Okay, so
this YA “Girl Scout” novella I’ve been working on is almost ready to go, and it
has no Girl Scouts in it.
(That’s for
legal purposes. This organization is my own invention, and the fact that some
of the proceeds are going toward the Girl Scout camp my wife worked at is
completely coincidental.)
So, since
the Girl Scout story has no Girl Scouts, I should probably give it a title. I
brainstormed, writing down a list of a couple of dozen potential titles, which
is what I sometimes do when I’m stuck for one (which is all the time).
The story
revolves around 15 year old Beth Hamlin’s misadventures when she gets to camp
and discovers they can’t have any campfires that year, due to a drought. She
and her friends work to keep everyone’s spirits up while also taking steps to
make it rain—steps that lead to disastrous consequences.
Some of the
titles I came up with were discarded because they gave clues about things that
happened late in the book, so those were the easy ones. For obvious reasons,
I’m not going to tell you what they were.
Others were
a bit too bland: “The Year Without a Fire”, “Rain Dancing”; or dependent on wordplay: “Weather … Or Not”, “Where There’s Smoke, It’s Dire”.
Some titles
the reader wouldn’t figure out until they’re well into the story:
“If You
Don’t Like The Weather …”
“Dance,
Wind, And Fire”
“Don’t Kill
The Messenger”
“They Don’t
Listen To Teenagers”
“Totally
Not An Emergency”
“Four
Friends and a Drought” (A little shout-out to a fanfiction series of mine.)
“Riot Prevention
Badge”
For you
“Walking Dead” fans (and only you will get it) I found a title that fit the
story and was also a shout-out: “Heroic
Stuff, Dangerous Things”.
Two titles
I discarded because they referred to a supporting character, and would be
considered un-PC to our more delicate readers. I just didn’t feel like arguing.
But the character, a half-Cherokee owner of an Indian-themed souvenir shop, also
appears in a YA mystery I’m trying to sell—and will refuse to be silenced.
Toward the
end I got a little silly:
“If You
Like Your Weather, You Can Keep Your Weather.”
“Mary
Potter and The Rain Dance Of Doom.”
Sadly, the
story doesn’t have a character named Mary Potter.
When I was
done winnowing the list, which I believe is also a dance move in Philadelphia …
there wasn’t much list left. This is what I ended up with:
“Have a
Safe Summer”
“Who Keeps
Singing?”
“Best
Session Ever”
“No
Campfire Girls”
They speak
to the story and Beth’s character. Emily was leaning toward “No Campfire
Girls”, which left me wondering exactly how that title would go on the cover.
We don’t want people to think we’re banning Campfire Girls, for instance. It
could be:
“No Campfire,
Girls”
Or,
“No-Campfire Girls”
Or maybe an
emphasis with bigger letters or italics: “No Campfire, Girls”.
Hello Mark,
ReplyDeleteWell, this all sounds most intriguing and a jolly good read no doubt!
What about 'Girls on Fire'........rather a flash title but, then, one does need to capture the interest at first go these days and the girls you are writing about certainly sound the spirited sort.
However as I never made it to the Girl Guides and Lance was thrown out of the scouts we have little by way of inside information of these organisations to offer. Good luck!
Girls on Fire, I like it! I'll add it to the short list ... luckily, we've got a ways to go before we have to finalize. Or unluckily ...
DeleteTotally Not An Emergency got a smile out of me, so...
ReplyDeleteIt's a line from a fairly important point in the story -- one of my favorites of the possibilities.
DeleteI've been saying that for weeks.
ReplyDelete