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/lit/ - Literature

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19532849 No.19532849 [Reply] [Original]

Why are some writers so good at titles while others absolutely suck at them? Doesn't this also count as good writing?

>> No.19532855

Naming or titling something requires being pithy and concise. Some authors can be elegant and flowing but can't write a witty 5-word phrase to save their life.

>> No.19532868

It's definitely a skill and often comes down to how good the author is at spotting a good title when he sees one. Clive James has a pretty good essay on this topic.

https://archive.clivejames.com/books/brown.htm

>> No.19532872

>>19532849
>War and Peace.
What a pretentious title. Everything happens under war or peace. So this book has everything?

>> No.19532876

>>19532872
Why are you on /lit/ if you can't read

>> No.19532877

>>19532849
titles are evil in that they are good as a consistent name is a heavenly trait while the productive under trait of a amorphic name prolicates its efforts better
Overall thats why I hate titles and names but I have come to realize that names are created and made substantional and even "real" by the very act itself so an author has not to be good at it but only unwavering like most forms of order and constinalitim

>> No.19532882

>>19532872
It's Tolstoy, of course it has everything

>> No.19532886 [DELETED] 

>>19532849
I like Norman Mailer's titles:
>The Naked and the Dead
>The Executioner's Song
>Ancient Evenings
>The Castle in the Forest
They are simple yet evocative.

>> No.19532890

>>19532868
Thank you for sharing.

>> No.19532904

I like Norman Mailer's titles:
>The Naked and the Dead
>The Executioner's Song
>Ancient Evenings
>The Castle in the Forest
>The Armies of the Night
They are simple yet evocative.

>> No.19533065

THE ULTIMATE MARK OF AN OPTIMAL AUTHOR OF FICTION IS THE ABILITY TO CREATE CONCISE & CLEVER TITLES.

IF YOU HAVE FINISHED YOUR THOUSAND PAGE NOVEL, BUT STRUGGLE TO TITLE IT, IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DELETED IT.

>> No.19533069

>>19533065
What are your favorite titles?

>> No.19533163

>>19533065
shut up you horrid man

>> No.19533176

>>19533065
Kill yourself.

>> No.19533278

>>19532868
>I have found the title of the book as impossible to forget as the poems in it were impossible to remember.
this guy is so fucking savage and honest kek can't believe he's an Aussie, I thought they were pussies.

>> No.19533818

>>19533065
lmao

>> No.19533832

>>19533065
based as always

>> No.19533839

>>19533065
I only write titles

>> No.19533861

Titles are often not even picked by the author, but by the publisher.

>> No.19534042

>>19532876
t. can't tell when someones taking the piss

>> No.19534045

>>19532849
I've never been good at titles (not that im good at writing either) but at the same time when I do eventually force a title onto any piece of work from shitty videos to shitty essays it always comes out good, maybe I just lie to myself idk

>> No.19534131

>>19532872
>What a pretentious title. Everything happens under war or peace. So this book has everything?
Have you seen the size of that book? I wasn't even surprised when Bolkonsky just told Bezukhov my address and social security number out of the blue

>> No.19535348

>>19532849
The best titles have a certain amount of strangeness, but not too much. They have to be subtly different from the main body of text. Thats why proper nouns (Hamlet, Jane Eyre) or invented words (The Hobbit, Neuromancer) work well.

>> No.19535363

>>19532904
Eww.

>> No.19535375

>>19532849
Shakespeare did not have a single good title. But he’s still the best writer in English.

>> No.19535377

>>19535363
Fat estrogen sack detected

>> No.19535378

>>19535363
Post your favs

>> No.19535384

>>19535375
Titus Andronicus is a good sounding title.

>> No.19535389

>>19535375
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a good title. I agree that most are workmanlike at best, though.

>> No.19535421
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19535421

The best titles are those with a swear word. Sometimes I even read one in public and if you can't handle it well it's 2021 sweatty and grown ups like me sometimes swear because we're cool and subversive and not going to stick to your rules whilst we read our books on low grade generalised anxiety.

>> No.19535662

>>19535421
badass is a swear word?

>> No.19535685

>>19532849
Hemingway, obviously. Maybe the goat?

>> No.19535691

>>19533065
Another horrible, absolutely easily disproven, comepltely stupid line of shit from this tryhard fuck.
especially from a guy who titled his book mundus millenialis

>> No.19535857

>>19535691
Did he hit a nerve, buddy?

>> No.19535871

>>19535857
Yea, I’ve got a real sore spot for out of touch faggots acting like they know anything because they use a trip on /lit/. It’s really only this guy and butterfly that do it to me, odd…