Fannish Stuff: That Title Thing That's Been Going Around

[silveradept]

china_shop wants us to look at the twenty most recent titles for fanworks we've had and answer a few questions. 20 is conveniently the number on page one of someone's AO3 works page, so there's a good list to draw from. Here are the twenty most recent that are not currently under embargo.

• Dinner and a Show of Friendship
• Feel Miraculous Inc.
• Lessons for Cousins
• A Bit of Harmless Flirting
• The Greatest Ambition
• The Successor Letter
• Studying The Masters
• Visions and Feelings
• The Waterbender
• We Didn't Start The Fire
• Chasing Tail
• Kubdel's Razor
• Bound Up In Your Eyes
• Cirque d'Akuma: The Audition
• Easy A(drien)
• Over and Under, But Never Through
• And the Cartomantic Caper
• Rossi's Coincidence
• We Wont Be Beaten By The Past
• Just Like Old Times

And now, the questions:

1. How many are you happy with?
   
   I don't agonize much over whether the titles are good or not, I worry most over whether the titles are appropriate or not. These ones seem to have done well enough, although I know that these titles probably aren't helping catapult me to fame and notoriety. (Then again, I think whatever fame and notoriety I have has more to do with the fandom size than the skill of the author, which is another thing entirely.)


2. How many are...not great?
   
   I mean, that's up to the audience, ultimately, but I'd say that while many of them are inspired, that doesn't necessarily mean any of them are any good. Unless the reader thinks they're good, and then they're great.


3. How many did you scramble for at the last minute?
   
   Most of them. Titles are often the last thing I think of in relation to a work. Sometimes they pop out at me while I'm writing, but that's not often. Perhaps if I had a bigger swath of poetry and lyric to draw on, my titles would be more poetic. For the most part, though, I'm more concerned about having a good work than a standout title, and I'm sure it shows in this list.


4. How many did you know before you started writing/creating, or neat the beginning?
   
   "Easy A(drien)" came as the title first, because the conceit for the story came along with it, "We Didn't Start The Fire" was already the title of the thing I was remixing, so it didn't really need changing, and of course, "Feel Miraculous Inc." was songfic, so it was definitely early in the process. Some of the other ones might have arrived early in the process, but most of these titles are things that I had to think of or research while I was looking at a title box on AO3 and going "What am I going to put in this?"


5. How many are quotes from songs or poems?
   
   "We Didn't Start The Fire" is a Billy Joel song, "We Won't Be Beaten By The Past" is from "Rising", "Feel Miraculous Inc." is a take on Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." All the others, if they are, are by coincidence.


6. How many are other quotes?
   
   None deliberately, except perhaps "The Greatest Ambition," but that's only because it's part of a Sorting Hat quote I made up for the character that says it. Most of them are trying to be punny in one way or another, if you know the contexts of the story they're titling.
   
   And also, "Kubdel's Razor" and "Rossi's Coincidence" are riffs on things related to probability, as are all of the titles in the Rigging Random Chance series. So they're not quotes, necessarily, but they're close.


7. Which best reflects the plot of the story/content of the fanwork?
   
   "The Successor Letter" is probably the most straightforward, in that what it contains is a successor letter. "And the Cartomantic Caper" describes what's going to happen if you know what cartomancy is, and several of the other ones are pretty descriptive, even if they don't make complete sense until you're in the work or through it.


8. Which best reflects the theme of the story/fanwork?
   
   That's probably "Over and Under, But Never Through", because Beatrix is looking for a direct solution to conflicting problems, despite knowing that the person she is asking for solutions to doesn't work that way, and is able to get the very best results for her because Corrine rarely runs into problems that can be solved most effectively by being straightforward about it. (Corrine is basically an adventure game protagonist, because the ways that get you the most points and results in adventure games are usually the least direct methods of getting things done.) And, true to form, Corrine comes up with a solution that isn't actually straightforward, but will accomplish several of her and Beatrix's goals together. So that title is probably the most on-theme of the lot.


9. Which best reflects the character voice of the story/POV of the fanwork?
   
   I mean, I would like all of them to be doing that, even if they succeed at greater or lesser degrees. But if I had to pick a couple where I think the characters' voices shone through particularly well, probably both of the Cirque d'Akuma works there, "The Audition" and "Studying The Masters", because writing Adrien Agreste as a massive fan who's in love with the person he's the biggest fan of feels very natural to him.


10. Which is your favorite?
    
    I think I did the best in terms of a good title on Chasing Tail, because it's a multi-layered pun, one of which relies on knowing the source material for the story.
    
    But which of the works I like the best? That's a harder call, because I like all of my works that I post, so it's much like asking what one's favorite child is. If we go solely by raw kudos count, then it's "We Didn't Start The Fire" that's the favorite, but I think that has more to do with the Miraculous Ladybug fandom's size than anything.
    
    They're all hopefully at least entertaining, and some of them are hopefully good, too.