{"id":154,"date":"2015-03-04T16:59:18","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T21:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=154"},"modified":"2015-03-04T16:59:18","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T21:59:18","slug":"the-power-of-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/03\/04\/the-power-of-names\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Names"},"content":{"rendered":"

Titles mean much, so much, wow. \u00a0They have the power to help or, as my friend likes to say, “shit all over”\u00a0a book. \u00a0They can draw you in or turn you off. \u00a0It makes sense, therefore, that there’s a mystical appeal to the creation of a good title, so here is a transcription of sorts of\u00a0my writerly instincts and what they tell me about titles. \u00a0They could be totally off, but that’s okay.<\/p>\n

A good title is immediate. \u00a0It grabs your eye, forces you to linger a while.<\/p>\n

A good title conveys depth. \u00a0Sure, it’s attention-grabbing, but that’s because it hints at something more, raises questions.<\/p>\n

A good title is true to its material. \u00a0It doesn’t initially mislead the reader. \u00a0A title designed to mislead the reader is probably followed by a mischievous, misleading, sarcastic book.<\/p>\n

A good title has a picture of a mountain.<\/p>\n

\"France<\/a><\/p>\n

A good title is poetic. \u00a0When read aloud, does it pass the goose-bump test? \u00a0Do the words work together, or against each other?<\/p>\n

A good title is readable. \u00a0This is especially important for fantasy! \u00a0Florquisord’s Herbdizerd of Superfluous Might might be an interesting book, but as a title, it’s pretty useless.<\/p>\n

As far as my own titles, the process of creating a main title is pretty rigorous. \u00a0I go through a bunch of ‘working titles’ that try to angle at the meaning. \u00a0Then, through trial and error–and relentless masochism–I discover the ‘true’ title, or I wimp out and go with my favorite ‘working’ title. \u00a0Either way, it’s hard to be truly satisfied with a little label that will forever color the way people regard your art.<\/p>\n

Chapters, you ask? \u00a0Well, I use iTunes song titles at first. \u00a0I pick songs that best approximate the mood of each chapter, and then, at the very end, I change them to match the content.<\/p>\n

So, what are some of your favorite titles? \u00a0Of albums, of books, of poems, of ships? \u00a0And why?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n

Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2015\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A good title is true to its material. It doesn’t initially mislead the reader. A title designed to mislead the reader is probably followed by a mischievous, misleading, sarcastic book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[19,30,33,47,52],"tags":[60,61,94,132,152,188,204],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":752,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/03\/28\/master-insights-haruki-murakami\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":0},"title":"Master Insights: Haruki Murakami","date":"March 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like to bring your attention to Komatsu's last line, which I believe to be the best: \"What you can eliminate from fiction is the description of things that most readers have seen.\"","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":184,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/05\/05\/how-much-description-is-too-much\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":1},"title":"How Much Description is Too Much?","date":"May 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever read a book with long passages of description? At first, you may engage, similar to how I used to vow to use my planner at the beginning of every semester. And then interest falters. Some descriptive paragraphs feel like a mud slog. I admit that even I\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1065,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/05\/02\/co-authorship\/","url_meta":{"origin":154,"position":2},"title":"Co-Authorship","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When someone asks for \"description,\" do you answer with \"leave nothing to the imagination?\" Well, as you may know, this isn't too classy, and although some folks may enjoy that, most probably don't.","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}