Viewpoint Making Titles for Your Roleplays

[Nano]

...or anything else really. There I am, jotting down notes for a new idea, creating a basic plotline for what I'd like to see as the story progresses, world building, and whatever else we all do for planning our roleplays, and then I'm hit with the age old problem of creating a title. Typically I'd just roll over the themes of the roleplay, like whether I need a title that sounds mysterious or if the roleplay is lighthearted enough to warrant a joke or pun in the title. In the end, most of my title ideas are just randomly jotted down until I hit one that's at least semi-satisfactory. I've never had much of a formulaic process I follow for this, so I'm curious. What do all the rest of you do when thinking up a good title?

 

[Tove]

Depends on what the roleplay is about then I will make the title according to an overall theme. Sometimes I use song titles from epic or instrumental music.

 

[Onmyoji]

I second this, I would usually base the titles on the overall theme. And sometimes use song titles or quotes if they fit the theme.
So there isn't any real methodology, other than just going with the flow.

 

[Jannah]

Titles are honestly one of the most difficult details for me to come up with.

 

[ashwynne]

Oh my gosh, my titles are always so random
I have no process. I literally just squint for a long time until some line or word pops into my head that relates to the plot/overall tone and then I go with that. I don't usually agonize over it very much.

 

[Crayons]

Titles are hard. Generally speaking I don't think I've named many of my RPs... but when I do it's either a name that matches the overall theme, or it's some kind of pun.

I found this brilliant resource on Deviantart once for thinking of a title for fiction, it really helped me come up with a title I was really stuck on for a story. If I can find it I'll link it.

 

[Idea]

I view titles as essentially the advertisement for the roleplay. As such, my main method of titling things is in whatever the focal point of the roleplay is meant to be.

There are exceptions of course, as much of this is just done by gut feeling. For instance, my 1x1 threads are always based on theme "Plotting Everything", because that was the title of my first serious 1x1 search thread.

 

[laceanddoodles]

My creative writing professor advised us to take a “cool line” or phrase from the text of whatever we’d written and use that as the title. Because then the cool phrase will be emphasized and the reader will feel like they “found something” hidden within the writing

 

[JustJess]

I like to do something that reminds me of what the Rp is. So if its Avatar themed. I''d call it 'painted blue'

 

[Grey]

I just reference poetry and song lyrics, personally. Has the added benefit of creating intertextuality.