April 30, 2018: How Important Is The Title? My adult mystery, Blood Money, went through three titles before I settled on the final one. It started out “The Love of Money,” then became “Root of All Evil,” and finally, “Blood Money.” All three depict the essence of the plot--greed leads to evil thoughts, evil thoughts lead to evil actions, evil actions lead to death.

In my middle-grade time-warp fiction on the life of young Davy Crockett, the title started out as “Creepy Caves” and wounded up “On The Banks of The Nolichucky.”  In that particular story, the tale is more about young Davy and his early life near Limestone, Tennessee--about 15 miles from where I live. Yes, my story began when the two MCs went cave exploring, but the story happens when they came out (up) on the other side--in 1795! Oftentimes, the story must evolve before the title surfaces, but here are some things to consider:

1.      Descriptive - “On The Banks of The Nolichucky” doesn’t exactly roll right off the tongue, but it definitely points to the gist of the story.

2.      Easy to remember - For local people, at least, the birthplace of Davy Crockett and the existing site for the State Park is located in East Tennessee, a place rich in history. It’s also near the capital of The Lost State of Franklin--the pre-runner of Tennessee. This allowed an opportunity to bring more history into the plot--facts studied in Tennessee history. I also wanted to clarify Disney’s “Born On A Mountain Top In Tennessee”--it’s more like on a riverbank in Tennessee.

3.      Easy to Repeat. Be prepared to say the title many times. Think of it as naming your unborn child. Make sure it rolls off your tongue, at least; and that you can string the order of words correctly. Nothing worse than having to google your own book to see what the title is.  I doubt that will ever happen to me, though. J