Titles: The Most Difficult Part of Writing

By this point, most of you know that I pretty much adore writing fiction. I don't know if I mentioned in my first post that when I was still brainstorming the ideas for my first book, one of the first things I came up with was a title. I aptly entitled it, "The Moon Goddess of Ellendale." Pretty girly, right? For a thirteen-year-old girl, it was perfect! Elegant, flowing, and graceful, it had everything I wanted. This title conveyed a curious fact about my character (the way she shone in the moonlight) and was just as effluent as I wished to be....

However, I soon realized that I wanted to broaden my audience to not only girls ages 12 to 18, but boys as well.... and Thomas quickly informed me that such a title would NOT attract a boy of ANY age. So I set to the task of seeking out a title that would not only be beautiful, convey the right information, and fit my enigmatic puzzle, but also appeal to the male crowd. I found that "The World Forbidden" was very eye-catching, intriguing, and rolled off the tongue quite well.

I ran into another problem: this is not the only book. As you can see with my labels, the book I have written is book 2. I have a prequel I'm in the process of working on now and five sequels ahead of me which I already have the blueprints for. Being a series, I wanted the titles to connect in some way. For example, when I chose "The Moon Goddess of Ellendale" for Book 2, I also entitled Book 4 "The Daring Duo." I had decided that the titles of each book would also be titles that the main character themselves possessed within the book. When my first one changed, I wanted to be consistent with the other 6; I had to change them. So, when I changed Book 2 to "The World Forbidden," I hit a road block. The idea behind my main character "living a world forbidden" was that she went against the council of her wise friends for most of the book. How could I do something like that with Book 4? I thought "The World Broken" would be quite sufficient. However, "forbidden" conveys an outside force (aka: her family and friends) forbidding the main character. In Book 4, "broken" describes the two main characters. The methods which I was utilizing became suddenly more complex. I have found that this unique difficulty not only rests with these two books, but with the entire series. I have come up with alternative titles for them all, but I don't like the one for Book 2 as much as "The World Forbidden."

Here's what I'd like to hear from you: Am I over-thinking this? Being overly analytical? Too picky? What do you think about the titles I have presented? Are they too cliche? Too girly? Too..... something?????? Let me know what you think! I need your help!!!!

Alive at Night

Perhaps this explanation of an odd author's mind will help you understand her habits. =) For as long as I can remember, I've had the hardest time falling asleep. It's not because I've been particularly troubled or restless, most of the time I'm just not tired. As soon as the world stops long enough to hear the silence and drift away, my mind awakens. If I'm not asleep by the time I'm finished analyzing and repeating my day, my mind drifts towards possibilities... Things that are impossible here in our world suddenly seem extremely possible. One thing leads to another and before you know it, I'm flying over the castles of France, speaking fluently in an ancient language, or riding on the back of a centaur. It's all nonesense, really. Most of the time, there's no plot or point. I simply.... think... I don't know if any of that makes sense to you all, but it is the simplest way I can think to explain it!

That's all for tonight! I hope to be posting in the near future specifically on my current work! Thank you for reading!!

A Word of Explanation

To forewarn any readers of my novel, I would like to answer some more inquiries that have been put to me as to the involvement of the Savior. As I said in my first post, I do not have any character in my book symbolizing the Lord, Jesus Christ, or of the Father, nor of the Holy Spirit. Many people have asked me why I call it a "Christian" novel if it does not include any of these figures of the trinity, and I tell them simply that I do NOT claim my book to be a "Christian" novel. My characters are moral, but they do not find their hope in the eternal Savior. Allow me to explain....

When I first began to write my book, as I said earlier, I had no intention of its being seen by anyone. Only afterwards when I felt the need and desire to share what I wrote did I feel compelled to add lessons. Being a Christian, I suddenly found a very difficult flaw: none of my characters had an everlasting redeemer to look to in their time of trouble. I have made them moral, clinging to one another in brotherhood and love, but that is all. And there came in another problem: my book that I am in the process of publishing is one of seven, listing as number two, if I were to list them all in order. I have set up the series in such a way so that each of my heroines come from different countries of the world that they live in. Now, we all know that in the real world, NO ONE agrees religiously and each culture carries with it a particular sect or religion. For instance, Arabs are predominantly Muslim and Ancient Egyptians had mythological dieties. Both of them are completely different. My plan was to make my cultures as diverse as possible. However, I could not- in good conscience- write a story about a young girl who worships something I don't believe in. And of course, I could not make my entire world believing in the same diety because that simply is not realistic.

I was caught in a corner, and still am, as I see it. However, I do not find it a sin to write about moral people. So I have continued to write, not simply to teach morality to the world of my audience, but to hopefully place enough arrows upward for them to see who I'm really pointing to for all of this: God.

That's all for now! If you have any questions, please post them! I haven't completely worked all of this out in my mind, but I welcome any questions you may have!