Eep.

[saxikath]

Well, I did it. I signed up for NaNoWriMo. What am I thinking? I have a show to do and my mother will be visiting the last week of the month. And I'm going to try to write 50,000 words too? eep...

Hey, bookishfellow, can I steal that A Rainbow of Shadows title you threw at me all those years ago?

Comments

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

By all manner of means! Lord knows I'm never gonna use it; I can't even write a whole poem about amorous electrons.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Strong words, bookboy. Some of us wish you had written the whole poem.

Also, if what you're attempting is a fantasy novel: it's possible that no first fantasy novel should have "shadow" in the title. "Shadow" is something you graduate to after you've done either "fire" or "sword." But give it a shot.

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

Well, if you insist on using "Shadow" in the first-novel title, you can still have a second novel--use "Rising" instead. Then "Gathering" for #3, "War" for #4 and "Triumphant" for #5. After that you can call them any d--n thing because your fan base will buy them out of reflex.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The issue isn't so much "Shadow is a better word for a second title" as much as it is "once you have the word 'Shadow' in your title, your book tends to go in directions that are too cliched." Authors with more experience can avoid that direction, but someone writing a first novel is more likely to turn out, well, the sort of novel you expect when you pick up something with the word "Shadow" in the title.

[saxikath]

Frankly, I don't even know what it's going to be yet, or even if I am going to use that title. But whatever it is, it's not going to be fantasy, at least not traditional fantasy. So maybe I'm safe.

[greyman.livejournal.com]

Yay! drdemure and I are signed up as well.