Sometimes, the only thing holding up my submitting a short story is the lack of a title. Titles are not my strong suit. I can much more easily come up with a clever quip or a plot twist.
Necessity being the mother of invention, I always manage something. My favorite is “The Grift of the Magi,” which appears in Hook, Line, and Sinker: The Seventh Guppy Anthology. It’s about a divorcing couple squabbling over a painting of the Three Wise Men.
For
my next publication, however, the title came first.
One
day last fall I had five minutes before leaving for work. I jumped on Facebook
and saw a post speculating about an anthology inspired by the music of
Aerosmith. I commented that I would love to be a part of it, and about a minute
later the original poster asked me to select a song to write about.
I
figured the competition would be fierce for one of the band’s big hits like “Dream
On” or “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing.” A quick Google search yielded a list of every
Aerosmith song. I chose “Bitch’s Brew,” thinking I could come up with a story
about a coffee shop. Then I left for work, with a minute to spare.
Almost
immediately, the anthology found a publisher and I was at work on my story,
which needed to reflect my chosen song in a recognizable way. That’s when I
discovered just how terrible a song I had selected. The music is bad. The
lyrics are worse. The only thing going for it is the title.
I stuck with my idea of a coffee shop. It’s run by a woman who deliberately opened her business next door to the garden shop owned by the woman her husband dumped her for. I enjoyed the challenge of incorporating some of the song’s lyrics, and what little theme it has. I won’t go so far as to call myself a rock star, but in this instance, I think I give Aerosmith a run for their money. Readers can weigh in when the anthology, Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, releases on November 8th.
The
next story I have coming out has a title suggested by the anthology editor to
replace the one I originally submitted. I only wish he had asked sooner.
Do
you judge a story by its title? What comes first in your writing, the title or
the story idea?
