women’s clothing.

Rats.

So I set about brainstorming a new title. Here’s what I did.

First, I thought over some of the themes, the magic, the character’s roles in the book, etc. and brainstormed a list of words. Ex: prince, Kingsguard, land, end, root, omatta, destruction, nature, betrayal, blind, kidnapping, etc.

Second, I picked what I liked from the above list (which was root) and played around on Amazon.com and IMDB.com, looking for titles with the word “root” in them. I also looked up quotes about roots. This gave me some new possibilities for titles. Ex: Root of Arman, Roots, Deep Roots, Omatta, Omatta Root, The Deep Roots of the Omatta Tree, Deep as Omatta Roots, Rooted, Root of the Problem, Digging Deep, Root of Magic, Root of Lies, Root of Evil, Root of Destruction, etc.

For some reason, I kept saying Evenroot. I liked the sound of it. I thought it was the name of the little dragonfly in The Rescuers, so I looked it up. Turns out his name is Evinrude. So I was thinking, sweet! I can use Evenroot. Though I still didn’t know why I wanted to. I did think that omatta (the magical root in my story) was a little too weird of a name for a title. But maybe I could change the name of my root. Then I had a revelation. In my Blood of Kings series, the Evenwall is what separates light from darkness. So I started searching my binders and piles of notes to find out where on earth I came up with Evenwall. I couldn’t. I have no idea. But I did find Aven in the Hebrew dictionary. It means to exert oneself in vain; to come to naught; nothingness; trouble, vanity, wickedness; and in a deeper sense characterizes the way of life for those who are without God.

Well, I thought that worked mighty well for my magical root. Way back whenever, I must have, somehow, gotten Evenwall from aven. And since these books are loosely related, I figured that Evenroot worked just fine.

So for now, I’m calling my new book Evenroot. It might not be the actual title, but it’s a far better title than Land’s End. (Even though I still like that one. Silly mail order catalog, anyway…)

Whether or not you have a gift for coming up with a catchy title, it’s important to do your best. Here are some tips you can use in coming up with a title of your own.

1. Brainstorm words that encompass the theme, plot, situation, tone, characters, magic, etc. in your book.
2. Are there any words in your list that could work as a single-word title?
3. Play around with word combinations from your list to see if you can find something you like. Can you find a play on words? Offer a sense of what the story is about? Use rhetoric in some way?
4. Look for important phrases in your story. Sometimes you can take a title right from words in your book like “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
5. Look up quotes, or movie or book titles with your words. Can you put a twist on a famous quote or title?
6. Once you’ve narrowed it down to some favorites, make sure to check that there aren’t any famous stories that already use that title. I liked Roots, but there was a famous novel by Alex Haley and, later, miniseries based on the novel with that title. Yes, Roots was a different genre. It’s historical fiction about slavery. But it’s still so very famous, I didn’t think it worked to have the same title for my fantasy novel.
7. Test your titles by asking friends, family, or critique partners for their opinion. Remember, though, it’s your title, so you have final say. Also remember that if you’re seeking traditional publishing, the publisher will have final say. And many times it’s a blessing to have their professional help.

Do you have trouble coming up with titles? If not, what tricks do you use to come up with them?