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I'm adding magic to the list of words not to use in titles. It now stands as follows:
Heart
Moon
Star
Crystal
Blade
Shadow
Quest
Dream
Dark/Darkness
Magic
In thinking about the list, and what goes on and what doesn't, I've found, in my mind anyway, that there are three classifications of words in titles. And by that I mean the working words; nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, not one like the, at, of, etc. There's words that are awful and will ruin a title, there's words that are neutral, and can be made good or bad by other words, and then there are the unique words capable of making neutral words awesome.
Examples of neutral words: the name of any animal, season, month, time of day, plant, natural phenomenon (eg, weather), reference to family position (son/daughter), position of government.
Examples of unigue words: this is difficult, since I'd need to be good at titles to pull them out of my ass, so the easiest way is to throw out some kickass titles, which I hope will show how the right word makes a neutral word awesome: "The Stainless Steel Rat" - I haven't read it, but the title makes me want to. The one title I have that's really good, I totally ripped off a lingerie store: "The Eyelet dove" Both a name of an animal, with a random, unique, catchy, word to make it interesting.
Two (or one if it's a one word title) mediocre words generally make a mediocre title: Autumn Twilight, Daughter of the Oak, Stormcrow, etc. Yes, I concede that Blood and Snow is a mediocre title.
Watch what happens when you combine those neutral words with ones from the list of terribad words: Autumn Magic, Twilight Star, Daughter of the Darkness, Oakheart, Shadowcrow, Storm Crystal.
Keep in mind, this is not an end-all, be-all instructions to come up with good titles. Hell, if it was, I'd be able to come up with reliably good titles. Lots of titles just can't be classified this way.
Incidentally, I've decided on a system of coming up with working titles for stuff I haven't come up with a decent, presentable title for yet. I will combine some aspect somehow relevant to the story (character name, idea, place, whatever) with one of the words from the list of awful titles. Just because it amuses me.
Heart
Moon
Star
Crystal
Blade
Shadow
Quest
Dream
Dark/Darkness
Magic
In thinking about the list, and what goes on and what doesn't, I've found, in my mind anyway, that there are three classifications of words in titles. And by that I mean the working words; nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, not one like the, at, of, etc. There's words that are awful and will ruin a title, there's words that are neutral, and can be made good or bad by other words, and then there are the unique words capable of making neutral words awesome.
Examples of neutral words: the name of any animal, season, month, time of day, plant, natural phenomenon (eg, weather), reference to family position (son/daughter), position of government.
Examples of unigue words: this is difficult, since I'd need to be good at titles to pull them out of my ass, so the easiest way is to throw out some kickass titles, which I hope will show how the right word makes a neutral word awesome: "The Stainless Steel Rat" - I haven't read it, but the title makes me want to. The one title I have that's really good, I totally ripped off a lingerie store: "The Eyelet dove" Both a name of an animal, with a random, unique, catchy, word to make it interesting.
Two (or one if it's a one word title) mediocre words generally make a mediocre title: Autumn Twilight, Daughter of the Oak, Stormcrow, etc. Yes, I concede that Blood and Snow is a mediocre title.
Watch what happens when you combine those neutral words with ones from the list of terribad words: Autumn Magic, Twilight Star, Daughter of the Darkness, Oakheart, Shadowcrow, Storm Crystal.
Keep in mind, this is not an end-all, be-all instructions to come up with good titles. Hell, if it was, I'd be able to come up with reliably good titles. Lots of titles just can't be classified this way.
Incidentally, I've decided on a system of coming up with working titles for stuff I haven't come up with a decent, presentable title for yet. I will combine some aspect somehow relevant to the story (character name, idea, place, whatever) with one of the words from the list of awful titles. Just because it amuses me.
