How do you come up with a title?

I drive someone to work very early in the morning, and spent the hours drive home writing in my head. I usually know exactly the way a story is headed when I sit down at the computer. I panic, when I hit save and my word program wants to know save as what, and usually title it the first thing that comes to mind. After that, its like a mental block, and I'll be darned if anything better ever comes to mind.

Titles I would like to see.

The Paddling Agents of the CSA.
Wife of Stainless Steel Rat Caned on Planet Q.
elliej's Poetry Wins a Surprise Spanking.
The Woodies Turn the Tables: R. Humphrey Thrashed.
The Well Spanked Library Staff.
Sister Sarah Visits the RDSC.
Number of Stories Equals Number of Strokes for Grace & John.

You could go on and on.

Is that the Child Support Agency (UK) or the Confederate States of America (1861-5)?

I dream up stories when on a long walk (my long-distance treks are productive as there are fewer distractions than usual, but I need to make notes or I forget), or driving, or on the train or, at risk of being misunderstood, in bed. I start with a basic idea which I gradually develop and complicate: for example, the story "Sylvan Meant Savage" which I recently posted started with the idea of two policewomen interrupting a couple engaged in an al fresco spanking, breaking it up and suffering the consequences. Then I thought of them being followed by a candid photographer who joins in - which allowed me to have one of the cops fallign behind and trying to rescue the other, only to fall foul of the sneaky photographer. Then I decided to bring in a bunch of Italian teenagers. At that point I started writing the thing and thought of the first group of rescuing coppers deciding not to rescue the girls at all. Then - England having just been humiliated at the World Cup (football) it occurred to me to make the teacher leading the Italian party a sort of parody of Fabio Capello, a man whose sternness would fit the subject well. I had a rough idea of the ending from nearly the start. The title came from I don't know where shortly before I started writing.

Some titles are pretty obvious ("Parslow in India"). I note the point about titles that tell you what the story is about, but I think it can also be fun on both sides of a title mystifies. I think it should be short, snappy and memorable (the title, that is, wretched boy!). If there's an element of parody or tribute, the title should reflect that ("A Dressless Hush"). I've noticed fairly recently that some titles do seem to attract more readers to the story than others, and amazingly, titles about nurses or indicating a school setting seem to be popular. What I really like is a title whose full meaning only becomes evident near the end of the story, but for that you must be Very Very Clever.

I like the Stainless Steel Rat one. Did Jim ever actually spank her? If he didn't, he should have.

Ha! Too funny. However. CSA stands for Central Spanking Agency from the two Rick Marlowe stories.


Slippery Jim DeGriz spank his adored Angelina? Only if she is drugged unconscious, your will is up to date, and you have a one way ticket out of this dimension! Check out H. Harrisons new installment just released a few days ago. 'The Stainless Steel Rat Returns'.

I sometimes feel torn between choosing a title that will catch the passing reader's eye (usually with an overtly spanking-related word in it) and the one that actually fits best, or is 'neatest'. I agree that, like a newspaper headline, a title should aim to summarise the content of the story whilst also, if possible, being eye-catching. But summarising 3,000 words or more in 4 or 5 isn't always possible.

Personally I like titles that hint at some theme of, or are quotes from the story itself, especially when the title is echoed in the last line: it's as if you've come full circle. Just once, I started a story with the title only and worked from there (shameless, it was!); otherwise, for me, it's the fun bit at the end of the creative process, like what colour ribbon to wrap your gift in.

A new Stainless Steel Rat book? I've got to get to a book store.

But as for spanking Angelina, that could have only happened for fun. Now that she's got a surgically implanted conscious she really doesn't need to be taught a lesson, and before that (when she was a psycho) it would have been impossible to teach her a lesson.

Back to the topic, sometimes I'm terrible for titles. I can write a story and then stare at it for hours trying to think of a title, but there are other times when the title drives the story.

Goodgulf

Jus once did I do that ("Best Planned Lays"). Otherwise, for me, appending titles has been a haphazard process. Most of my stories never had a proper title. I merely gave them a file name. Since that was back in the day that Microsoft Word only allowed 8-letter names, I would merely pick one or two words (often abbreviated) that distinguished that story from the others - no need for any spanking reference, since they were ALL about spanking. When I first submitted them for posting to another site, I let the owner of that site select titles - some of which I loved, some of which I hated. When I later posted them to other sites, I either tried to give them half-way decent titles, or else used jsut the one- or two-word fiel name (which, after years, I had come to think of as 'the title.). As a result, when the Library (orginally BL) harvested my stories from off the web, they ended up with multiple versions of the same stories. just under different titles. (Had I managed to post them first on several more other sites, I could have approached the number of titles - but not stories! - managed by John Benson and Grace Brackenridge). Nobody seemed to notice but me (a testatment,perhaps, to a less-than-enthusiastic reader base?). With the help of the staff, I managed to cull out the duplicates (or most of them, anyway - there are still two left).

Dang - I was rambling again. My point was that I find it difficult to be clever with my titles, leaving me with a lot of dull ones. I appreciate all the readers who find it in themseves to read the stories anyway.

I come up with the title first, nearly all the time. The story follows on if I like the title and the images it conjures up in my mind.

I like to choose an arty, teasing or enigmatic title if possible. I know I'd get more readers if I chose things like "Back To School" or "Naughty Wife Spanked" but it's just not my way.

I do the same with coming up with the title first. I have my characters in mind already. For example: The Hairbrush From Janine.

I started that one as the first Janine story, and then went into others without her name like: I'm At My Wits End. I use the Ordered Series to show that it's a Janine story. The title is just what I believe to happen in the story between two or more characters. Some people use the title as Eye Candy to catch the eyes of the readers. I use mine as that sometimes, but mostly for what happens in my story.