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Flights of Fanciful Fandom: Titles
Jul. 1st, 2021 11:45 amOne of the things I distracted my fearful mind with during lockdown were titles. I memorized the titles of episodes of television series I have on BluRay or DVD, thought about how those titles informed the story being shown on the screen.
Supernatural and True Blood often used a song title for their episodes. This didn’t just reveal aspects of the plot, what the characters were going through, but contributed to the overall mood of the series. For Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it sometimes was a line of dialogue from one of the characters which gave a peep at where the plot was heading, what was in the minds of those characters. (I thought the choice of Hush for the episode without dialogue was a brilliant one.) Hannibal used the names of a particular food or dish for their titles, which always got me thinking. What was the dish? How did it connect to what the characters were going through? This changed when Hannibal reached the Great Red Dragon arc. The titles became Blake paintings and bible quotes; shifting the focus from Hannibal Lecter to Francis Dolarhyde ever so slightly yet keeping Hannibal Lecter in sight, for some of the bible quotes were his. Teen Wolf titles have often been brain twisters; designed to impart lessons or teach something.
All of this gets me thinking about my own title choices, how they inform and direct my plots. The sooner I know my title, the sooner I know where I’m going. I often use my title as a guide, to keep my focus on the plot. There’s always an emotional resonance with the title to whatever the characters are going through. Not that I always know what my title is at first. Sometimes it takes a little while for the characters and myself to figure out what’s going. The title slowly reveals itself when we do.
I’m strongly drawn to a thematic title that draws all the elements of a story together. Sometimes to calm myself down, I recite titles. I think, “Why did the writer choose that? How does it connect with the overall story? What would it go with?” I’ve encountered similar titles in different series. Both Teen Wolf and Supernatural have used Ouroboros. This is a word I’ve used for a series title or universe of my own, slightly mispelled; World of Ouroborous.
Title choices offer a snapshot view of a story. It fascinates me what a storyteller wishes to reveal in that snapshot. It makes me think hard about what I want to reveal in that first glance. I’m reconsidering some of my titles for certain Works in Progress. I’ve changed others before several times when they didn’t quite work.
When a title is a keeper, I’ll know.
Supernatural and True Blood often used a song title for their episodes. This didn’t just reveal aspects of the plot, what the characters were going through, but contributed to the overall mood of the series. For Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it sometimes was a line of dialogue from one of the characters which gave a peep at where the plot was heading, what was in the minds of those characters. (I thought the choice of Hush for the episode without dialogue was a brilliant one.) Hannibal used the names of a particular food or dish for their titles, which always got me thinking. What was the dish? How did it connect to what the characters were going through? This changed when Hannibal reached the Great Red Dragon arc. The titles became Blake paintings and bible quotes; shifting the focus from Hannibal Lecter to Francis Dolarhyde ever so slightly yet keeping Hannibal Lecter in sight, for some of the bible quotes were his. Teen Wolf titles have often been brain twisters; designed to impart lessons or teach something.
All of this gets me thinking about my own title choices, how they inform and direct my plots. The sooner I know my title, the sooner I know where I’m going. I often use my title as a guide, to keep my focus on the plot. There’s always an emotional resonance with the title to whatever the characters are going through. Not that I always know what my title is at first. Sometimes it takes a little while for the characters and myself to figure out what’s going. The title slowly reveals itself when we do.
I’m strongly drawn to a thematic title that draws all the elements of a story together. Sometimes to calm myself down, I recite titles. I think, “Why did the writer choose that? How does it connect with the overall story? What would it go with?” I’ve encountered similar titles in different series. Both Teen Wolf and Supernatural have used Ouroboros. This is a word I’ve used for a series title or universe of my own, slightly mispelled; World of Ouroborous.
Title choices offer a snapshot view of a story. It fascinates me what a storyteller wishes to reveal in that snapshot. It makes me think hard about what I want to reveal in that first glance. I’m reconsidering some of my titles for certain Works in Progress. I’ve changed others before several times when they didn’t quite work.
When a title is a keeper, I’ll know.
