When A Title Is Magic

Some writers have a tough time coming up with titles. Others don’t. I usually don’t have a difficult time with titles; however, I did find myself in that position recently. I thought about why I was stuck and what I realized was that I had forced the title on the story rather than let it reveal itself to me. That’s usually how I title my stories. At some point during writing or revision, the title pops out either from the text or as an outcrop of the story. 

For instance, with a story I recently wrote, the title is the answer to a riddle posed at the end of the story. I don’t make it too obvious that the title is the answer, but I give enough clues for the reader to figure it out. For the title of my story collection, ‘A Place Remote,’ I didn’t take the title from one of the stories in the book.

This is a common way writers title their story collections, which I am completely on board with; however, none of the stories in ‘A Place Remote’ encompassed the theme or feel of the book as well as this phrase, so I went with it. I wanted the title to be a bit of a mystery that piqued the reader’s curiosity.

The structure of the phrase ‘A Place Remote’ is somewhat jarring, against what we’d naturally say, which is “a remote place.” This is because the title is pulled from the middle of a sentence that is the epilogue of one of the book’s stories. My hope is that a person who reads ‘A Place Remote’ is curious about the title, forgets about her curiosity, when she finally finds the title, feels like she discovered a bit of treasure. 

I have seen some great titles in my time. I’ve also read a few books where what’s inside doesn’t live up to the promise of its title. In one, the title promised action and adventure – from a literary writer, yes! – but the writing didn’t achieve the title’s goal. Then there are the titles that do the opposite, make a reader question whether the book will be interesting.

When I first saw Educated by Tara Westover, I wondered how a book-length memoir about a woman’s education could possibly hold my attention. Wouldn’t an essay do? Then I read the book and couldn’t put it down – even though I essentially knew the ending! After I finished Educated, I realized it was the perfect title – direct and to the point, no-nonsense or embellishments, just like Westover’s mindset throughout the book. 

That’s the thing about titles – you have to deliver on them. Titles shoulder a lot of work. They must encompass a story in a few words, pique a reader’s interest, offer a hint at the ‘feel’ of a story and, in some cases, take the reader beyond the realm of the story.  My favorite book, “Ceremony” achieves that – it takes the reader beyond the bounds of the book’s covers.

The book itself is a blessing and the reader is blessed by having read it. I didn’t understand this until the last page, though, which is how life works at times. We don’t understand what we’re going through until we reach the end. And the title “Ceremony” not only encompasses the novel’s story, it encompasses the reader’s experience with the novel. Magic.

—

A PLACE REMOTE

From farm to factory, alcoholism to war wounds, friendship to betrayal, the stories in A Place Remote take us intimately into the hearts of people from all walks of life in a rural Ohio town. Whether they stay in their town or leave for distant places, these characters come to realize no one is immune to the fictions people tell others—and themselves—to survive.

In each of these ten stories, Gwen Goodkin forces her characters to face the dramatic events of life head-on—some events happen in a moment, while others are the fallout of years or decades of turning away. A boy is confronted by the cost of the family farm, an optometrist careens toward an explosive mental disaster, a mourning teen protects his sister, lifelong friends have an emotional confrontation over an heirloom, and a high school student travels to Germany to find his voice and, finally, a moment of long-awaited redemption.

These full length stories are simply breathtaking and really delve into the sense of place.

—

Gwen Goodkin writes fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, teleplays and stage plays. Her short story collection, “A Place Remote,” will be published by West Virginia University Press in 2020. Her essay collection “Mass for the Shut Ins” was named a finalist for Eyewear Publishing’s Beverly Prize. She has won the Folio Editor’s Prize for Fiction as well as the John Steinbeck Award for Fiction. She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Gwen’s novel, “The Plant,” was named a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel-in-Progress competition.

Her TV pilot script, “The Plant,” based on her own novel-in-progress was named a quarterfinalist for Cinestory’s TV/Digital retreat. She won the Silver Prize (Short Script) for her screenplay “Winnie” in the Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest. She has a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and has also studied at the Universität Heidelberg. Gwen was born and raised in Ohio and now lives in Encinitas, California with her husband and daughters.

Find out more about Gwen on her website https://www.gwengoodkin.com/

Follow her on Twitter h@GwenGoodkin

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing