Jun. 3rd, 2005
This space deliberately left blank
Jun. 3rd, 2005 09:57 pmThe problem with this not writing thing, is it's hard to look back at the day and say "I accomplished this". The upside, I seem to have this spare time every evening. Odd.
I did get some fiddling with a story done. That is to say, I read it, added some commas, thought "this isn't too bad" and tried to think of a title for it. *sigh* Titles should be optional. This from someone who picks stories from the slush pool to look at based on the title :|
I think I need a better system for that. I keep getting story after story that is "nice but doesn't grab me". Bah. And who pinched all the fantasy? More bah. Last time I did an issue of ASIM I had to make an effort to find something I liked that could be considered SF, now it seems to be fantasy I'm having problems finding. Although I did find one today that almost made me cry so I had to grab that (pending the author agreeing, checks email again).
A good title does make the story though. A really good title, can actually add an extra layer of meaning to the story. Or the meaning of the title will be different after you've read the story.
It has to be attention getting, without being pretentious. It has to give some indication of what the story is about, or not give the wrong impression. It has to be relatively original so to avoid confusion.
All that in a handful or less of words. No wonder they're so hard to come up with :|
I spent years trying to come up with a title for one novel and finally sent it out under the very exciting "Shadows". I didn't think my working title of "Stupid Novel" was original enough.
But it is frustrating to have something ready to submit except for those little words at the top of the page.
I did get some fiddling with a story done. That is to say, I read it, added some commas, thought "this isn't too bad" and tried to think of a title for it. *sigh* Titles should be optional. This from someone who picks stories from the slush pool to look at based on the title :|
I think I need a better system for that. I keep getting story after story that is "nice but doesn't grab me". Bah. And who pinched all the fantasy? More bah. Last time I did an issue of ASIM I had to make an effort to find something I liked that could be considered SF, now it seems to be fantasy I'm having problems finding. Although I did find one today that almost made me cry so I had to grab that (pending the author agreeing, checks email again).
A good title does make the story though. A really good title, can actually add an extra layer of meaning to the story. Or the meaning of the title will be different after you've read the story.
It has to be attention getting, without being pretentious. It has to give some indication of what the story is about, or not give the wrong impression. It has to be relatively original so to avoid confusion.
All that in a handful or less of words. No wonder they're so hard to come up with :|
I spent years trying to come up with a title for one novel and finally sent it out under the very exciting "Shadows". I didn't think my working title of "Stupid Novel" was original enough.
But it is frustrating to have something ready to submit except for those little words at the top of the page.