How to Give Your Book a Classic Title

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

Every author wants a book that will hold its own against the 300,000 new books that are published in the U.S. each year.  To give it a fighting chance, it has to capture the reader's interest instantly, and a solid title will help make that good first impression.

As always, we learn much from the ones who've gone before.  Let's consider some of the classics of literature, and see how the pros did it:


THE MAIN CHARACTER

• Dracula
• Jane Eyre
• Moby Dick
• The Great Gatsby

What could be easier than simply naming your book after its lead character?  That said, don't do it.  These books were written in a different era, when it was in vogue to to do.  Robinson Crusoe and Anne of Green Gables sound classic to us today because they are classic.  In this day and time, it's unlikely that a new book called Regina Thornbush or The Adventures of Wallace Hampton would attract anyone's attention.

If you must hone in on the hero, these days it's more popular to keep things faceless and generic, like the titles of these current New York Times bestsellers: 

• The Girl on the Train 
• The Murderer's Daughter

THE SETTING

• The Arabian Nights
• The Jungle Book
• Little House on the Prairie
• Treasure Island

This approach, immediately answering the question of "Where?" still works as long as the locale happens to be intriguing or evocative, like in the above examples or, more recently, The Great Zoo of China. John Grisham's Gray Mountain and Sycamore Row say little as titles, but hey, he's John Grisham, and his fans will buy anything he writes.

Overall, it's better to play it safe with some of the following titling strategies:

AN INKLING OF THE PREMISE

• The Call of the Wild 
• Kidnapped
• Little Women 
• The Scarlet Letter

Giving your reader insight into the subject matter gets their imagination going.  Or perhaps you'd like to get specific:

LITERAL

• Around the World in Eighty Days
• Journey to the Center of the Earth
• The Old Man and the Sea 
• The Time Machine

Identifying the main premise simply and directly may help your reader determine on the spot that it's something of interest to them.

INTRIGUING

• Lord of the Flies 
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 
• The Color Purple
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Would you have any idea what these books were about from the title alone? Unlikely, but their vague sense of importance conjures curiosity.  As with 2015 bestsellers Go Set a Watchman and Secondhand Souls, a thought-provoking title demands extra consideration.

And then there are titles whose very wording suggests an air of greatness:

POETIC

• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Gone with the Wind 
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Of Mice and Men

Again, the premise is unclear, but the overall feel of erudition commands a certain respect.  All the Light We Cannot See is a current example.  You feel smarter just saying it.

Choosing the right title for your novel is one of the most important things you'll do, but it needn't be the hardest. Find the title that is an inviting reflection of what makes your book unique, and you'll have your reader at hello.

Editing Genius and Your Writing

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

Until I watched the recently released movie Genius, I didn't know the name Maxwell Perkins. Escaping the sweltering heat in a cool movie theatre one afternoon, I was mesmerized by this movie. With an outstanding cast led by Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney, I was not disappointed. The movie starts in 1929, when Maxwell reads The unpublished Thomas Wolfe original offering that had been passed around the publishing houses of New York City at the point until it landed on Perkins' desk. 

What the movie didn't tell was Perkins, a Harvard graduate, began his career in the advertising department at Charles Scribner's Sons publishing house in 1910. He moved to the editorial department in 1914. With that move, American literature was forever impacted. We are all better for Perkins's ability to find undiscovered authors who were often rejected elsewhere. As his character says in the movie, "my only job is to put good books in the hands of the readers."

It's so interesting to get a glimpse into publishing in 1929  before our world of electronic submissions.  Authors actually knew their editors, and editors knew their authors. Editing was done with a red pencil. Volumes of edited papers were typed up by a secretarial pool of typists. Through the editorial process, a new author states, "I bring you stuff wretched right from my gut." Perkins reassures the author, "the book belongs to you...that's what we editors lose sleep over, you know. Are we really making books better or just making them different?" Profound. 

Five years after joining the editorial staff at Scribner's, he set himself apart by signing F. Scott Fitzgerald and although it had been rejected within Scribner's, Perkins worked with the author on revisions. Perkins then garnered support in the publisher's house and This Side of Paradise was published in 1920. It was the roaring 20's with the Great Depression approaching. Fitzgerald's publication could easily be paired with the arrival of new American authors with different writing styles. The Great Gatsby followed in 1925. Through Fitzgerald, Perkins met Ernest Hemingway. Perkins fought for Hemingway's first book, The Sun Also Rises, and it was published in 1926, even though traditional editors objected to the profanity in the book. Perkins was a rebel in the editorial publishing world. A Farewell to Arms followed in 1929.  

His editorial skills were tested in his relationship with Southern author, Thomas Wolfe. His first book, Look Homeward Angel had to have 90,000 words cut to be published in 1929. His second book, Of Times and the River brought more challenges for Perkins. 

Max Perkins was noted for his courtesy with a professionalism that was able to discover new authors. He recognized unique writing that readers wanted to read all while developing writers as few editors did, or do. In watching the movie, I was intrigued by Maxwell Perkins. Many books have been written about Perkins's relationships with his authors. There are numerous books based on letters between author and their editor, Maxwell Perkins. Fascinating. It makes me wonder if Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe would have found publishers in today's world if publishing. 

The movie didn't touch on one of Perkins greatest authors, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Women authors in this era of publishing were few. Rawlings's, The Yearling was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. Rawlings and Perkins had a special relationship. A Southerner from Florida, she would send him oranges from her citrus groves. He would encourage her writing by sending her nonfictions, which she enjoyed reading while writing. Their correspondence between editor and author can be read in the book, Max and Marjorie.  

The movie Genius was based on A. Scott Berg's, book, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. In order to write the screenplay for the movie, John Logan had to do what the Perkins character of the movie had to do, edit a book to tell the story, so the movie audience would want to watch the movie. I think Maxwell Perkins would have found that ironic.

Let me know what you think of Genius.

Books That Became Movies

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

Have you considered adapting your own book?

Film reviewer Leonard Maltin reminded his TV audience last week that faithfully adapting a movie from a book takes a special kind of talent.  Indeed, translating one medium into another to adapt it into a new form of entertainment is a challenging task, but one which introduces a good story to millions who never knew about the book.  It's a safe bet that the number of movies we've seen in our lives far outnumber the books we've read.

In a full-circle way, films often inspire moviegoers to read the original book on which their favorite flicks are based, so the two make a great partnership.  In that spirit, I thought it would be enlightening to scan the list of some top movies which were adapted from the printed word.  Do you remember seeing these books (prior to the movie coming out)?

JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton
THE PRINCESS BRIDE by William Goldman
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by Thomas Harris
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
DANCES WITH WOLVES by Michael Blake
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
FIELD OF DREAMS (based on Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella)
FORREST GUMP by Winston Groom
MILLION DOLLAR BABY (based on a short story by F.X. Toole)

In more recent years. Hollywood gave us:

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (based on The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich)
WAR HORSE by Michael Morpurgo
WE BOUGHT A ZOO by Benjamin Mee
HUGO (based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick)
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen
THE LINCOLN LAWYER by Michael Connelly
BEASTLY by Alex Flinn
I AM NUMBER FOUR by Pittacus Lore
JACK REACHER by Lee Child
CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK by Matthew Quick
ONE FOR THE MONEY by Janet Evanovich
LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL by Deborah Moggach
LES MISERABLES by Victor Hugo
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky
THE HOST (in theatres now) - Stephanie Meyer, of Twilight fame

Soon to come:

THE GREAT GATSBY — the fourth screen retelling of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic
THE SEVENTH SON — based on Joseph Delaney's The Spook's Apprentice
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY — based on a short story by James Thurber
DOROTHY'S RETURN (2014) — based on Dorothy of Oz by Roger S. Baum

Worth noting is that some of the biggest blockbusters like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Twilight and The Hunger Games were all series, and were all aimed at young adults.  Does this say something about book-to-film potential?  It definitely says that the younger generation is reading books, and I find that pretty encouraging.

In any given year, Hollywood translates dozens of books into film. As you're writing your next bestseller, it may not hurt to visualize being on the NY Times Best Seller list at the same time Meryl Streep accepts her Academy Award for playing your heroine. 

Which reminds me, add THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, JULIE & JULIA and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY to that list.

Discouragement is a Choice

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine

Trimalchio of West Egg was one author’s great disappointments. After one year and fourteen thousand pages of the written word he was told his story was too vague. He had to start over. Certainly a disappointment but the author was not discouraged. His story was to be written, but it would be another year.

One of the disappointing changes would be the title. Trimalchio was a first century AD Roman character who found and lost fortunes again and again, thus the name meaning “thrice king”. The pattern from humble beginnings to extravagant wealth and excess was repeated as well in this new novel thus the name of the book. The title itself seemed to be as out of place and as distant the first draft. The reference of Trimalchio and the fictitious town of West Egg was to remain in the novel but not the title. The title would reflect the main character. Once completed, we had that great American novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald was disappointed but not discouraged. His book was completed and published but it received mixed reviews and that first year only sold 20,000 copies. That was another great disappointment for Fitzgerald and when he died some fifteen years later he did so thinking himself a failure.

“Disappointments are inevitable, discouragement is a choice.” Charles F. Stanley

Our disappointments will come. As Charles Stanley said, “disappointments are inevitable”. We must not be surprised or overwhelmed but must decide what is next and move forward. We must make a choice and one of the first choices to make at that time is to not be discouraged. If discouragement had prevailed with Fitzgerald we would not have his great work to enjoy.

Discouragement is a choice. Don’t make it yours. 

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Airbnb

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine

I wrote about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Disappointment” here on SWM's Suite T.  

Although he died with fame and fortune, he had yet to receive critical acclaim. This came after The Great Gatsby, which had over 14,000 pages, was totally reworked and the title changed from Trimalchio of West Egg. Fitzgerald is a great figure in American Literature and now I understand you can experience his and his wife Zelda’s life and works firsthand at the home they spent time in writing.

In 1986 this beautiful home, built in 1909 in the Montgomery, Alabama’s Old Cloverdale neighborhood, became The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum. It was the home of the couple from 1931 to 1932 where he wrote Tender is the Night and she the semi-autobiographical Save Me the Waltz.”

The homes upstairs had been divided into 4 apartments and in April 2018 one of those was opened as an Airbnb. Anyone in the public can spend the night. It is the only stop on the Southern Literary Trail you can overnight. You can check out the museums at https://www.thefitzgeraldmuseum.org/about-the-fitz. I think is has a spot on my bucket list.

Authors homes and homes featured in their stories have long been destinations of their readers. Visiting such places may bring their works to life. I wrote about several landmarks I have visited including The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion aka House of the Seven Gables, William Faulkner’s home Rowan Oak, and Andy Andrew’s Gulf Shore community featured in The Noticer.  You may want to check these out and make them part of your bucket list. 

We are fortunate to have these homes preserved and still available to us. I do enjoy them and hope to take further advantage of visiting others. If you have a favorite author’s home or place of interest in one of their stories please let me know. I too may want to add it to my list.

Title Tips

by Linda P. Kozar

Kings and Queens have them. So do politicians. Men and women in the military salute those who have them. Your boss has one, and maybe you do too. Whether you sit on a throne or a tractor, titles are important. And the same is true of book titles. A good title should attract an editor’s eye the same way it would attract a reader’s.

A good title is like a good opening and should:

 

Attract the reader’s attention, be memorable, appropriate to the content, interesting or evocative, represent your work, be identifiable with your brand and most importantly, a title should be exciting!

A good title can:

Be a popular expression or a play on words, come from an existing work, be a person’s name, reflect your setting, be possessive, put forth an association of ideas, represent an event or activity, repeat a memorable line from a story, or have rhythm.

Suggestions to “Work” Your Title:

1.  What is the book’s genre?

2.  Keep the title short and sweet.

3.  Make it descriptive –The Great Gatsby was originally called “Trimalchio in West Egg”

4.  Ask yourself, “If someone is typing keywords in a search engine, what other things

     would come up next to your title?

5.  Be open to changing your title if the publisher wants you to.

6.  Describe the book.

7.  Reduce your story to the lowest common denominator and that could be your title.

8. Look into your heart—you’re the writer!

9. Ask advice from a close friend or critique partner who has read the manuscript.

10. Find a phrase that jumps out “Soylent Green is people!”

11. Is there one character that stands out? Try that character’s name.

12. Write down a long list and rearrange the words. Cross some off.

Take Care With Your Title

Most titles on the bestseller list are no more than three words long. But don’t rule out a long title, because sometimes they work.

Invent your trademark title: Example: Author Janet Evanovich’s series “One For the Money.”

Titles are not copyrighted. Submit several title ideas with your proposal.

A title can be:

• a popular expression: What’s Up Doc?
• a play on words: Pushing Up Daisies
• a hidden meaning: Along Came a Spider
• from an existing work: The Bible
• a person’s name: Rebecca
• your setting: Jurassic Park
• possessive: Charlotte’s Web
• an event or activity: Finding Nemo
• a line or quote from the story: To Kill a Mockingbird
• rhythmic: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
• simple: Jaws, The Exorcist

If an editor likes your title, it is more likely they will look at your proposal with an open mind and an attitude of expectation. They will want to like your work. A good title also tells a publishing house a lot about your creativity. It’s up to you to keep their interest beyond that über title, with a dazzling story to match it. 

_________________________________________________

Linda P. Kozar is the author of Babes With A Beatitude—Devotions For Smart, Savvy Women of Faith (Howard/Simon & Schuster, Hardcover/Ebook, 2009), Misfortune Cookies (Barbour Publishing, Print, 2008). Misfortune Cookies, the upcoming A Tisket, A Casket (June 3), and Dead as A Doornail (June 10) (Spyglass Lane Mysteries, Ebooks, 2012), and Strands of Fate (Annie’s Attic Mysteries, Hardcover, 2012).

THE BLACK WINGED MONSTER

By Julia Robb

I’m sitting on my neighbor’s porch, racking my brains for something to write.

I’m on my fourth novel–five if you include the one I burned–stuck at 30,000 words.

Last week I wrote maybe 200 words, 500 the week before.

I’ve read everything I can find about the DREADED writing block (I see it as a black, winged monster with long claws and it’s coming to get me).

I’m on my neighbor’s porch because it’s so pleasant, one of those wraparound the house, roofed porches, with an overhead fan, rocking chairs and a swing.

If I treat myself to a luxurious location, maybe I can write.

And it works.

I’ve now written 1,500 words.

Of course, I also suspect the plot has swung way off course, like a yacht launched for England but wrecked off the coast of Senegal.

Here’s how I see these problems.

Writer’s block begins with understanding the next sentence, paragraph, chapter, and in fact, the entire novel, could not possibly approach anything in The Great Gatsby; or even The Princess Bride, by William Goldman.

And refusing to accept it.

If I believed I could write one sentence as good as Goldman’s, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. 

You killed my father. Prepare to die,” which will eternally live in readers’ hearts, I could pound away at the keyboard.

I don’t believe that.

Secondly, okay, this novel has veered off course, but but but, I CAN’T erase 10,000 words, it’s too much work, she whined.

And if I did erase those chapters, what would I replace them with?

This is so sad.

Writers endlessly complain it’s agony to write, all of which sounds like entitled crap, and, as it turns out, every word is true.

How in the hell can I show, not tell, that the general is in love with Asha, his Cheyenne prisoner?

And should he be?

Is this as good as Wesley falling in love with The Princess Bride?

I don’t know. Probably not.

Do you have a writing book to recommend?

Do you think I can write tomorrow?

How about the next day?

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Julia Robb is a former journalist who now lives in Marshall, Texas with Zoe the dog and Lamb the cat, and writes novels. She has published “Scalp Mountain,” “Saint of the Burning Heart” and “Del Norte,” and all of them can be found at amazon.com. Her social media links are website, http://juliarobb.com blog (on website), http://juliarobb.com/category/blog/
facebook, https://www.facebook.com/julia.robb.562 author: Julia Robb, https://www.facebook.com/Julia.RobbFanPage pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/juliarobbmar/ and twitter, https://twitter.com/juliarobbmar

             

           

           

           

           

             

           

             

Writing Styles Make The Writer

Susan Reichert    @swmeditor

Southern Writers

It is said writing style is the way we express our thoughts as an individual. So, I decided to do a tad of research on writing styles.

Grammarly says Expository, Descriptive, Narrative and Persuasive are four writing styles. (https://www.grammarly.com/blog/writing-styles/) So with that in mind here is the synopsis below.

Ernest Hemingway's writing style is one of my favorites. Mainly because I am a fast reader, I don't like to get bogged down in too many words when few would suffice. 

---

Hemingway said, "A writer's style should be direct and personal, imagery rich and earthy, words simple and vigorous."

He is famous for a terse (effective and concise) minimalist style of writing. He dispensed with flowery adjectives and seemed to be able to get straight to the point. Some have said he wrote with simple genius. 

I agree with the voices who have read his works that his writing was probably due to his training as a newspaper reporter. He learned to put emphasis on nouns and string them along with conjunctives

If you read his work, you will see he used short sentences, short first paragraphs, seemed to lean to the use of positive as opposed to negatives in his writing and used English in an energetic way.

And his good friend F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a different style. He wrote elaborate descriptions of characters, places and used repetition, various forms of literature and allusions.

I found he put a lot of his life into his fiction. He wanted readers to picture and imagine what he was writing about. I do believe he liked using adjectives! He also used similes to create imagery. 

In reading The Great Gatsby there seems to be a lyrical flow––a rhythm as you read. He could create this cadence that falls on certain words. Perhaps that is why there was so much emotion in his writing.

When you look at the different styles of authors from the past, you can see what you like in their style and what you don't.  Perhaps, you will see your own style as a mixture of one or more of the late authors. 

Although these two authors had distinctive different styles, they were both excellent writers. They both achieved a legacy in their writing.

Whatever the case, developing your style is what makes your stories and brings readers to your books. And perhaps leaves a legacy for you.

Novel Inspiration via John Grisham

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

In a recent interview, John Grisham gives a glimpse into how his hobby inspired his 30th book, Camino Island. 

It's been 25 years since Grisham has done a book tour and current technology has allowed everyone to share in the experience via a podcast titled Book Tour with John Grisham. Available at iTunes and Google Play.

Watching the podcast of Grisham may give you ideas for promoting your own book/books. It could even provide you with inspiration for your own book tour. 

I'm a fan of John Grisham. We were both born in the same town and both raised and worked in a bigger river town. His books have the ability to stay with me, and his plot lines flit through my mind from time to time. He is a collector of books, as am I. Albeit, his book collection is classic first editions, and mine are not. Sigh. I'm now collecting signed Grisham first editions, wishing I had started sooner. 

The plot line of Grisham's new book finds inspiration in his own hobby of collecting first editions. As Grisham says in his interview, "I collect first editions. I have a number of Faulkners, Steinbecks, and Hemingways. Fitzgerald only had five (novel) manuscripts but a ton of short stories, which he was better known for when he was alive. After his death, Gatsby became his big masterpiece and his best-known work. But Faulkner had forty books, forty manuscripts. They are all stored in one place, at the library at the University of Virginia. I’ve seen them; they’re very well taken care of. But there are forty of them; they would be kind of hard to steal. Hemingway’s stuff is scattered, as is Steinbeck’s. And that left Fitzgerald. As I learned when I was doing the initial research, all five manuscripts are in one place, at the Firestone Library at Princeton. If you’re going to steal stuff that’s truly priceless, that’s a good place to start."

I love that Grisham has written a book about rare book collections and picked F. Scott Fitzgerald books as the focus. "Grisham tells CBS This Morning, a list of writing tips:

1. Do write a page every day
2. Don't write the first scene until you know the last
3. Do write your page each day at the same place and time
4. Don't write a prologue
5. Do use quotation marks with dialogue
6. Don't keep a thesaurus within reaching distance. 
7. Do read each sentence three times in search of words to cut out. 
8. Don't introduce 20 characters in your first chapter. 

Grisham also weighed in on plotting in the CBS interview. He talked about writing and says the idea that an author will create a great character and that character will then take over the action is 'total B.S.' Plotting takes work. You have to carefully plot and outline your story before you start. Especially if you are writing mysteries, or suspense or thrillers where the plots can be very intricate. It takes a lot of work. I spend a lot of time outlining before I write the first word. Prologues are 'gimmicks to suck you in.'" 

What hobbies do you have that could provide a inspiration for your next book?