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2013-08-12 06:11 4022964 Anonymous (book-with-title-md.png 288x298 21kB)
I've written a novel and the next draft is the submission draft. I'm having trouble naming the thing. Which is the better title? "Nocturnes of the Lost Country" "A Cup of Trembling" "The Dead Cry Out in Ink and Flame" "Tales Devised to Scare" Thanks.

0 min later 4022968 Anonymous
first one

1 min later 4022971 Anonymous
>>4022964 Depends what it's about Those are all pretty shit but trembling is least bad

3 min later 4022973 mrthrills
>>4022971 This. What's the story about, OP? All those titles are pretty awful.

7 min later 4022980 Anonymous
Lost Country Tales but you can't even come up with a good title so don't bother finishing it

10 min later 4022992 Anonymous
>>4022968 >>4022971 >>4022973 Thanks. I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with one. Please pick one before reading the below, because I figure you should judge a title without knowing what the book's about: The book's about a comic book studio in the early 1950s and the end of the Golden Age of Comic Books with the Comic Book Scare of 1954. The narrator is the scripter for the horror title, "Tales Devised to Scare."

14 min later 4023003 Anonymous
>>4022992 Definitely "The Dead Cry Out in Ink and Flame".

14 min later 4023004 Anonymous
>>4022964 The last one is the best because it's a little distanced and shit

14 min later 4023006 Anonymous
>>4023003 You don't think it's melodramatic? I just put that one up as a joke mostly...

16 min later 4023010 Anonymous
>>4022992 Now I want to call it Tales of tales devised to scare

19 min later 4023020 Anonymous
>>4023004 >>4023010 The downside with that one is it'll make you think it's a collection of horror stories. Sure, the book includes 7 scripts for horror strips, but the rest of the book is literary historical fiction. I don't want to give people the wrong impression.

19 min later 4023022 mrthrills
>>4023010 Maybe something like "Writing Scary Comics"?

21 min later 4023026 Anonymous
>>4023020 No Read my suggestion again

22 min later 4023028 Anonymous
>>4023022 Sounds like nonfiction.

22 min later 4023030 Anonymous
>>4023026 Tales of Tales Devised to Scare sounds mad dumb though.

28 min later 4023046 Anonymous
>>4023020 if your writing is so wack it will make people think of shitty goosebump stories then deal with it this is by far the best title

34 min later 4023069 Anonymous
>>4023046 Hey, Goosbumps is what introduced me to trashy horror. This book is inspired by EC comics, the guys who put out Tales from the Crypt. The script chapters are pastiches of those sorts of stories, but with imagery tied to the surrounding historical text and the personal lives of the writers and artists. The title works on a metaphorical level, too. The novel is about the nature of the horror genre, i.e. tales devised to scare, the many forms of everyday fear, and the book itself is also a cautionary story about moral panics and political correctness.

44 min later 4023106 Anonymous
The score so far: "Nocturnes of the Lost Country" 1 "A Cup of Trembling" 2 "The Dead Cry Out in Ink and Flame" 1 "Tales Devised to Scare" 3

45 min later 4023110 Anonymous
>"Nocturnes of the Lost Country" Best. >"A Cup of Trembling" Awful. >"The Dead Cry Out in Ink and Flame" Overkill. >"Tales Devised to Scare" Sounds like a Garth Marenghi novel.

52 min later 4023122 Anonymous
>>4023110 I like "Nocturnes of the Lost Country" because "nocturnes" sort of refers to the horror stories themselves as well as the text in general, and "the lost country" is a reference to Shakespeare's "undiscovered country" from Hamlet, which is a metaphor for death, and by extension the future, while I think "the lost country" refers to the past (i.e. the 1950s), the narrator's childhood, as well as a country that lost its way, with the moral panics and all. Anyway, that's the thinking behind that one.

2 hours later 4023262 Anonymous
Bumping in the hopes of garnering additional responses.

3 hours later 4023515 Anonymous
Another bump and I'll be back later. Thanks to everyone who has offered advice so far.

3 hours later 4023560 Anonymous
I have used shitty titles for everything I've ever written. My favorites so far are "Chisinau, City of Techno Fever" and "Girls Nite Out: A Re-Imagining of Xena: Warrior Princess." inb4 "lel so RANDUMB XD"

6 hours later 4023963 Anonymous
Current score: "Nocturnes of the Lost Country" 2 "A Cup of Trembling" 2 "The Dead Cry Out in Ink and Flame" 1 "Tales Devised to Scare" 3

7 hours later 4024097 Anonymous
Sigh. I guess I'll just keep the working title "Tales Devised to Scare" and come up with a better title for the final draft...

7 hours later 4024101 Anonymous
Those titles almost made me throw up OP I can guarantee, without reading a single word, that it's absolute trash

7 hours later 4024112 Anonymous
>>4024101 Well that's not fair. These are working titles and I admit there really isn't a good one among them, which is why I came here in all humility, asking for suggestions. There's no reason to be nasty.

7 hours later 4024118 Anonymous
>>4024112 Not being 'nasty', being realistic

7 hours later 4024129 Anonymous
>>4024118 Nah, you're being a big meanie. You can tell from the sage. Loosen up.

7 hours later 4024134 Anonymous
>>4024129 Would you mind posting an excerpt? I read the blurb you included, but it's hard to really get in to the minutiae of titling works without reading some of the stuff. I promise not to judge your writing.

7 hours later 4024136 Anonymous
>>4024129 not him but stop being a child

7 hours later 4024140 Anonymous
The Dead Tales: Cry of the Lost Country (in a Cup of Trembling Scare).

7 hours later 4024145 mrthrills
Hey OP, an idea: Instead of "Nocturnes of the Lost Country" why not >Lost Country Nocturnes Or instead of "The Dead Cry Out in Ink and Flame" why not >Ink and Flame What do you guys think?

7 hours later 4024154 Anonymous
>>4024134 Yeah, sure. You can judge it if you want. I'd appreciate any advice. >>4024136 When someone's being irrationally hostile and negative without contributing anything constructive, it's best to just call them a big nasty meanie pants. Doing so lets them know they're not being taken seriously and maybe should either lighten up or get lost.

7 hours later 4024160 Anonymous
>>4024140 I like it. It says everything I want to say haha. >>4024145 Thanks. >Lost Country Nocturnes That sounds less pretentious, but it makes me think of country music. >Ink and Flame I thought about that, but I googled it and that phrase is used by all kinds of things, like literary magazines.

7 hours later 4024164 mrthrills
>>4024160 >>4024160 How 'bout just "Trembling" then?

8 hours later 4024177 Anonymous (ugh.jpg 1662x816 486kB)
Excerpt. (Sorry it's not very good. It's a work in progress.)

8 hours later 4024186 Anonymous
>>4024164 I don't know. I don't like one-word titles. That word ties in well to the themes, though. The "Cup of Trembling" title is a biblical reference and is just ripped off from the short story "Sonny's Blues," though.

8 hours later 4024188 Anonymous
>>4024177 Reading and thinking, be back in 20 or so.

8 hours later 4024189 Anonymous
>>4024177 inb4 >1st person >protagonist is a writer >fedora Also I'm going to fix the two uses of the term "mob" being used so close together. It's a pretty awful opening and I think I might just drop it altogether anyway. :/

8 hours later 4024192 Anonymous
>>4024177 What program did you use for this?

8 hours later 4024196 Anonymous (more ugh.jpg 1838x1682 890kB)
>>4024177 Here's a bit more. >>4024192 Just took a screenshot of my OpenOffice editor. It's a pain to set up columns though.

8 hours later 4024216 Anonymous
>>4024177 >First sentence >Passive voice Into the fucking trash it goes.

8 hours later 4024223 Anonymous
>>4023122 AWFUL

8 hours later 4024230 Anonymous
>>4024177 don't capitalize "Big One" that's incredibly cheesy if you weren't a part of that generation (unless you can mimic the voice of someone who was, which you can't)

8 hours later 4024239 Anonymous
>>4024196 Ok, well based on what I read of that, I think the closest out of your ideas would simply be "The Lost Country"- Drop Nocturnes, it sounds bad and like you're trying to be edgy. Also, you say it's about the comic book industry and specifically a horror comic, so venture in that direction a little more, explore some of the vocabulary that they use that could be relevant to a title. The only suggestion I could think of on my own are still pretty garbage, but I'll post them anyway. "Faded Ink" "Empty Panels" "Drawing Board" Like I said, they're still pretty bad, maybe even worse than yours, but I have trouble thinking of titles for things I didn't write. Hope this helps

8 hours later 4024244 Anonymous
They're all shit, but how are we supposed to know without having read it?

8 hours later 4024249 Anonymous
>>4024216 Are you sure that's passive voice? I didn't think it was. Do you mean the "I caught" clause? >>4024230 How do you think I could I make it more authentic? >>4024239 Thanks. There was one technical term I came across that I thought might make a good title, but I forget what it was. I'll have to look it up again.

8 hours later 4024259 Anonymous
>>4024244 Titles are a first impression kind of thing. I'm trying to gauge reactions for some titles from people who don't really know what the book's about, which I think are valid in themselves.

8 hours later 4024268 Anonymous
>>4024249 >Are you sure that's passive voice? Decidedly so. I generally shy away from making my first sentence meandering as well. Clear, concise, and poignant - that's how I start 'em.

9 hours later 4024273 Anonymous
>>4024256 Yeah, I thought it's a bit pretentious, too.

9 hours later 4024284 Anonymous
>>4024239 How about "Emanata" as a title? Means "the lines drawn around the head to indicate shock or surprise," but it's a term from the '80s.

9 hours later 4024305 Anonymous (Trade Paper Back Box Office Poison (2001) - Page 115.jpg 1024x1664 369kB)
>>4024268 Yeah something punchier could work a lot better. Thanks. Oh yeah, and "morgue shots" was the term I was thinking of. It's a comic book technical term, it's morbid, and it relates to unoriginality, which is a big theme in the book. I'm not sure how I'd work it into a title, though.

9 hours later 4024309 Anonymous
>>4023006 You mean Tales Devised to Scare wasn't a joke?

9 hours later 4024312 Anonymous
>>4024309 No, that's the actual working title. It's the name of the fictional '50s anthology horror comic book the novel's about.

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