30-Day Fanfic Writing Meme, Day 17

[geri_chan]

17. Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

Well, I won't say that they're the bane of my existence, but like my summaries, they tend to be utilitarian rather than profound or witty. I often have a hard time coming up with a good title, so they usually either refer to the main character, like Daiki and Ash's Story, or describe what the fic is about, like First Date and Audition. Always and Scars were inspired by songs that thematically fit the story. Phoenix Reborn was my AU twist on Order of the Phoenix; I actually thought I was being kind of clever with that title--the Order was being resurrected within the fic, and I was essentially rewriting Book 5 to suit my Snupin fanon, so it was a double rebirth in a sense. (At least, I thought I was clever until I saw how many other HP fanfics had "Phoenix" in the title and realized that, duh, it's not exactly an astoundingly original idea! But I still like it. ^_^)

I was proud of Kentucky Fried Christmas, since I figured it was unusual enough to catch people's attention, and it refers to a uniquely Japanese Christmas tradition that I find amusing. I still don't know why, but Kentucky Fried Chicken (or just fried chicken in general) is a popular Christmas meal. And man, did I crave fried chicken when I was writing that fic!

I am fond of Unmasked as a title, since I like the metaphor of an actor using his roles as a mask to hide his true self, though I must admit that I probably got the idea from Masks, Removed by Snapelike, who also came up with one of my all-time favorite fanfic titles (and stories), How to Tame a Lover in Three Easy Steps. It's probably just as well that I used a metaphorical title for "Unmasked," since a more literal descriptive one would have been a bit unwieldy: "Onozuka Has Commitment Issues, Gets Pursued by Kikuchi, and Is Outed to the Media"! ~_^

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(You can find the full meme listed at the end of Day 5).