this post brought to you by the multi-chapter fic i am currently writing which is titleless

[lirazel]

Can we talk about the art of the title? And how sometimes you have this brilliant title and then you build a fic/story/poem around it and other times you've got a great story and you want to post it, but you can't because you can't come up with a title that works for it? Sometimes things sound too trite or obvious or else too ambiguous, but titles are important, because I absolutely will skip over a fic if the title (usually + summary) rubs me the wrong way.

So do y'all have tips on story titles? Mine have really evolved over all my years of fic writing. I'm not particularly fond of one-word titles anymore even though that's what I used to cling to. If I go with that, it has to be something with a lot of zing to it (I still like "Chromaticity" and "Liminal" because those aren't everyday kind of words as is evidenced by the fact that my spellcheck isn't recognizing them right now).

I often resort to poetry or more obscure lyrics (I rarely like it when I think people will recognize where the line comes from). Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell are my go-tos when it comes to lyrics, and I feel like you can't go wrong with Siken or Carl Phillips when it comes to poetry.

But sometimes even that fails me. What do y'all do when you need a title and nothing is coming? Got anything ridiculously creative?