T is for Title

Author: Anastasia V. Pergakis // Category: ,


All right, so today we are going to talk about titles. How do you decide what to title your book or your chapters for that matter?

I love play-on-words and symbolism in my titles. My book Cleanse Fire doesn't have chapter titles, instead it's just the chapter number (Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc). But in my story Burden of Prophecy I do.




For an example on the symbolism and play-on-words thing I like to do, one chapter in Burden of Prophecy is titled "Fire Drinking". In that chapter, Letarri who is a goody two shoes type of girl get's very drunk and then the tavern burns down. So, you can see how a title like "Fire Drinking" fits well there. Another chapter is titled "Red Envy". The symolism here might be easily missed when reading the chapter - at least part of it. Etharas is jealous because Letarri has turned her affections toward Chakor. (Envy) In the chapter, Chakor gives Letarri one of his red velvet pillows to keep as she continues her journey, because she liked them so much. (Red) Plus it's a little play here as usually the phrase is "Green Envy" instead of "Red". Fun huh?




I do the same play on words and/or symbolism for the titles of my books also. Burden of Prophecy isn't really a play on words as the story obviously is about the heavy burden the characters have to carry because of this prophecy that none of them want to be a part of. But book 2 of the series is titled Tutelage of Mortality. The play here is the book focuses on the faeries time with the elves where they learn to fight and weaponry skills. (Tutelage). The main character in this book is Karina, the youngest of the travelers and she is promised to marry the elf Prince, Shezar. Well, needless to say she is almost killed by Shezar's jealous ex toward the end of the book. (Mortality).




I would tell you how I came up with the title for Cleanse Fire, but I think that would give away too much! And since I'm trying to get it published right now, you'll just have to wait to read it to find out!




What about you? How do you come up with your book and chapter titles?




3 Responses to "T is for Title"

Aurora Smith Says :
May 18, 2011 at 1:10 AM

Book Title so far I pick a theme. Like My Stupid Girl came from the fact that the boy in the book kept saying in his mind "Stupid girl" to this girl he was in love with.

I like interesting titles that make me look twice and think did I just read that. haha

-blessed holy socks, the non-perishable-zealot Says :
November 22, 2014 at 9:30 PM

You're a writer? Crool shoes. Me, too (kinda, sorta). I know for a fact, however, you gotta whole lotta intelligence behind those two ears, girl; thus, I wanna give you my finite existence: to intrinsically value the Great Beyond which I’ve learned to appreciate, to visualize the fundamental reality of infinity is why I‘m here for a teeny-weeny amount of time. Looky here...

Precisely why I had our ‘philanthropic + epiphany’ (=so much to give + vision): wanna see a perfectly cognizant, fully-spectacular, Son-ripened-Heaven?? … yet, I’m not sure if we're on the same page if you saw what I saw. Greetings, earthling. Because I was an actual NDE on the outskirts of the Great Beyond at 15 yet wasn’t allowed in, lemme share with you what I actually know Seventh-Heaven’s Big-Bang’s gonna be like: meet this advanced, bombastic, ex-mortal Upstairs for the most juvenile-lip-service, extra-groovy, secret-sauce-paradox, pleasure-beyond-measure, Ultra-Yummy-Reality-Addiction in the Great Beyond for a BIG-ol, kick-some-ass, party-hardy, robust-N-risqué-passion you DO NOT wanna miss the sink-your-teeth-in-the-smmmokin’-hot-deal enveloping, engulfing our catch-22-excitotoxins. Cya soon, girl…

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