Titles, by Susan Oleksiw

When I begin a story, I want to have something to put at the top of the page so that when I save it, I have some sort of identifier. I know by now that whatever I use may well not last until the work is finished. I consider these titles place holders, convenient tags so that I can locate the ms later on my laptop or in a file. There’s nothing special about any of this.

I did this with my first mystery novel, expecting to later develop the “perfect” title that would capture the attention of readers. Such dreams. Apparently I forgot about this after my ms was accepted by the publisher. Only when I got my proof copies (ARCs) with my place holder title on the cover did I realize I meant to come up with a better one, a real one. I didn’t expect my first mystery novel to be called Murder in Mellingham, but it was. I don’t know what I planned to replace it with, but I learned a lesson from that experience. The book isn’t finished until the title is.

Some people are gifted when it comes to titles. Ernest Hemingway thought F. Scott Fitzgerald had the gift and most writers agree. Raymond Chandler had the gift sometimes, and when it worked, it glowed on the page. Others may disagree with me but I love the titles The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. More recently, Louise Penny has come up with some especially attractive ones, such as How the Light Gets In and A Trick of the Light.

I envy a lot of cozy mystery authors because they’ve created a package with a setting and lead character that gives them a head start on inventing a title. Agatha Christie was no slouch in this category, but her nursery rhyme books featuring Hercule Poirot stand out, the first being One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. The Body in the . . .  series by Katherine Hall Page is well known. I especially like Edith Maxwell’s titles for her nineteenth-century Quaker midwife, Delivering the Truth and Called to Justice.

When I began the Anita Ray series I thought about how I wanted to construct the titles long before I finished writing the first draft. The name of a Hindu deity would give a sense of the story to follow, and an image of the god would show up somewhere in the plot. The title of the first book, Under the Eye of Kali, came easily as did those for the subsequent three books. (Of course, I failed to appreciate how little Americans know about India.)

The hardest titles for me are those for short stories. Some time ago I finished a short story I was happy with but the title sat like a dead tree on the front lawn. I put the story aside until the perfect title came to me, which it did a few weeks later.

Not every writer wants to spend so much time mulling over titles. I don’t either. But in my view every part of a story or novel has to be the best I can make it, and if I see a flaw in one part—the title, a chapter ending, a minor character—and leave it, then the work is unfinished. I take the time to work on anything that feels less than it could be. And that includes titles.

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Common Themes in Literature by Jacqueline Seewald

Whether authors of fiction write short stories, plays or novels, theme is an essential component, just like characterization, plot and setting. The theme of a book is a universal idea or message that stretches throughout a work. Themes are often sociological or cultural in nature.

Some themes reoccur often. For instance, I just finished reading a thriller novel in which the theme was conspiracy theory, common in suspense genre. Fiction writers often pull their themes from nonfiction and then write faction. Dan Brown and Brad Meltzer are two very popular suspense authors who do this. Shakespeare used the underlying theme in his plays that appearances are deceiving. This works particularly well in the theatre.

Good fiction writing needs a cohesive theme to hold the work together. The lesson is generally about life or humanity and is preferably implied rather than stated outright. The show-not-tell rule works well with theme.

In YA lit, the theme is often coming-of-age. However, there may be more than one theme, especially in a novel. One way to convey theme is through recurring use of symbolism. Hawthorne and Hemingway were both particularly talented in that regard. My forthcoming YA novel THE DEVIL AND DANNA WEBSTER which will be published by Astraea Press uses symbolism as well.

Romances concentrate on the theme of finding love everlasting. This is true of my short story collection BEYOND THE BO TREE offered on Amazon Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTV0750

However, even with romance fiction there are often secondary themes. My soon be published prize-winning historical romance THE CHEVALIER is very much connected with themes of war and politics.

 Mysteries are about finding solutions and discovering the truth about puzzling situations such as solving murders and imposing order where there was chaos. For instance, my romantic suspense spy thriller DEATH LEGACY, both romance and mystery, explores whether a CIA agent was an enemy mole or a murder victim. 

http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=28798&cid=337

There are often socially significant secondary themes in crime fiction. For example, in my co-authored novel THE THIRD EYE: A PINE BARRENS MYSTERY

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Pine-Barrens-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00G5K7VXI

we deal with the theme of bullying. Jim who is short for his age is bullied by an older boy. He learns how to cope with the situation. His search for a murderer also interconnects with the theme of bullying. This is a theme that has increased awareness in our modern society where young people have tragically ended up committing suicide owing to cyber bullying. Even successful pro football players are not immune to this kind of abuse.

All types of writing need an underlying idea which serves as a fundamental component. Writing without a theme is like sailing in a rudderless ship. It will eventually flounder and sink.

What themes interest you in particular as a reader or a writer? What themes appear to be especially important?