The Title Game

Howdy, hey-dy, ho! How are we today? Got any fabulous Labor Day Weekend plans? I’m getting an early birthday present. My husband’s taking the kids to his parents for two days! I can sleep! I can read! And work my various writing projects!

First I need to enter a cool blog contest over at Falen Formulates Fiction. See the Sept. 1 entry for all the details and a link to enter. The prizes include some gorgeous journals among other things.

So the game. Have you noticed the number of books with similar titles?

The Bonesetter’s Daughter
The Memory-Keeper’s Daughter
The Senator’s Wife
The Time Traveler’s Wife

Can you think of any others along this vein?

I suppose something comes along in fiction, sells like the dickens, and everyone else wants a piece of the action so they mimic the cover design and/or the title. I’m fully expecting a rash of title’s mimicking “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels, but is that title a mimic of something else? The Boy Who Cried Wolf? The Man Who Came To Dinner? Hmmm. Maybe someone out there knows.

So here’s the game. Take your wip and mimic one of these formulaic titles. I’ll go first:

The Invalid’s Daughter, bleh. Familial relations don’t really work well with my characters. Maybe The Psychic’s Keeper. Better. The Psychic’s Guardian. Okay, this is harder than I thought.

The Girl With . . . The Girl Who . . . uh, my character doesn’t have any tattoos, dragon or otherwise. Should I give her a natural streak in her hair? Big Bear’s hair is dark brown with a blond streak down one side. But that doesn’t make such a fantastic title. Ah hah! I've got it! The Girl Who Stole Christmas because she kidnaps a kid right before the holiday. There, that's it. What? That title's been taken by a green, misanthropic creature with a scrawny dog and an attitude problem?

Bummer, back to the drawing board.