Choosing a Title?

[Ringarune]

I also originally had a different name for my comic Star Pace. At first I planned to call it Paranoia Project, and since it was my original title, I was super clingy to it. I'm super happy that I learned to let it go though, cuz let's be honest, it sounds like a horror movie title, and in fact was already the title of a movie, so I decided to avoid that name due to copyright reasons.

[YoungAdventurer]

Wow, your comic is gorgeous!

[Starfestival]

When I started making Retro I came up with the name first. At the time it was literally the coolest word my 14 year old mind could think of. I just stuck with it.

[demthorshie]

Your comic is extremely adorable btw! I think I saw it on twitter or somewhere a little while back! So cute, rawr! <3

When I first began writing Cosmos Song, I actually didn't even really have a name in mind for it until the around the middle of it. I've never been great at making catchy titles. As I was going through the writing process, I realized that the current title is actually somewhat fitting for the comic's musical aspects later in the story! And the overall theme of the comic.

As I mentioned, the name didn't come to mind until about midway in to writing the story. It's hard for me to give a story a title if i'm not really sure which direction i'm taking it in to early on :s.

I never had to change the original title of the comic but I did go through a lot of title ideas before I stuck with Cosmos Song in the end.

[R.n.P]

The name that I gave my comic just came to me and at that time I never intended to use it as a title for my main character in the series THE LAST SAMURAI

THE LAST SAMURAI

[AnnaLandin]

Grassblades spent a LOT of time being named "Masahiro-verse" (as in main character's name+[uni]verse) while I tinkered with possible titles. I still have the scribbled notes somewhere, page upon page of suggestions and ideas where none of them fit quite right.

My initial instinct is always to go with a longer title with multiple words in it - I like those! - and to stay as far away from the [Noun] of [Noun] and the [Adjective] [Noun]-formats (you know, the "Throne of Shadows", "King of Bones" and "The Golden Sword" kind of titles), as the latter is so common in fantasy novels, which I've read a metric ton of. I find those titles boring.

I started getting a bit closer to where I wanted to be when I remembered that I always liked the titles of Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori-novels - specifically Grass for His Pillow - and Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt. I wanted something that felt similar to that, but at the same time, it needed to fit the story and not give the whole thing away from the start.

So after MUCH tinkering and changing my mind, I finally settled on "Grassblades", because it reminded me a bit of Grass for His Pillow which is a lovely title - and partly because the "blades" bit of the title is a wink to the fact that Masahiro's got a sword. XD

[mariusthered]

my comic stands for what it is. Swipe city stands for .. South West Independent Peoples Enterprise.

it's also a play on words.
swipe as in steal = because the city is full of crime.
and swipe as in hit =because discipline is tough in that city.

so i thought i would call it tales from because it has stories about lots of people who live there not just one family or person.

Talesfromswipecity

[joannekwan]

I usually have a hard time with titles and settle with mundane words in less mundane combinations. :/

[Aspie_Gamer]

For me personally, it wasn't that hard to come with the title for my comic Life of an Aspie. Its about the life of an American girl with asperger's syndrome living and going to school in Japan. Now drawing the comic pages on the other hand...that's been tricky motivation and time wise. Mostly motivation wise.

[ConradComics]

For comics, I know the title from the start. Usually a character/group name or location. Not very creative, but I find it effective. It's descriptive of what's inside, which should help the reader connect to it, especially with a serial.

Short stories are way different for me though. I usually just write them and not even think of a title. If I were to just use a descriptive title like the comics, almost every short story I write would be titled, The Journey. LOL

[R.n.P]

You can try Bleach's method n give a comic a title that is entirely opposite of how the protagonists are like
I used Bleach as an example cuz d good guys are always on black yet its named it after a cleaning product meant for white clothes.

[Tentakustar]

I sometimes just come up with a title. And then make a story around that title.
Just something to be easily understood like, Spiral of Nightmares, Ephemeral Happiness, Pachi GO!, Drill King, Stardust Hero...

those are titles of my stories actually haha! I used them as examples because I felt they would be the best examples I guess...

[Kamikaze]

The comic my team works on is Kamikaze...

And we get a LOT of people asking us why in the world we named our comic something so (for lack of a better term) triggering.

Most of us think of Kamikaze to mean the suicide pilots of Japan during World War 2. While most people know the little tidbit about Kamikaze meaning "Divine Wind", a lot of people don't know where that source came from. So we dug deeper looking for it.

Turns out Japan has an oral history spanning several hundred years of freak storms blowing their enemies to shreds. This happened multiple times with different enemies just chillin in their boats as they prepared to invade. But when night fell these freak hurricanes would blow through absolutely smashing their enemies so they had to limp back home.

When we named Kamikaze we didn't know all this, we just thought it sounded great, but the more we dug into the name, the more it fit.

[VermillionWorks]

When I was considering the title for Daniel, I think I was originally going to have a name related to how Daniel felt when he drank blood..."Sweet Horror" or something like that, can't really remember all of my original ideas, but I know they were very dumb. XP

Then I started considering a one-word title, and eventually settled on using the main character's name since he was the main focus of the story, and I was surprised not many movies or anything had used the title "Daniel", so....yeah. I like it. I grew to like it more once I realized I had picked another vampire story title that was a name that started with 'D'... XP

I find it easier to come up with a title after getting the bulk of the story laid out, you start to see what the main themes are. I mean, it helps a little, but titles are still very hard to think of....even worse, when you think of what could be the perfect title, you find out something else already has the name. >.<

[heterodont]

I have two stories in which their titles clearly reflect the plot and one that's kinda abstract in a way?

Kongene Faller is literally just King's Fall translated into norwegian, which partly is because I started the story when I was in a frenzy about other cultures but also because the dragon main characters canonly speak in a language derivative of norwegian bokmal.

The other one, which is still in development, is called Iconoclast - which means either someone who attacks/destroys religious idols or someone who attacks established beliefs and traditions. The barebones of the plot can be summarized with the latter definition.

The last one is In Memoriam, which I've been told by a friend is definitely a more abstract title than the past two. As you probably know, it just means 'In Memory of' and usually used in context of a funeral or burial. The plot thusfar deals with memory loss, loss of identity, etc. etc. I haven't figured out a way to summarize the plot succinctly.

I usually don't change titles often, I leave it untitled until I find the perfect title.

[nathankschulz]

Though I like the title The Shrouded City, it was hard to come up with it. But I actually LOVE coming up with names and titles for things. I actually have a page in my writing notebook that is devoted to just titles, and one to just names. I find the whole process fun.

[glennsong]

When I started I had a concept for a girl who becomes a god and I knew what the artstyle was going to look like -- which is pretty much what you see in the actual comic. The name This Mortal Coil came a month later when we were doing the ashcan comic for my drawing circle. I forget how...maybe I remembered my Shakespeare or someone triggered me too.

[Aloredd]

I came up with my title by accident, actually. The world of my story is called Adestria and it's a collaboration between me and my sister (though we're always looking for more ppl to join and help expand the world/lore: https://sites.google.com/site/adestria2/) My main character's name is Quixel and hers is Aqua (short for Aquamarine). I was just fooling around and came up with the idea of Tales of Adestria, which turned into Tales of Adestria: [Character's Name]. So mine is Tales of Adestria: Quixel and hers is Tales of Adestria: Aqua. Any additional characters will be the same, and eventually we plan on getting all the characters (or most, depending on quantity/quality) together to have one big adventure (to phrase it generically) and having it named Tales of Adestria: The Gathering (or some such name, haven't really decided quite yet)

[antibenz]

When I think of an idea, I give it a very basic title. I use it as a jumping off point. For example, my current comic's original name was slackers because it was about two lazy people. But it wasn't very good, because I don't think many people would read a story with a description like that. So when I develop the concept more, I revise the title. Something that is more akin to the themes I want to explore rather than the plot. I like to keep titles pretty barebones, usually one or two words that can have multiple interpretations. For slackers, I wanted the title to be a mixture of the ghost story elements and the coming of age elements. So I eventually picked crossing.

[avalonmao]

Keyboard smash+ project and create a meaning from there for Motsuro project....lol (http://tapastic.com/series/motproj)