Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Rose by Any Other Name

Shakespeare's immortal words concerning names really bothers me.  As a language arts teacher for many years, I always fumed a bit at how cavalier Old Will seemed to be in regard to a name.  I mention my peeve because of this: Names do matter!

The 'names' I speak of are titles of books.  I don't know about you, but I am drawn to books by their titles.  For instance, 'The Great Gatsby' intrigued me, making me want to 1) discover just what a Gatsby was and 2) identify what made it so great!  On the other hand, 'Old Man and the Sea' (my apologies, Ernest) sounded to me like the nameplate below a bad painting.  Thankfully, I was able to get past that prejudice and actually read the novel.

When you are writing and it is something that requires a title, approach it as carefully as if you were naming your newborn baby.  Actually, you are; writing is personal, and we writers take criticism of our 'children' to heart.  My advice is to look beyond the faddish or clever (think 'North West' and 'Apple') and look at your prose's personality.  You might find that your working title doesn't match your writing at all.

As to William Shakespeare, we'll just have to agree to disagree.  Happy Writing!

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