Do you know when you start writing the fic or do you wait till something pops out at you in the first chapter?  Or, do you take all your ideas, put them in a hat, and pick a random title?  Poll your IM buddies?

Titles are hard for me to come up with, sometimes.   Especially for oneshots.  I do have to say, like a summary that says "I suck at these, please read", a story that is called "untitled" or "I'll give it a title when I think of one" is a total turn off.

I usually hope that a title will come to me when I'm writing the first chapter, but it doesn't always. To me, getting the content down is always more important, so if a title doesn't come to me right away, I'm not too bothered. It's only strictly necessary when I'm going to post the story. While it's sitting on my hard-drive, the file can be named anything.

I know others, though, that can't even begin to write a story if they don't have a name for it.

Depends Guest.  When I started Beer Foamy, I knew I wanted that title, since the Beer Bad episode was the take off.  With Invite Me In, I didn't decide until I was about half way through and used a working title of Dreams that in retrospect made no sense.  I'm still not exactly satisfied with that title.  Lessons In Love and Positive Reinforcement started with those titles since that was the basic plot of the story.  

I usually start with a "What if " type of question, before I write a single word.  "What if this or that happened, then what?"  The title comes from the answer to my question, as does the story, most times.

I don't always have titles right off the bat. I tend to take them from lines or phrases from within the fic itself that make an overall statement about the content. That's certainly what I did with The Heart of Her and Show Me How. For other fics, especially my non-Spuffy stories, I like the title to basically be a 1-3 word summary of what the story is about. An example of that would be "Window-Dressing," a Spike/Faith story that deals with the barriers and false bravado that Faith puts on to protect herself from the pain she feels.

The only fic I had a really hard time titling was "Drive it Home." For some reason I just could not think of something that appropriately summarized the goings-on of that fic. Initially I had it titled as "Bound" on my hard drive, but found that too pedestrian. So, I brainstormed a bit. I like using plays on words, and that's how the title popped up. It's meant to mean driving a point that Buffy makes in the story home, as well as tie into the phrase "drive it home" when someone stakes a vamp, which *heh* Buffy does do in a sense.

I hope this helps a little!

I always find it really hard to come up with a good title. I've actually started titling all of my chapters as well as the fics, just to give myself more practice in being creative. (I also think it helps with a WIP, it's easier for readers to remember where they stopped reading.)

Anyway, I usually come up with a fic title during the outlining process or while writing the first chapter. A lot of times song titles or lyrics will give me an idea for a title, or a play on words that relates to the story. The main things to keep in mind when titling, I think, are that it's catchy and descriptive, while also being a bit mysterious.

Jane Espenson did a series of posts on her blog about titles - you can read them here, here, here, and here.

In case it isn't obvious - I totally suck at titles.  Most of the time I call things "sequel to..." or "Spike and Dawn" or "Spuffy haven challenge" or something equally descriptive to me until they're finished or until I have to start posting.  Then, if nothing has occurred to me, I start crying to my beta.  I would guess that C has titled as many of my fics as I have. LOL  If I have to do it myself, I might look at lists of song titles, or try to find a line from the story that is catchy.  I don't know that I have ever had a title before I started writing - they just aren't that important to me.  Where an uninteresting summary will turn me off, I don't pay that much attention to titles when selecting fics to read.  (Hmmmm- I wonder if that's why I can never remember what things are called....)

I'm horrible at picking titles too, Guest. "Forward to Time Past" got its name from an instrumental on the Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrack. I think song titles and lyrics make for good fic title fodder, as does poetry. And when in doubt, reread your outline or the first couple of chapters you've written. Sometimes you'll find that a line you've written will make a good title. An example of this is Gone With the Wind. Mitchell had a hard time picking a title, and her editor suggested using an excerpt from a line in the middle of the book: "Was Tara still standing, or was it also gone with the wind that had swept through Georgia?"

Wow, I've just impressed myself with remembering that line. I haven't even read that book since I was fourteen. :P

I suck at titles too. With "It Happened One Night," I knew I wanted to name it that, since well what happened, happened one night, lol. But others, I let them come to me. And coming up with chapter titles are just as hard if not harder. But most of the time I get them from song lyrics or poems or something. What ever inspires me or if the chapter centers around a certain event then that's how it gets named.

I've gotten lucky on a few of my stories. Like a few people here, a lot of my fic titles are either song titles or song lyrics. I get a lot of my ideas from songs so it only makes sense that I'd use the song. I've even got a few fic ideas in mind that I haven't started yet, that I've named after songs. :P

For "For Whom the Bell Tolls", I knew I wanted to use the song title. I already had a vague idea for the story based on the lyrics.

The same thing happened with "Shine Down."

If I'm not using lyrics or a song title, it takes me awhile to think of something.

since I almost never know when i begin a story exactly where it's going to go, i tend to make my titles as vague as possible while still relating to the story...for example, the title of "Belonging" is quite appropriate for a story in which Spike is Buffy's slave and they eventually fall in love and she frees him, yet it's also general enough that it fits no matter what the specifics are of what happens....

usually i'll come up with a phrase that uses a couple of words that relate to the story, the idea i'm trying to get across

DoS

Sometimes you can use song titles. Recently I was in need of a title and GB gave some suggestions that were similar to one of my fave songs, so I had an "Aha!" moment, hehe

That's an interesting thought, Verity. That a fic that doesn't suggest its own title is perhaps not what it needs to be yet.  Hmmmmm. Be interesting to see who else might see it that way.

 For Whom The Bell Tolls was actually originally a novel written by Ernest Hemingway.

Cool. I didn't know that. Though I shouldn't be suprised. I knew where they got The Call of Ktulu from. :)

I love that song, and based my fic on it, which is also about a war. :P

I used these lyrics for my fic.

 "Take a look to the sky
Just before you die
It is the last time he will
Blackened roar massive roar
Fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul
With a ruthless cry
Stranger now, are his eyes,
To this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn, all is gone
Except the will to be
Now they see what will be,
Blinded eyes to see

For whom the bell tolls..."

I wouldn't say they went pop. They've always been harder than "pop" (eww). St. Anger is a pretty old-school disc, though, and if you watch "Some Kind of Monster", Rob Trabajo is an extremely talented bassist. It's a very revealing, well done documentary.

 And I wasn't saying that the lyrics didn't correlate with your story...

I know. I just hadn't realised where they got the idea for the song from. :)

Cliff Burton was an amazing bassist, and I agree with every thing you said. While I do like their "Black" album, it isn't anywhere near as good as their earlier stuff. I personally can't stand the stuff that came after that album.

Normally I have the title already picked but if I don't I email my editor and and give her summary I wrote at the start of Chapter one.

smlcspike

I think part of the post-Cliff difference was that they didn't really deal with his death. They buried it and went on (with quite a lot of alcohol). It came up in the documentary that *boy* did those guys need therapy for some deep-seated issues.

But hey, people change as they get older and what's important to them changes, too. No one could expect them to play the same music for 20-25 years on and on.......and as a musician, myself, I know I wouldn't want to be boxed in like that! I've never understood the anger from fans when an artist/band tries something different than the same old standard. I'm sure they wouldn't like being pigeonholed in the reverse.

I've gotten used to Load/Reload after years and years of listening to it. Still horrible compared to their first three albums.

I've gotten used to them too, and you're right, they don't stand up to the older stuff. I didn't like the song St. Anger. There was just one part of the song that drove me nuts everytime I heard it. I kept thinking if they'd left that part out it would have been a really good song.

It was part of the reason I never got that album. (I haven't heard any other songs off of the album. So, would it be worth getting?)

It came up in the documentary that *boy* did those guys need therapy for some deep-seated issues.

I saw a good portion of that documentary, and oh boy did they have issues. I'm glad they finally started dealing with that stuff.

As for their music, I wouldn't want them to keep playing the same old same old. It would get boring. I have just found that I don't really care for their newer stuff.

I just got peeved with them for reasons that had nothing to do with their change in music. Lord knows I can get pissed at a members in certain bands and still like their music. :P

And by the way-to the Guest who posted the link for the live video, Thanks! It's awsome to see. I've watched it several times tonight already. :)