{"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":"<p>Titles mean much, so much, wow. \u00a0They have the power to help or, as my friend likes to say, &#8220;shit all over&#8221;\u00a0a book. \u00a0They can draw you in or turn you off. \u00a0It makes sense, therefore, that there&#8217;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&#8217;s okay.<\/p>\n<p>A good title is immediate. \u00a0It grabs your eye, forces you to linger a while.<\/p>\n<p>A good title conveys depth. \u00a0Sure, it&#8217;s attention-grabbing, but that&#8217;s because it hints at something more, raises questions.<\/p>\n<p>A good title is true to its material. \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t initially mislead the reader. \u00a0A title designed to mislead the reader is probably followed by a mischievous, misleading, sarcastic book.<\/p>\n<p>A good title has a picture of a mountain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/zachbarnesonwriting.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/03\/mountain_fence-wallpaper-1680x1050.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-155\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/zachbarnesonwriting.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/03\/mountain_fence-wallpaper-1680x1050.jpg?resize=300%2C188&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"France Mtn.\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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<p>A good title is readable. \u00a0This is especially important for fantasy! \u00a0Florquisord&#8217;s Herbdizerd of Superfluous Might might be an interesting book, but as a title, it&#8217;s pretty useless.<\/p>\n<p>As far as my own titles, the process of creating a main title is pretty rigorous. \u00a0I go through a bunch of &#8216;working titles&#8217; that try to angle at the meaning. \u00a0Then, through trial and error&#8211;and relentless masochism&#8211;I discover the &#8216;true&#8217; title, or I wimp out and go with my favorite &#8216;working&#8217; title. \u00a0Either way, it&#8217;s hard to be truly satisfied with a little label that will forever color the way people regard your art.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>So, what are some of your favorite titles? \u00a0Of albums, of books, of poems, of ships? \u00a0And why?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2015\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A good title is true to its material.  It doesn&#8217;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":[],"_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}]}}