table 1.
Strategies for creating a working title
strategy definition examples
Personal
For a biography or character-driven
Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself
Name novel, the subject’s name—surname
Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero
only, if famous enough—with or
Borges: A Life
without a subtitle signaling the
Zappa
author’s point of viewPlace Name A place central to the text, or the site
Gorky Park
of its climactic action, perhaps with a
Animal Farm
descriptor to distinguish the present
The Stones of Florence
work
Imperial San Francisco
Reportage Common nouns that name the central
Guns, Germs, and Steel
subject or conceit
Illness as Metaphor
Emblem A well-chosen detail from the text,
The Moviegoer
often a concrete noun with symbolic
The Bell Jar
resonancePaired
Contrasting emblems that evoke a
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Emblems paradox central to the textExplicit
A metaphor that recurs explicitly
The Grapes of Wrath
Metaphor in the text
House of Sand and Fog
Implicit
A metaphor that does not recur
Running with Scissors
Metaphor explicitly in the text but that conveys
The Horseman on the Roof
the author’s point of viewDouble-Edged
An informal phrase used in the text
The Night in Question
Colloquialism
that takes on deeper meaning when
The Big Sleep
a
elevated to the status of a titlePun A play on words that aptly crystallizes
The Power of Babel
the author’s thesisHigh Concept A surprising combination of descriptor
Unforgivable Blackness
and noun that conveys the text’s main
Gravity’s Rainbow
concept
Pale Fire
Irony A title that states the opposite of what
The Age of Innocence
the book is actually about
Prague
b
Humor A joke that conveys the author’s point
Yoga for People Who Can’t Be
of view
Bothered to Do It
Quotation A phrase from the Bible or other foun-
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
dational text, implying a comparison,
Tender Is the Night
often ironically, with the text at hand(
continued
)
of 00
Brainstorm a Working Title
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A page so useful I've linked to it (citing the book) on three pages of my website Writers and Editors (www.writersandeditors.com). Thanks! Pat McNees