A good title for your book or story makes all the difference. I’ve written about the value of titles that scream the genre, and about “open loop” titles that create a sense of mystery. Today, I’m going to look at titles that play on the familiar, and give you a little advice on how to do that!
Lots of books use familiar phrases as book titles. You can probably think of a bunch of them! They fall into a few different categories.
They can be parts of quotes that are in the public domain.
There are lots of these!
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe.
This classic takes its name from a line in the W.B. Yeats poem “The Second Coming.” Joan Didion also named a book of essays from a line in this poem: Slouching Toward Bethlehem.
Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
This comes from John Keats’s poem “Ode to a Nightingale.”
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.
Huxley’s dystopian classic takes its title from a line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest: “O brave new world,/That has such people in’t!”
Mr. Donovan reminded me of two William Faulkner titles like this: The Sound and the Fury, which also comes from Shakespeare, and Absalom, Absalom, which comes from the Bible.
They can be familiar sayings or axioms.
‘Til Death Do Us Part, Amanda Quick.
This one also screams the genre — you know it’s romance, and you know there will be an element of either suspense, paranormal, or horror (turns out it’s suspense.)
They can be song titles, which (unlike song lyrics) are not protected by copyright.
As Time Goes By, Mary Higgins Clark.
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami.
What are the benefits of a familiar phrase as a book title?
It’s memorable.
Depending on the phrase, it can give the book a sense of legitimacy and importance.
It may evoke a certain mood in the reader.
Now occasionally, some people use phrases or expressions that are not necessarily well known, but are used in the world of the story. Titles like For instance, the movie Zero Dark Thirty, written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, took its name from the military term for thirty minutes past midnight. Most of us were unfamiliar with the phrase, but having “zero” and “dark” in the title gave it a sense of drama and urgency.
How can you come up with titles that play on familiar phrases? Here are a few ideas!
Use a keyword for your story and look up idioms.
Let’s say you’re writing a story whose main character is a wedding cake decorator. “Cake” might be a good keyword, so type this into Google search: “cake idiom.”
Your first hit will probably be The Free Dictionary. Click on that, and it will give you a bunch of axioms, such as a piece of cake, the icing on the cake, and that takes the cake! Who knows? You might find one that works for your story.
Browse quotes from classic writers you like.
You can’t rip off contemporary authors, but you can use quotes in the public domain. (Be aware that if you are using poetry in translation, the translation has to be old enough to be in public domain.)
Browse lists of songs.
This might be particularly good for a historical novel. For instance, if you’re writing a book set in the 1940s, browse the top 100 songs of the decade.
Do you think playing off a familiar phrase might be right for one of your stories? Can you think of great examples — or ones that fell flat? Let me know in the comments! Happy writing!
It’s funny you mention Zero Dark Thirty (to me, anyway) because I’ve had an early-morning job for several years now, and my mother got me in the habit of using the phrase “oh-dark-thirty” to describe when I have to get up in the morning. My mother is a huge fan of military fiction in all forms, so after ZDT I finally realized where she’d gotten the phrase, and how she’d gotten it slightly wrong!
Elena, that’s so funny! If I saw it written in numbers I’d say “oh-dark-thirty” too.
Bryn, Thanks for posting this third Title post! I do love famous phrases in titles. Your Open Loop post really got me motivated to work on my title. And this is helping too. I’ll let you know what I think of!
Hi JA! You’re so welcome 🙂 I’d love to hear what you wind up with — bet it will be great!
Yes, I love clever titles, but they need to make sense for the book. I have gotten irritated after finishing a book and wondering what the title has to do with what’s inside. So I think the title needs to be clever but clear, concise but tempting, and telling about what’s inside.
Pamela — haha, that’s a very good point! I hate it when a title isn’t relevant. Thank you for mentioning that!
Great post. My book series uses the device of a play on the main character’s name, Frankly Speaking, Let Me Be Frank, Frank Incensed, etc. I am hoping I didn’t paint myself into a corner. 🙂
Don, now I can’t stop thinking about plays on “Frank” 😀 Frank and Further… Never mind, that is terrible!
The story I’m working on now has gone through a few title changes. The title I have now is (unfortunately) song lyrics “Every Kind of Silence” from Hedley’s “Perfect”. I know that I would need the musician/song lyricist’s permission if I publish my story with that title . . . but I don’t want any other title. Those words are perfect for my story! Thoughts or suggestions? Should I think of something else?
Ahh, that’s hard, Erin. Maybe you could brainstorm phrases that are close to it, without being exactly that. 🙂
This is not legal advice… but. Based on my experience with copyright at my day job, I strongly suspect the phrase is too short to be protectable. But of course, I wouldn’t use it without consulting an intellectual property lawyer.
In any case, it’s altogether possible that you might wind up with a new title you like even more. 🙂 Good luck!!
For the past two days I’ve tried to read comments on your page. But this comes up, “Oops! That page can’t be found.” I had to go to the e-mail about formulas-for-catchy-titles … to find a link that works. I enjoy reading your posts,
Yeah, Kathryn, I don’t know what’s up, but WordPress has been glitchy as all get out! They issued a new version and I didn’t update right away (they had a warning about backing up your whole website before updating), so that might be the problem? I just updated now, so hopefully things will run smoothly 🙂 Thank you for reading!!
Nyss hittat hit till din sida å gud så glad jag är över det!! Det var då bland de gotdase bröd jag nånsin har ätit, tack! =)
Bryn Donover, I am writing a romance with much musical influence and I was wondering if a good book title would be, “Sing from the same songsheet”