I have two stories I'm writing and I'm a bit lost in the process of naming my books. The first story, a fantasy, had been previously named The Dark Forest, which was simply a prominent location with magic and stuff, and I just thought it encompassed the story well, but I've been revising and have even swapped which character is the central character, along with much of the story which occurs in said location, so I need a new title. To put it simply, how can you come up with fantasy titles?
I just… think of cool words??? That sound like fantasy?? I guess????
Wow thanks for the help XD
Sorry lol, I'm not great at naming stories. The only book I've successfully named is Fracture, lol.
I'll call it fracture 2.0
Check for recurring words/themes in your book.
Try thinking of a single word or phrase that describes the story. If the word you chose was too simple, try finding synonyms via thesaurus.com. Remember, if you have a title that is just a single word, for example, "Lonely" it can come off as ominous and potentially intriguing to the reader. As for a phrase, try to put a spin on it. It can be a simple phrase such as "Be yourself" and you can change it to something a lot more darker or a lot more lighthearted depending on the tone of the story like, a comedy about a girl turning into a bee (???), The title is "Bee Yourself", or a drama about a shut-in called "Be in your shell". The title intrigues the potential readers, they'll likely recognize the phrase your title is derived from and take interest to the story.
If you'd like a better example, the story I'm writing is called "inHuman". It is called this primarily for three reasons:
- it is called "inHuman" for the sake of irony, as the emotions the characters feel is the exact opposite of inhuman.
- The main villain who is behind everything cannot comprehend human emotions.
- Many of the main characters are cyborgs, a part of their struggle is trying not to succumb to the programming in the cyborg armor that they wear, and dealing with the fact that staying 100% human is no longer an option.
Don't worry about it until you're completely done writing. Sometimes coming up with a name with what you have so far could become unfit as your writing changes. Avoid trying to shove your story into a mold created by the title.
For one of my ideas, I'm currently going with Broken Princess (I think because it came to me in the shower, where I get my best ideas), but I'm not getting too attached in case I decide otherwise. Mostly I just name my stories 'Idea 1,' 'Idea 2,' etc. ^-^
