Argh, I hate picking titles.
28 Jun 2014 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Was thinking I'd go with titles based on constellations*, which in turn have legends (in the story's world) that relate to a story's themes. So far I've got the following + the constellation's basic theme. Some of these have also already been referenced in drafts, though I was still solidifying what was where and the references/uses.
- the weaving girl's orchard (separation, longing)
- the emperor's ladle (bestow/remove gifts)
- the sailor's spear
- the tiger's fang (regret, loss)
- the saola's crown (unexpected skill)
- the ship's keel
- the mariner's square
* some of these are riff on real-world legends and constellations, so if you know your legends/stars, you might recognize a few
Alternately, there's also navigational themes:
- Alidade
- Ephemeris
- Astrolabe
- Azimuth
- Volvelle
- Binnacle
- Almucantar
- Nonius
It feels like these would only fit the standard SFF titling schema with an adjective, ie: The Forgotten Ephemeris, or The Broken Alidade, or The Crooked Azimuth, or some such.
ETA: or just a pattern. Maybe going by the four parts, it's divided, re-united, lost, found. Hrm. Broken, Restored, Hidden, Raised?
- The Divided Shrine
- The Forgotten Shrine
- The Hidden Shrine
- The Broken Shrine
uhhhhhh.
I used to come up with names so much easier than I do now. I have no idea why it's gotten so hard.
- the weaving girl's orchard (separation, longing)
- the emperor's ladle (bestow/remove gifts)
- the sailor's spear
- the tiger's fang (regret, loss)
- the saola's crown (unexpected skill)
- the ship's keel
- the mariner's square
* some of these are riff on real-world legends and constellations, so if you know your legends/stars, you might recognize a few
Alternately, there's also navigational themes:
- Alidade
- Ephemeris
- Astrolabe
- Azimuth
- Volvelle
- Binnacle
- Almucantar
- Nonius
It feels like these would only fit the standard SFF titling schema with an adjective, ie: The Forgotten Ephemeris, or The Broken Alidade, or The Crooked Azimuth, or some such.
ETA: or just a pattern. Maybe going by the four parts, it's divided, re-united, lost, found. Hrm. Broken, Restored, Hidden, Raised?
- The Divided Shrine
- The Forgotten Shrine
- The Hidden Shrine
- The Broken Shrine
uhhhhhh.
I used to come up with names so much easier than I do now. I have no idea why it's gotten so hard.
no subject
Date: 29 Jun 2014 08:55 pm (UTC)I think, also, that constellations are star groups that everyone sees but not everyone sees the same way or understands the same way, just as Tsiu and Kini and Sindhu might all look at the Emperor's ladle but know different stories about it.
Still, this is Tsiu's story, and the navigational titles would be meaningful to his world and his journey (plus fun for geeks like me to research).
That's a lot of chapter names to come up with, however. The four books…are there four essential types of navigational instruments that might correspond to each theme?
Eh, I don't really know enough about these things to offer any good suggestions, but now you have my thoughts, for what they are.
no subject
Date: 1 Jul 2014 05:11 am (UTC)Yep, that's a big one. Incidentally, the Weaving Girl's Orchard is a reference to the Milky Way. There are several versions of the legend in various parts of Asia, but the general idea is that the weaving girl (or handmaiden, or celestial maiden) is on one side, and her love is on the other, and they're only able to meet once a year, on a certain holiday. So it represents longing, distance from loved one, hope for being reunited. Which is both part of Kini's story but also Tsiu's path in that first book. I'm just hesitant b/c I'm wondering whether it's too close to the real-world legend (name-wise), and whether it wouldn't make any sense at all to someone who misses the two throwaway lines that reference it. Heh. Always something.
Still pondering...