Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Here There Be Dragons... The Perils of the Untitled Work in Progress


Last night was a perfect night for writing... even if it was only for an hour. While my husband braved a torrential downpour to get me falafel, I took my new desk for a test drive. Turns out she goes from zero to 1K in 60 minutes. ;)

If I can just get myself to write 1K per day-- increasing my work flow on Saturdays-- I'll have my first draft pretty close to finished by November. That'll give it plenty of time to rest and breathe while I play around with Hans and Greta for a month. At least, that's the story I think I want to tell. It could be dark... very dark. And it's been a while since I wrote a male mc.

But first-- Mara's story still has no title. It's like the titling demons have wrestled the originality out of me. I keep coming up with these contrived or boring or trite sounding titles: Carnival of Illusions, The Spirit Room, Carmen's Ghost, Murder and Mara's Gift, Leaving Purgatory.

Bah! I'm embarrassed just admitting to those. I usually have a working title by the time I've gotten this far. It's strange, like steering a ship toward a nameless country. Here there be dragons. Yar.

Yes, I know that there's a good chance -- should my work be accepted by a publishing house-- that the final title decision will be out of my hands. But I can't help but think that a snappy title goes a long way toward attracing a literary agent. And that agent will have enough work ahead of them before my novel can even be submitted to editors. So shouldn't I do my damnedest (is "damnedest" a word?) to ensure I have a title that will stand out from the crowd, attract attention, and arouse the curiosity of agents, editors and potential readers, alike?

*sigh*

I know a title will come eventually, while I'm working on my NaNo project, perhaps, so I'm not making myself crazy over it. I just feel, I don't know, somewhat incomplete when I'm writing a story with no name.

It's just one more dragon in the sea of publication.

If anyone needs me, I'll be over here, hiding from the dragons. Maybe I can tempt them with something shiny so they won't eat me.

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