In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Topic: Succinct Titles
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something… You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” JRR Tolkein
“[T]hings that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” JRR Tolkein
Topic: Succinct Titles
I had a strange thought this morning and decided to share it. C’mon into my head for a moment.
It all started when I glanced down below at the tentative or working title of my current novel. That definitely will not be the title of the finished version, and not only because it’s the title of the short story that started it all.
The title was adequate (though far from perfect) for the short story, but it falls far short of adequate for the novel.
I need a good, succinct title. Something like Time After Time but something that hasn’t been used time after time. Something short and biting that hints strongly at the content. On the other hand, I trust (really) that the story itself will hand me the title sometime before it ends.
Then for some reason I thought about Tolkein and his masterpieces. I’m not lauding Tolkein or his publisher or whomever for the titles, but I am lauding the titles themselves. Absolutely Excellent. The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings (and the titles of the three books within). The Silmarillion. Excellent.
Then an image of a hobbit popped into my head, and he was wearing a slick suit with a fedora cocked slightly on his head. I wasn’t quite able to picture rich Italian leather shoes on his oversized, furry feet, so those and his stature remained to indicate maybe he really was one of the good guys instead of a wise guy. But the emotionless, steely look in eyes jerked the picture back to the alternate reality.
And I realized that alternate reality came from the terse title too. You know. The Hobbit. The Godfather. Ugh. What is wrong with me?
So maybe next up will be an alternate history story about a little guy who eats six meals a day and is publicly jovial and who receives a strange visitor (a shadowy, mysterious guy known only as The Wizard) in his home late one night.
A home that the hobbit suddenly finds taken over by others whom the strange visitor has invited because he knows he will get away with doing so. After all, The Wizard is the one person whom The Hobbit won’t cross. And so we have The Dwarf. The Elf. Et al.
Of course (heh heh) the story probably won’t be written, at least by me. Still interesting to think about though, however briefly. I suppose in the end whether I write it will all come down to how much I want to know about the little menace. (I’m tugging at Superman’s cape here. I’ll bet The Hobbit—the guy, not the title—doesn’t like being called “little,” or a “menace” for that matter.)
Hey, if you know any of the good folks over at Corporate Mordor, you might want to suggest they put an extra guard on the gate.
Oh, and yeah, I had a good writing day yesterday. Hope it was the same for you or better.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “The Em Dash and I—A Love Story” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/02/the-em-dash-and-i-a-love-story.html.
See “The 37 Best Lines from The Hobbit” at https://bookriot.com/the-37-best-lines-from-the-hobbit/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 600 words
Writing of How “Best” Is Defined (novel, tentative title)
Words brought forward……………………………………………… 6997
Day 1…… 5644 words. Total words to date…… 12641
Day 2…… 5799 words. Total words to date…… 18440
Day 3…… 6237 words. Total words to date…… 24677
Day 4…… 5620 words. Total words to date…… 30297
Day 5…… 4877 words. Total words to date…… 3565
Total fiction words for February……… 55290
Total fiction words for the year………… 152767
Total nonfiction words for February… 10450
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 35780
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 188547
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 56
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 215
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31