Flash Fiction Challenge: Come Up With A Title
This one is so damn easy.
And yet, so damn hard.
See, coming up with the new and proper titles for stories is a difficult act, sometimes — you either have the title going in (which makes it easy), or you need to think of a title for a story, and that’s when (for me, at least) it gets hella hard. Thinking of a title for a pre-existing story is the one time when I really get vaporlock in my writing. I just sit there, stammering. “THE… THING ABOUT THE STUFF. THE… THE NIGHT THE EVENT HAPPENED. THE HAPPENING. THE STUFFENING. THE SWORD OF THE NIGHT OF THE REVENGE OF THE RABBIT OH GOD THIS BOOK DOESN’T HAVE SWORDS OR RABBITS AND BARELY ANY REVENGE AT ALL.”
I’m not good at titles.
Ray Bradbury was famous for making up a list of titles and then writing stories to match those titles. And that’s a little bit of what we’re going to do here, today.
All I want you to do is come up with a title.
One title.
No more.
Then take that title and plop it into the comments below.
Next week, you will all have a chance to scout out the completed list of titles in the comments and write a story geared toward one of those made-up titles (one you did not yourself invent).
That’s it. That’s all. Easy, and yet, difficult.
GET THEE TO THE TITLEMOBILE
September 18, 2015 @ 9:40 PM
The Trial of Gary McGee
September 18, 2015 @ 10:03 PM
The Black Hole.
The Adjustment.
September 22, 2015 @ 1:04 PM
“The Adjustment”– love it, and wrote it. 🙂 Will post next week and link back here, just in case you’d like to see it…
September 30, 2015 @ 5:46 PM
Love love love your handle, btw.
October 1, 2015 @ 10:26 PM
Thank you much! 🙂
September 18, 2015 @ 10:30 PM
I want my jetpack!
September 18, 2015 @ 10:41 PM
Two Drops of Silver
September 19, 2015 @ 3:10 AM
Gold!
September 19, 2015 @ 5:07 PM
Love your replies to some of these titles. Haha
September 19, 2015 @ 5:09 PM
It’s definitely a party waiting to be joined as I see it. Thanks for that!
September 19, 2015 @ 5:10 PM
No problem. Did you submit a title?
September 19, 2015 @ 5:24 PM
“Mr Dastardly”, but since that has garnered no reaction, if I had my time over again I’d embellish it to –
“Mr Dartardly Meets Tourniquet Ted” (The Serial Killer Chronicles Volume 9)… not that there’s been a previous eight volumes but just to give the illusion and feel that this is a well-established, successful, not-to- be-ignored series.
September 19, 2015 @ 5:27 PM
I liked Mr. Dastardly. And putting Volume 9 on it is a good idea to get responses haha.
September 19, 2015 @ 5:31 PM
Thankyou and thankyou to Chuck for making our exchange possible.
September 19, 2015 @ 5:33 PM
Yes, yes. Thank you Chuck
September 18, 2015 @ 10:44 PM
Kilara
September 18, 2015 @ 11:38 PM
The Sound of Fire
September 19, 2015 @ 1:58 AM
Stardust Dancer
September 19, 2015 @ 11:14 PM
It brings to mind either a fantasy or a sci-fi. Very cool.
September 20, 2015 @ 11:41 PM
Thank you! Kind of the tone I was aiming for.
September 19, 2015 @ 2:03 AM
She Never Dies Quietly
September 19, 2015 @ 1:02 PM
Grisly and creepy, by which I mean: excellent.
September 19, 2015 @ 11:15 PM
*like*
September 25, 2015 @ 12:35 PM
Love!
September 26, 2015 @ 1:59 AM
After choosing several titles that I liked and experimenting with a few opening sentences, I’ve chosen this one for my story. Thank you! I’ll link to it on Chuck’s new post, as well as back here.
September 29, 2015 @ 11:03 PM
I’ve added a link to my story link in the proper blog post but I wanted to pop it in here, too. thanks for the title!
http://writingaboutreading.com/writing-about-writing/ffc-wendig-title/
“She screamed when I killed her for the last time. Of course she had. She always did.”
September 30, 2015 @ 11:30 PM
Really, really good.This one deserves a (traditional) publisher.
September 19, 2015 @ 2:27 AM
Trailing Clouds of Glory
September 26, 2015 @ 9:08 AM
I misread this as Trailing Clouds of Gary… An entirely different sort of precipitation.
September 30, 2015 @ 5:48 PM
I misread it as Tailing Clouds of Gory.
September 30, 2015 @ 8:25 PM
That sounds like a book in the George R. R. Martin Game of Thrones Series–if only he was required to use a title to describe the content. (Great writer, by the way, I just need someone to hold me after I’ve read one of his books.)
September 30, 2015 @ 8:42 PM
🙂 thanks, I’ll check him out.
October 1, 2015 @ 7:16 PM
Only if you like gratuitous violence and debasing women in fiction. In fact, I’d recommend the HBO series to save you time. It really brings the story to life to see someone beheaded, be-handed, be-…uh…let’s stop with the body parts for now. Let’s just say, if there is a part that can be chopped off, Martin has made it a goal to cover the entire body of work so to speak.
October 2, 2015 @ 1:24 AM
Oh, okay got it. I thought you meant “hold me” as in cuddle, not “I’m scared shitless and human beings suck.”
September 19, 2015 @ 2:27 AM
Nobody’s got to know
September 19, 2015 @ 3:13 AM
On the contrary, everyone’s got to know. This is brilliant!
September 20, 2015 @ 3:29 AM
Thanks! Here’s a really brilliant title though (sadly not mine): Do you remember love?
September 20, 2015 @ 3:38 AM
To selflessly acknowledge the originality of another – that’s what I call citing with honour. Well done John, but I still say yours is the title that launches a thousand conspiracies and countless noir-ish arterial subplots!
September 19, 2015 @ 3:10 AM
In Full Flight
September 19, 2015 @ 3:13 AM
One More
September 19, 2015 @ 3:51 AM
Finders Minders, Losers Boozers
September 30, 2015 @ 5:49 PM
Lol, *perfect*!
September 19, 2015 @ 4:35 AM
Falling Flames
September 19, 2015 @ 6:50 AM
How to Hide the Body in 5 Easy Steps
September 19, 2015 @ 6:53 PM
Please tell me that you already wrote this story. Seems like required reading.
September 20, 2015 @ 5:38 AM
Sadly, no. But I’d love to read it!
September 19, 2015 @ 8:12 AM
Jump. Don’t look back.
September 25, 2015 @ 12:40 PM
I might give this one a try. Sounds like it could be implied as the last line of the story.
September 19, 2015 @ 8:44 AM
CD21
September 20, 2015 @ 9:41 AM
The complement receptor?
September 21, 2015 @ 8:31 AM
I’m not too sure what that is…
To be fair, I’m not too sure what the story would be, either, this title just popped into my head and generated quite a few possibilities.
September 21, 2015 @ 9:03 AM
Sorry…science geek went there first. It’s a protein on the outside of white blood cells and (per a journal article,)
“CD21 is important as a receptor for Epstein-Barr virus and HIV.”
September 22, 2015 @ 3:57 PM
Ahhhh hahaha! Fist bump, science nerd.
September 23, 2015 @ 8:19 AM
Fist bump 🙂
September 19, 2015 @ 8:56 AM
Sorry got two and I can’t decide which one. “It’s Not Easy Being Queen!” and “My Mother’s Children.”
September 19, 2015 @ 9:00 AM
The Fine Art of Becoming Nothing
September 25, 2015 @ 1:31 PM
I’ve actually written something on this before work this morning. Not quite fiction, but not quite fact either.
Will post later on.
September 19, 2015 @ 9:21 AM
Intended for Later Use
The Prolific Life of Isabelle Parceley
Coblestones of the Road
Luggage, Skies and Fans
Off the top of my head!
September 19, 2015 @ 5:34 PM
And … ‘Off the Top of my Head’ 😀
September 19, 2015 @ 5:42 PM
Good one Widdershins, or may I call you Widdie for short?
September 19, 2015 @ 5:44 PM
LOL … Widds works for me. 🙂
September 19, 2015 @ 5:49 PM
Widds it is. Your type of humour adds spark to a forum such as this and hopefully prevents people from taking themselves too seriously in the way that textual analysts are known to sometimes do. Well done.
September 19, 2015 @ 9:26 AM
Under The River
September 19, 2015 @ 9:38 AM
The Shipping List
September 19, 2015 @ 9:50 AM
Raising Werewolves
September 19, 2015 @ 9:51 AM
How the Rain Gets In
September 19, 2015 @ 11:16 PM
Sounds sad… and creepy :}
September 23, 2015 @ 2:27 PM
I borrowed this one for this week’s flash–I’ll use another next week, when we are really supposed to be doing it.
September 25, 2015 @ 11:02 AM
Here’s the story:
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2015/09/friday-flash-fiction-how-rain-gets-in.html
September 19, 2015 @ 10:04 AM
No Man’s Land
September 19, 2015 @ 10:09 AM
Kennel Hell
September 19, 2015 @ 11:00 AM
Fourth Child, Third Son
September 19, 2015 @ 11:00 AM
Happily Never After
September 19, 2015 @ 11:16 AM
Scream for the Silence.
September 19, 2015 @ 12:19 PM
Grey Coffee
September 19, 2015 @ 6:52 PM
eww. Don’t drink that!
September 19, 2015 @ 12:54 PM
Easy Street.
September 19, 2015 @ 1:19 PM
Girl Lost or the Adventures of Space Boy Dan
September 19, 2015 @ 6:54 PM
Is that one title?
September 20, 2015 @ 3:59 PM
yup 🙂
September 19, 2015 @ 1:49 PM
Unscripted, Heavily Edited
September 19, 2015 @ 2:48 PM
Bloodlust: Rebirth of The Sanguinarian
September 20, 2015 @ 2:50 AM
Omg! I can almost see the video game… Nice one:)
September 21, 2015 @ 8:31 AM
Gracias Anna 🙂
September 19, 2015 @ 3:46 PM
Sun Block
September 19, 2015 @ 4:18 PM
How to Sing Butterflies
September 19, 2015 @ 5:03 PM
The Baby
September 26, 2015 @ 9:12 AM
Can I just say, ever since Rosemary’s Baby I have been creeped out about stories about babies?!
September 19, 2015 @ 5:14 PM
“The Devil’s Restroom”
September 19, 2015 @ 6:42 PM
River Rage
September 19, 2015 @ 6:51 PM
A Smell of Roses
September 19, 2015 @ 6:52 PM
The Conception: Tothe and the Last Armies
September 19, 2015 @ 7:16 PM
There is Beauty in the Bellow of the Blast.
September 19, 2015 @ 7:42 PM
Of course, I didn’t make up this title, per se, as it’s a song from The Mikado. Still, I’d like to see what story comes from it.
September 27, 2015 @ 7:03 AM
I sang that once!
September 19, 2015 @ 9:38 PM
Best Friends Forever: A Clint the Fish Adventure
Chuck Wants a Title | Writer Chick
September 19, 2015 @ 10:39 PM
[…] Chuck is at it again. His flash fiction challenge is to come up with a title which will be used in a future flash […]
September 19, 2015 @ 10:46 PM
Full Blood
September 19, 2015 @ 11:17 PM
Josh Has To Die
September 20, 2015 @ 12:14 AM
poor Josh
September 20, 2015 @ 12:35 AM
Reckon Josh had it comin’.
September 20, 2015 @ 1:48 AM
Empty Rictus
September 20, 2015 @ 2:23 AM
Treading water: A sinking story
September 20, 2015 @ 2:46 AM
No Escape
September 27, 2015 @ 2:06 PM
That’s a movie in the cinemas right now. When I heard the title I thought it was Noah’s Cape!
September 20, 2015 @ 3:16 AM
A place at the Hearth (this article is serendipitous as I finally came up with the title after months of working on the book with no name (ooooh ‘the book with no name’ why not))
September 25, 2015 @ 4:55 PM
The Book With No Name reminds me of “This Book Does Not Exist.” http://www.amazon.com/This-Book-Does-Not-Exist-ebook/dp/B003ZUYPKS