Titles

So titles. In other words, the things I suck at. Seriously, I'm terrible at titles. They were my bane in college. Usually, I'd just take a line from the paper I was writing and make it the title. And they usually weren't that creative either. I'd prove it, but the flash drive that had all my school papers on it died a while ago, so no proof for you. At least not from school papers.

As for more recent writing, it seems that the stories I like the best, or have the most time invested in, are the ones with crappy titles. Or no titles. Like my first book. The idea for that book came to me in my teens. It had a really bad title for a while, but since then, after many, many revisions, it is sadly lacking in title. I've spent years trying to come up with a good one, to no avail. Here's some of the ideas that have come to mind over the years:

First Impressions

Losing the Familiar

Both Ends out of Sight

A Hero in Her Way

Tangents

The Open Door

Falling Slowly

No Going Back

No Turning Back

Following the Light

Leave the Old World Behind

The Magic all Around Us

Tangled Consequences

The Unmarked Path

Distant Places

From a Distant Place

The Path Home

The Path toward Home

None of them really fit the book though. So I didn't stick with any of them. I have the same problem with another story that I'm prepping to write in the (hopefully) near future. I've had the idea for a really long time, but no good title has presented itself. I tried reading poetry, taking ideas from the book, incorporating the last line, working off of a theme, everything. And still I have nothing.Not the titles above aren't decent. They just don't work with the story.

On the flip side, projects that I don't seem to want to spend much time with or that I feel are just crappy ideas that will never see the light of day (or get published) all suggested their titles rather easily. Some examples:

One of the Guys (Contemporary that I'd like to write, but not sure I should since, I want to get fantasy published)
The Summer Boys (Ditto above)
The Keeper's Daughter (Silly fantasy story that isn't going anywhere anytime soon)
First Sight (I am really starting to dislike this story. It's so uncohesive and just ug. I'm not sure it's gonna be more than a first draft).

See those are great titles. In fact, if you knew the plots, you'd probably like them even more. Okay, maybe not, but still, they just appeared fully formed, ready to be tacked onto their stories.

I guess I'll just have to keep working on it. Perhaps, once all the revisions are complete, a title will appear, fully formed and ready to use. Until then, I'll just stick to calling it the name of the MC. It works.

Tell me about your experiences titling your writing. Do you find it easy, hard, somewhere in the middle? What's the best title you've ever come up with?