Last week, Paul Guyot wrote to me suggesting that Criminal Brief do a week-long discussion on the subject of titles. With the assent of our fearless contributors, I agreed, provided that he contribute the opening salvo. (I’ve been trying to get him to contribute a column ever since Criminal Brief got off the ground.) So here it is, the first of eight columns in what I am calling Title Week.

For the illustration, I looked for the most recent picture I had of Paul, and came up with the celebrity-studded photo reproduced below. It palpably demonstrates the caliber of the company he belongs in: three bestselling thriller writers and one of the country’s leading reviewers. He, of course, will claim that none of the others knew who he was and that he was crashing the party. He wasn’t. That’s why he’s in the middle.

—JLW

UNTITLED

Left to right: Tess Gerritsen, Lee Child, Robert Goulet
–oops, I mean Paul Guyot, David Montgomery, Barry Eisler

by Paul Guyot

Young Master Warren asked me to kick off a Criminal Brief round table on the subject of titles. I love a good title. I have bought books based on the title, and have passed books up because of their titles.

Where I work, titles are quite important. Studios and networks will have endless meetings regarding titles. They’ll make charts, have focus groups, you name it.

But where I think titles contribute the most is in short fiction. A short story’s title is part of the story. It may be a hint to the climax or denouement. It may offer the particularly perceptive reader a clue to a villain’s identity or a plot twist. It may be a wonderful pun, or it may simply be provocative, creating intrigue or mystery, causing the reader to think, “What the heck is this story going to be about?”

Bad titles are the ones that try to do the above and fail. Or worse, they are an act of self-indulgence on the writer’s part. They will say the title is a veiled reference to the fifth word in the third sentence in the second paragraph of the fourteenth chapter… honey, if it were any more veiled it’d be an Islamic woman on her way to the market.

As mentioned, I am title-challenged. I love them, but struggle with them. And though, on occasion, I’ve knocked one out of the park, generally, I’m batting below the Mendoza line. Some recent examples of my titleific exploits are:

THE DARK – A pilot created for TNT in 2004. The series was about an FBI agent who, in order to catch the heinous criminals he chased, had to become a little bit like them each time. So, with every case he solved, he became a little less cop, and a little more criminal, emotionally speaking. He was going down the rabbit hole, going dark, etc., etc. I loved this title. Stephen J. Cannell loved the title. The network loved the title.

The finished product, not so much. Thought it was too dark. But I’m using the title again for something else. I’ll make it lighter this time.

CRIMINAL – This was a pilot I did for Sony a couple of years back. This isn’t a great title, but I liked it because the series was about a cop deep undercover in a heavy-duty criminal organization. To keep his cover, he had to do bad things. Had to be a criminal. What he was doing (in the name of justice) was criminal, it took place in a world of criminals, blah, blah, blah.

The studio hated the title for one reason – they didn’t want to give the critics anything to play with in case the show bombed. I’m not kidding. They said that if the show didn’t do well, they didn’t want to open the Trades and read “CRIMINAL is just that!” Or “CRIMINAL should be arrested and charged with conspiracy to bore audiences!”

So I changed it to BAD COMPANY, which I liked even more. Was going to use the song as the show’s theme. Studio hated it for the same reason: “BAD COMPANY is just that!”

They changed the name to I.D. When asked why they literally told me, “So, we can capitalize on the abbreviation popularity.” The what? “You know, shows like CSI. People love abbreviations.” Oh … that’s why the CSI franchise is so successful.

As for short fiction, I’ve often turned to James Lincoln Warren for help. I had a piece in an anthology a few years back, and was struggling with the title, as I always do. JLW suggested THE CLOSERS, and it was perfect. We knew nothing of Connelly’s next Bosch book, which happened to be released just before the anthology.

Warren does well with titles, as do all the CBers. Even the titles of the Criminal Brief postings always showcase cleverness and intelligence. Always let us know that the lights are on and somebody’s home.

I’ve purposely left out any lists of favorite or worst titles. I love lists, but figured the round table will have plenty, and they’ll likely be better than what I’d come up with. What I will toss out for round table fodder is:

Do you have specific rules for your titles, or do they come about through osmosis?

How much time do you spend on titles?

Do you always have a title before you begin, or does it arrive during, or after?

How often (if ever) does a title change once you’ve written or rewritten something?