In the film from Shakespeare in Love, the young Bard from Stratford-upon-Avon struggles with writer's block on the new play he's been commissioned to write. In an early scene Will bumps into Christopher Marlowe in the local tavern, who asks him what he's working on, to which Shakespeare replies "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." He knows the title sucks the minute he utters it. Later on he has a conversion with actor, Ned Alleyn, concerning the unwieldy title.
Of course this is fiction because Shakespeare actually lifted both the plot and the title for Romeo and Juliet the play The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, But the gag rings true of the writing process and it's nice to believe that even Shakespeare struggled with coming up with a kick-ass title.
Which leads us to our Working Title Writing Prompt. The idea is to come up with 10 titles, then post them in the comments section. Once all the lists have been posted then pick a title from someone else's list and write a story based from it. As for word count try to keep it on the flash fiction side of things. If you're feeling really ambitious try a six-sentence story.
As far as the titles go anything's fair game, though try to be inventive and have some variety. Write a one word title (though not a generic one), a long title, a nonsensical title. Use song lyrics, a play on on familiar phrase or whatever inspires you. The point is to come up with titles that spur the imagination and would make someone curious enough to want to read the story.
Which leads us to our Working Title Writing Prompt. The idea is to come up with 10 titles, then post them in the comments section. Once all the lists have been posted then pick a title from someone else's list and write a story based from it. As for word count try to keep it on the flash fiction side of things. If you're feeling really ambitious try a six-sentence story.
As far as the titles go anything's fair game, though try to be inventive and have some variety. Write a one word title (though not a generic one), a long title, a nonsensical title. Use song lyrics, a play on on familiar phrase or whatever inspires you. The point is to come up with titles that spur the imagination and would make someone curious enough to want to read the story.