for considering renaming Dark Respite even though there are only 2 or 3 chapters left?

My most basic motivation for this is the fact I think people aren't all that motivated to click on a story with the title: Dark Respite. I mean I can come up with some other, more dignifying bullshit as to why a name change might be valid, such as...

a) WTF is a Dark Repite? Sounds like a story about someone taking an EMO nap or something...

b) The name has so very little to do with acurately capturing the fic.

c)...nope, no c. Mostly, I just want to get more reviews and more hits (that shit might make me pathetic but I mean damn; I'm a 29 year old, married man, who reads and writes Harry Potter and gets laid by his wife at a rate appropriate to just that sort of individual -- we outright broke the pathetic scale a fair bit ago).

Maybe I'm grasping for something that's just not there with the fic. I update really slowly, there's no love interest, and Harry can be a bit whiny in the early goings...it's possible it ain't the title that's the problem.

But on the flip side the reviews that I have got have been really (really) good, and from individuals I consider knowledgeable in HP fanfiction.

Whatever the case, I'm interested what y'all think.

If you've made it this far these are the titles I was considering;

Harry Potter: Worse Than Death
Life's a Bitch, Then you Get Even
Harry Potter: Fate's Bitch (don't know if ff.net would allow this)

Sigh,

Omagic

 

Dark Respite is far better than these. Emo it may be, but at least it sounds nice.

Harry Potter: Worse than Death commits the cardinal sin of the colon in titles. It really does sound terrible. You're writing a story, not an essay. The title doesn't have to be explanatory, it just has to hook the reader.

Life's a Bitch, Then you Get Even is far too chatty and informal. It sounds like the kind of title that a H/D slash or self-insert Mary Sue fangirl would use.

Harry Potter: Fate's Bitch not only has a colon but also is chatty.

 

Thanks Taure.

So are we saying the possibility of changing the title may not be such a bad thing, so long as the titles have far less suck than the ones I put forth as possibilities?

To my defense (not that your reply presented a tone that required my defending from it) I'm pants with titles, as evidenced by me wanting to rename the fic in first place.

Still, anyone have any thoughts on the notion that the current title of the fic lacks hook?

Thanks,

Omagic

 

Hmm...upon further thought, some of the titles above could be good, if you adjusted them a bit.

Instead of Harry Potter: Worse than Death, you could just go for Worse than Death. Same for Fate's Bitch.

 

I rejoice for seeing my dream come true. As a fanatic in regards to titles myself, I can sympathize. I've renamed To Define Treachery and The Serpent of the Haradwaith about twentyish times each. I've changed my pennmame on FFnet maybe thirty.

Truly, you could do a lot worse than Dark Respite. Something sexier might be Darkness Reprieved, or Promestheus Unbound. Darkness Reprieved excises any emo implications. The Dark side is given its reprieve and has gained momentum in the war, as evidenced by the... ordeals... that Harry goes through in your story.

 

Hmm, not sure about your preferences, but I generally think it's a good idea to avoid the word 'Dark' in titles. There are so many fics that fall back on that (Dark Phoenix, Dark Prophecy, Dark Reflections, Darkly Treacherous - to name but a few) that they tend to all blur into one. I haven't read enough of your fic to really suggest anything relevant, but if you avoid those kind of buzzwords and the 'Harry Potter: Colon of Doom' thing like Taure said, you're much more likely to come up with something people haven't seen before. Worst comes to worst, you could always try thesaurus.com

 

Taure,

Colons can be used in titles -- you just need to do it tastefully like this:

Harry : Potter : : One Anus is Not Enough!

The title is not only lewd, but it is also vaguely post-modern and has an exclaimation mark. While seemingly shitty, it is probably good enough to be loved by the continentalist philosophers.

Then again, they're mostly idiots . . .

 

If you want to rename it, I'd say go for it. As for "Dark Respite", it's not that it's a bad title. But using 'Dark' automatically I tend to think Snape, Malfoy, all too often slash and annoying angst coupled with a word beyond the average 5th grader ('Respite') and it predisposes a certain type of fanfic reader towards reading it, while perhaps turning away some who might like it.

On the other hand, there's a point where a title is intriguing and compels people to click and read it. That point is often missed though and a title can just sound stupid. ("Mein Kampf or How I Spent My Summer Vacation" would probably intrigue me into clicking but that doesn't mean it's a good title. Same with things like 'Ginny Weasley dosed me with love potions and all I got was this lousy T-shirt and gonorrhea.' But I'd click that link.) I've got an old fic with a title that I'm sure has turned many people away from the fic, but I like the title. If you don't like yours, I'd say change it to something either ironic, humorous, or mysterious.

None of your three suggestions intrigued me. 'Life's a bitch and I'm a bastard'? I'd say drop the "Harry Potter"s from them. "Worse than death" sounds too angsty but "Worse" would at least get me to read the summary.

 

Thanks all around for the feedback. I'm still on the fence about the name change, but I agree with DreamRed and nonjon on their points about the downside of the title.

So now the fun of thinking of that clever title is foremost intriguing, whilst also being potentially ironic, humurous, or mysterious. All the while avoiding emoish dark references, colons, chattiness, and excessively advanced words.

I honestly like something in the area of "Life's a Bith and I'm a Bastard" it's close to what I want in this title but it's not quite right for the fic (and perhaps a tad chatty). I'll figure something out.

Again, thanks!

Omagic