Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

I know I am not the only writer out there with title envy. There’s a whole running gag about it in Shakespeare in Love, with Will Shakespeare and Kit (Christopher) Marlowe constantly checking up on each other.

Kit: What’s your new play?

Will: Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter.

Kit: (Clearly burning inside.) Good title.

So when I saw that my favorite local high school drama department was putting on the musical Zombie Prom last night, you know I had to go. Why can’t I think up a title like that? Burn, baby, burn.

Titles either spring into your head right away–sometimes even before you even think up your characters and plot–or they’re torture and never feel right. When I was in Oregon earlier this week we all read a terrific fantasy novel whose title we sincerely hated. So there’s been a flurry of e-mails in the past few days with all of us offering up our own titles, then debating whether or not they suck.

Do you want something amorphous, like Gone with the Wind, or something more descriptive, like Memoirs of a Geisha? And where on earth does To Kill a Mockingbird fit in? Don’t you think Harper Lee’s editor took one look at that and said, “Huh?” And yet now that we’ve all read it (we have read it, haven’t we?? If not, drop everything and go to your local bookstore or library TODAY to repair this huge gap in your life) and seen the movie, that title seems as beautiful as the story–lyrical and memorable.

Was Zombie Prom any good? Does it matter? I’ll pay my share of a writer’s royalties any day if he or she gives me titles like that. It’s the same with that movie I’ve been seeing advertised lately–Snakes on a Plane. Come on–it doesn’t get any better than that.

Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Reading, Books, Book Titles, Snakes on a Plane

Posted on Saturday, May 13th, 2006 at 10:19 am under Reading, Writing . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.