The Trouble With Titles + Poem & Photo Prompt!

So after getting a bit burned out recently, I’ve been easing myself back in to writing and doing my projects.

I’m not back to 100% productivity yet, (maybe about 70%!) But I do have a good excuse this time.

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At the start of the week, my washing machine kindly decided to stop working, leaving me with a drum full of drenched clothes and a pool of water that wouldn’t drain.

We managed to use the little tube thingy to drain the water out, but then it filled up again the very next day.

I spent hours on hold on the phone getting passed around to different repair companies each time they realised that I live in the middle of nowhere, until the 4th one said they would be able to come out to the countryside.

However, the price would be £189.

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To me, it doesn’t feel worth it to pay that much for one repair, in case it ever breaks again, so I thought to myself, well, maybe it’d be better value to just buy a new one!

I looked around online, and was quickly proven wrong. The cheapest I could find was £199, which seemed ok, until I looked at the small print, and saw that it would be an extra £45 to have it installed. And another £25 to remove the broken one.

I can understand why white goods are so expensive, but at the same time, I don’t have a spare £189 lying around, and definitely not the £250+ for a new one!

Also, because I live in the middle of nowhere, I don’t have access to a laundrette.

So all of this means I’ve had to take up an unusual new task, which is, handwashing all my clothes! (At least till I save up the cash)

It’s been going well cleanliness-wise, but it’s certainly tiring and all of the drama has taken up some of my writing time this week.

But, with all of that complaining out of the way, I was actually able to do something writing related this week.

And on the bright side, the washing machine disaster gave me the chance to test out my new camera, and get this funky picture!

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So the thing I did manage to do this week was have a think about titles.

Out of my 7 ideas, I’ve chosen the final titles for 3 of them, and the other 4 have working titles that I might change.

My current idea that I’m working on has the title – Bound

The countryside idea that I made a post about has the title – Winter Sun

And one of the other 7 which I’ve never mentioned before on the blog, has the title – Satellite.

The other 4 working titles, are Look At The Sky, Real Life, the Fish Man, and Satan’s Alley (Like Tropic Thunder!)

I’m OK with the working titles because I know they can be changed later, but I was thinking that Satan’s Alley really needs a new name! It’s kind of a rude joke from the movie so it’s a bit embarrassing to talk about it!

It’s also the idea I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, I kept making posts about it and couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I thought it was the right time.

A while ago I wrote about my method for coming up with character names, unfortunately though, I don’t have a naming method for titles!

I’m not sure why it’s different for names and titles, but for some reason I feel like titles either come to me, or they don’t, and overthinking it hasn’t helped in the past. All the titles I’ve been happy with have just floated into my brain one day, which is nice at the time, but rather unreliable.

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Luckily enough, while thinking about the story, I was able to think of a much more appropriate title than ‘Satan’s Alley’, but unluckily, it’s already the name of something else!

The title I came up with was The Evil Within. Then I discovered that it’s the name of a video game! I was really disappointed because that title really fits the idea and conveys the feeling and story that I’m going for.

Which brings me to the point of this post, what are the rules around using a title that already exists?

I know there are multiple films that have the same name, that are unrelated, and multiple books too. But, have companies had to spend lots of money and buy the rights to the name? Or is that something that an independent writer can do too?

And even if you could use the same name, are there hidden implications that you shouldn’t? Will people think you’re a copycat? Or am I just over-worrying?

I’m not sure either way, but if anyone knows more about the do’s and dont’s of title etiquette, I’d love to hear it!

Well, that’s basically what I’ve been up to this week, thank you for reading, and lets hope that any of my future titles aren’t already used!

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Photo Prompt!

So for this week’s photo prompt, I’ve got the picture I took of my watery washing machine. Could there be a more mystical explanation for water ending up all over your house? Or perhaps a secret saboteur trying to mess things up? Who knows…

Poem!

There are so many to choose from,

It’s funny then, that only one feels right.

Though I might be a bit too late to the game,

Lots of other names are still unclaimed.

Even so, I can’t forget about the one,

Still in my mind, even if it’s not mine!

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Video!

On top of all the chaos this week, I managed to squeeze out a new video too!

Thanks for reading!