Advice about titles
I was wondering if my followers would be kind enough to help me with some titles for original stories.
As my readers will know by now, I’ve been complaining about how no one ever reads my original stories on Wattpad. It just occurred to me that maybe some of the titles may be boring or give the wrong idea or something.
What do you think?
Long Farewell is a story about Linnaeus and his ‘disciples’, one of which was his ‘most beloved’, which kind of set my slash mind to work. The title is from a song by Thompson Twins. One line says ‘when your love has gone away, it’s a long goodbye’. (I exchanged the word ‘goodbye’ for ‘farewell’ since I felt it was a bit more old-fashioned, and would suit the 18th century better.) Does this sound boring? Does it give the wrong idea about the content about the story? Can you think of another reason why people don’t read this story?
Julian’s Secret. Story about two brothers. The older brother thinks his younger brother is gay, but suddenly he finds out that his brother has not just one but four (or even five) big secrets he never had a clue about and one of them is that he (Julian) isn’t gay at all, but a prostitute. Is the title Julian’s Secret too melodramatic? Should it be Julian’s Secrets, in plural, to be more accurate? Any other suggestion?
Playing With Fire. Story about a young man who’s a model and a student but is having a hard time keeping up with his studies, one reason being that he’s sniffing cocaine. He has an old friend (a girl) who is obsessed with him and stalks him. (Charming, I know). She finds out more about his life than she bargains for and suddenly someone dies. I thought that the cocaine and the stalking could fit into the idea of ‘playing with fire’ but maybe it’s too melodramatic too? Or does it give the wrong idea about the story’s content?
The Road Taken (maybe I shouldn’t have been presumptuous enough to steal from that famous poem). My idea was that the two girls in the story take a road they’ve been wondering about for years, but learn the hard way that maybe the shouldn’t have. It’s a horror story or at least a ghost story. Not my usual thing. Does the title give the wrong idea? Does it sound boring? Should I change it to something else?
Most of the others seem to be more or less inevitable, so I’m not going to ask about them. I did a lot of research to find them, so if people don’t like them, tough. Another one – The Witch’s Mark – is kind of necessary because the whole story is about how a witch marks a young boy to protect him and later recognizes him by that mark.
My writing again…
Now that I’m finished with almost all my writing (but the most important books are still left unfinished), I’m getting restless again. I really miss having something to do with my stories. At this time, I’ve edited and proofread them all and all that’s left is a story that I might not even finish at all. In the time since I had the idea for it, I have lost my interest in it and feel it’s rather boring. In a way, it’s a shame, because I can still remember how enthusiastic I once was over it, but not now.
I’m really looking forward to getting my two other works in progress saved from the crashed computer, because I’ve grown used to being busy writing every day. Now I feel lazy and bored.
You may wonder why I’m so bored and the truth is, at this time I’m constantly tired. Any physical activity at all, such as walking down the stairs and up again or just going into the kitchen for a while leaves me exhausted. All I can do is sit, which probably isn’t very good for me. What I can do is read and write so I try to do that. Unfortunately, I can’t read nearly as much as I want to so it’s going to have to be writing. If I can find something to write, that is.
About my writing – un update
When I realized that I probably wouldn’t be writing any more fan fiction for a while, I was a bit disappointed and even more, nervous about how my original fiction would come along.
Fortunately, at the moment I’m right in the middle of a novella that seems to be working out great. I couldn’t be more thrilled, because while writing the fan fiction was a lot of fun, this is even more fun.
I was able to get one other novella sent to the printers the other day. Yesterday I also discovered that one of what I thought of as my ‘long short stories’ was actually novella-length so I will have that published as well. And of course, this original novella when I’m finished with it. I’m already about two-thirds finished with it. There’s a lot of work still to be done, but I’m really enjoying myself so far.
What I’m referring to as novellas can also be described as YA books, but either way, I’m getting more books published sooner than I expected. Which is good, because I have so much more writing to do before January. I want to at least finish with the writing. Proof-reading, editing and so on could possibly wait, but the writing and translation will have to be done before the end of January, or I’m not sure when I’ll ever get it finished.
Stripping for Fiction
A major mistake when writing is to look at word count. We want to write a novel, or at least a novella, but that is where we fall prey to bad writing. Let the story tell the story until it’s finished.
Read more here.
Just translated the last story
I have now finished translating and posting the last story from my Swedish website. So now they’re all here.
Five Things To Consider Before You Write An Epic Fantasy
Epic fantasies are always cool. But these aren’t easy to write.
Read more here.
How Long Should Your Novel Be?
Every writer, at some point in time, is bound to ask themselves: How long should a book be?
As a novelist you want to make sure the length is right. Too short and your readers will be severely disappointed. Too long and you risk boring them.
In order to help you find the right length for your novel, consider the following questions.
Read more here.
Poll: Should I translate my Moomin fanfic into English?
Loading ...Until now I’ve held back, because I wanted to stay true to the original, which is very hard. Tove Jansson wrote in a very special way, in (Finlandic) Swedish. I’m far from certain I can manage that in English. Then again, I have read one of those little previews on Amazon and found that the English translator hadn’t done that at all. It was written in good, ordinary English, not in anything that can be compared to Tove Jansson’s original language. That’s probably not even possible. So maybe I should try it anyway. What do you guys think? If you’re interested, please answer the poll above, or just comment on this post.
