Titles hurt my brain

I'm not very good at coming up with book titles. And by 'not very good', I mean 'really quite rubbish'. I didn't even come up with ENTANGLED. Yes, I did manage to come up with TORN, but that was after much anguish and plenty of *facecat* (think *headdesk* but less jarring on the brain).

I spent most of the weekend trying to come up with a title for a book I haven't written yet. There was really no need to spend my time doing this. I should have been writing, obviously. But thinking up titles is the best type of procrastination, since you can convince yourself you're still working. And you are... sort of.

After a quick look at my bookshelves, here are some titles I love and how they made me feel when I first picked up the book:

The Forest of Hand and Teeth, Carrie Ryan (Ewww... sounds gross. Me like gross.)

When I Was Joe, Keren David (Who is Joe and why are you no longer him? Colour me intrigued.)

Twenty Boy Summer, Sarah Ockler (Twenty boys in one summer? Now that's impressive.)

Some Girls Are, Courtney Summers (SOME GIRLS ARE WHAT?! I need to know!)

Going Bovine, Libba Bray (Er...WTF?!)

Shark Girl, Kelly Bingham (Sharks? I love anything to do with sharks so I am bound to love this.)

So what do you look for in a book title? Are titles important to you? Any favourites?

The name game

Thank you lovely people for your comments on the title. None of you said 'Entangled?Pah! Lamest title EVER!' And for that I am deeply grateful. I'm loving the new name, although trying not to get too attached (remembering that book titles can and do change right up until the last minute).

The naming process was a bit of a saga, involving many emails and a phone call or two between me and my editor. Potential titles were run past Sales & Marketing, Publicity etc, but none of them were quite hitting the spot - or they were hitting the spot with one person, but not with someone else. It's a very subjective business, this title malarkey.

While I was writing the book I had a working title that I knew was never ever going to stay the course. I'm too embarrassed to record it here, so I won't. The title I came up with when I was trying to snag an agent was Broken, which I talked about in vague terms here. We kept that title when the book went out on submission to publishers, but I was never really happy with it. It was okaaaaaay, but nothing special. And it was vaguely depressing. Entangled is much more intriguing and mysterious. And I like the way it sounds when I say it.

Now I'm off to dream about book covers. I spent Thursday and Friday looking for photos as reference for three of my characters. Now THAT was fun.

My book has a title!

So, without further ado, here it is:


Entangled


Eek. There it is. Written down. I really hope you like it! I do. Thoughts on a postcard please, but only if they're nice ones!

Alpha, beta, whatever

Yesterday I finally discovered the difference between alpha readers and beta readers, thanks to the wonderful Natalie Whipple. I'd never even heard of beta readers till a few months ago, and since then I've heard nothing of the alphas. I've been vaguely curious, but not enough to actually ASK someone.

So, alpha readers = cheerleaders who read your writing as you go along. I don't think they have to be ACTUAL cheerleaders (although, why not? That could work too. Gimme a C! C!), but they have to enjoy your writing and know better than to nitpick and pick away at your confidence just when you need it most. That's not to say they can't be critical, they just have to be critical in the RIGHT way. And point out gaping plot holes and any wrong turnings before it's too late. I have an alpha. She's ace.

Beta readers = people who read your writing when it's done, perhaps when you've finished your first draft. Betas can be slightly more critical, more forensic in their approach to your work. And since they're reading the whole novel in its entirety, they'll provide you with a fairly good idea of whether the novel is made of awesome, or merely made of quite-good. (Let's just assume it's not made of bobbins.) Beta readers must be HONEST. My beta reader is the same as my alpha reader. She's a veritable Greek alphabet of readers, all wrapped up into one. I may or may not try and find a couple more beta readers to look at my current novel (which I'm a looooong way from finishing). We'll see. Anyhoo, I'm very pleased to have learned something this weekend!

Had lunch with my editor on Friday (holy moly I have an editor!). We discussed titles and covers. It was fun, and reassuring that we were both on the same wavelengh. I hope to be able to announce a title in the next week or so. Are you bored of me going on about titles yet? I kind of am. Sorry.

The writing blues

'I have forced myself to begin writing when I have been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card, when nothing has seemed worth enduring for another five minutes ... and somehow the activity of writing changes everything. Or appears to do so.'
-Joyce Carol Oates

This is one of my favourite writing quotes, and I usually find it to be 100% true. But a couple of days ago, the opposite was the case. I sat down to write feeling fine and dandy, and by the time I'd written 1000 words I felt hollow and just... bleak. Maybe that's what you get when you write depressing scenes in which people do HORRIBLE things.

Note to self: include fluffy bunny rabbits and ickle kittens in next scene. And do NOT kill them.

BOOK NEWS: we're getting closer to a title, and a designer will be briefed about the cover very soon. My book's going to have a cover and EVERYTHING! How awesome is that?
(Answer: very.)

First edit: done and dusted

Yay! I finished! I cut about 2000 words. There are two bits I might save for another book, but I might not bother. They'll always be there though, in draft five or six or whichever one it was. That version of the novel was OK. This version is better, without a doubt. Aren't editors wonderfully clever? (And no, I'm not just saying that because I wear an editor hat from Monday to Friday. BTW my editor hat is green, with bells on.)

Still working on the title though. I might be making progress there, thanks to one of my Twitter buddies who will be even more profusely thanked if her suggestion ends up on the book. Fingers crossed!

Anyone else out there have any book-title troubles?