What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

03 October 2011

Nothing to Read Here...

This is how I feel about editing: Lots
of words, all in the wrong order. 
I was going to post another in-class writing sample from my creative writing class today, but unfortunately the revision is going backwards. I'm about to scrap all my edits and start over, I think! BTW, many, many thanks for the encouraging and helpful comments here and on Twitter last week. My initial submission got me a B+.

So, rather than give you something I've written, I'll tell you about an exercise we did. We had a lecture about titles, and then she asked us to jot down 15 possible titles quickly. I wrote 20, and here are my favourites:

Back in Junction
Green Like the Sky
Interpreting for the Idiots
The Line at the Coffee Shop
Reused Life
Always in Reverse
Occasional Light Showers
Blue Stained Glass
One of the Five
One Mad Weekend


And I can give you an explanation on how I thought of all of these, but it's probably more entertaining just to leave it to your imagination! Details available upon request, as ever. ;)

Do you have a fun title with no story attached? Do any of these strike your fancy? (If so, you can grab one and take it home with you; I have nothing in particular in mind for them yet.) Have you ever scrapped edits and gone back to the beginning with something you've written?

7 comments:

Golden Eagle said...

Great titles! :)

I came up with the title All the Shades of Gray a few weeks ago, but have nothing to do with it.

Good luck with your edits!

Su said...

Ooh, I like that one!

J E Fritz said...

Editing trouble is because the words are rearranging themselves on you ;). I've started over on a few shorter pieces, usually because I realize I have no idea where I'm going with the story. One of the hazards of pantsing is sometimes the story peters out on you.

I like "Green Like the Sky," probably because to me, it sounds like a good dystopian title. I have to admit, I wonder where you came up with these. I usually have trouble coming up with such descriptive titles.

erica and christy said...

I've totally scrapped and started over. ad nauseum.

Green Like the Sky grabbed me, too. Hmm, so many possibilities! (I'm horrible with titles!)
erica

Su said...

@JE: Alas, 'tis true.
And 'Green Like the Sky' came from a guy who lived in Africa and was talking about the particular language he had to learn, in which "blue" and "green" are the same word. So he asked, "What do you say, 'Green like the grass' or 'Green like the sky'?" And they said, "Yes." So I thought of that while thinking up titles. And it defs sounds like dystopian.

@erica: Me, too. I tossed the other half of the ones I came up with! Also, I see some ad nauseum in my future.

Karen M. Peterson said...

That's a fun exercise!

I have a whole list of titles somewhere, but I can't remember what any of them are.

Su said...

Ah, the elusive 'somewhere'. I have so many things there.