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Help needed: Which is the best title?

Got a question/comment about the creative process of writing? Post it here!

Best title for my YA manuscript?

Fallen Angels
1
14%
Suffer and be still
4
57%
A more permanent Hell
1
14%
These all suck! I have a better idea!
1
14%
 
Total votes: 7

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Susan
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Post by Susan » Tue July 12th, 2011, 9:54 pm

[quote=""MLE""]The phrase Lily among thorns is from the Song of Solomon (in the Bible, not the book by Toni Morrison): "Like a lily among thorns is my beloved among the maidens."[/quote]

I like the whole phrase for the title Like a Lily Among Thorns.
~Susan~
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Divia
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Post by Divia » Tue July 12th, 2011, 9:59 pm

[quote=""Susan""]I like the whole phrase for the title Like a Lily Among Thorns.[/quote]

Is that too long? I thought short was better? Just wondering!
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Michy
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Post by Michy » Tue July 12th, 2011, 10:01 pm

[quote=""MLE""]Michy, is that a kind of sequel to the Glass Castle? How did you like it?[/quote] I really liked it. Not quite as good as The Glass Castle IMO, because she wrote it from info she got about her grandma secondhand (her grandma died when she was very young), so it doesn't quite have the poignancy of her own personal memoir.

I would consider it more of a prequel to The Glass Castle, since it ends with the marriage of Jeannette Walls' parents. If someone hasn't read either book, I would recommend reading Half Broke Horses first.

[quote=""Divia""]As dull as my theme is I think it would be death/change. Death of innocence, death of a town, death of a friendship etc. etc...

Oh! How morbid. Can death be a theme?[/quote] Do you end your book with any ray of hope for your main character? Some light at the end of the tunnel? Or, what are you trying to say about your character? Her resiliency in the face of all the adversity? I would try going in one of those two directions.

Poetry can sometimes be a source of good titles. Hey, it worked for Gone With the Wind. :D

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Tue July 12th, 2011, 10:09 pm

[quote=""Michy""] Do you end your book with any ray of hope for your main character? Some light at the end of the tunnel? Or, what are you trying to say about your character? Her resiliency in the face of all the adversity? I would try going in one of those two directions.

Poetry can sometimes be a source of good titles. Hey, it worked for Gone With the Wind. :D [/quote]

Originally she died, but those here thought that was a bit of a killjoy and that it was way too much death. Which, looking back I agree with so I changed the ending.

Hmm, I dont read poetry, but maybe I need to start!
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Michy
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Post by Michy » Tue July 12th, 2011, 10:14 pm

[quote=""Divia""]Hmm, I dont read poetry, but maybe I need to start![/quote] I don't either. But from the little bit that I was forced to read in high school :) , I know that Robert Frost uses some nice imagery. Emily Dickinson, too, although good luck trying to figure out what her poems mean. Hers seem to have a sadder sound to them, so maybe she would be a good place to look......

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Tue July 12th, 2011, 10:18 pm

[quote=""Michy""]I don't either. But from the little bit that I was forced to read in high school :) , I know that Robert Frost uses some nice imagery. Emily Dickinson, too, although good luck trying to figure out what her poems mean. Hers seem to have a sadder sound to them, so maybe she would be a good place to look......[/quote]

I know she did a lot of death poetry. Oh, those crazy Victorians and death! I'll check it out. Thanks.
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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Tue July 12th, 2011, 10:27 pm

Now there's an idea! She would have been a contemporary of your character, probably her mother's age, so that would fit nicely. There are scores of well-crafted and recognizable lines which might become titles in Emily Dickinson's best known work Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us; The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown, My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads Were toward eternity.

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Michy
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Post by Michy » Tue July 12th, 2011, 10:33 pm

I just looked on Wikisource, and it looks like they have all of her poems there. So you can search through them without leaving your computer. :)

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Michy
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Post by Michy » Tue July 12th, 2011, 11:43 pm

Another thought..... is there an object in your story that has particular meaning for your main character? Or a beloved possession? Or a special location? Any of those could be worked into a title. For instance, in Rosemary Sutcliff's The Silver Branch the silver branch was a musical instrument belonging to one of the minor characters. (It seemed to me an odd choice to focus the title on, but whatever. :) ) In her book The Eagle of the Ninth the eagle was an object that the main character was on a quest to find. Both of these happened to be books for YA, coincidentally. And of course, there's famously A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in which the tree was a species that grew only in the poor tenement districts and symbolized the tenacity of the immigrants themselves.

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Wed July 13th, 2011, 12:59 am

She wants to be a professional seamstress and she loves to sew.

I found one thing I like by Miss Emily, but I fear its very long.

I could not stop for Death
(I like this because those around her die but she keeps moving forward)
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