Thread: Help with a Title

Hi everyone,
Usually, when I write something, either the title comes before anything is written on the page, or it never exists in my mind until well into the writing, sometimes three or more chapters ahead.
But I have been writing this for awhile, and after about a chapter or so the title "Bare Plains" came to mind. But the title I have come up with, just doesn't fit with it.

I started it as about an aging man in the south during the late 1800s - early 1900s. He is a very wealthy cattle farmer, and retired cattle driver. As time goes on, he finds that the only person who really cares for him (and I say care because she has feelings for him that a female may have about a male) is his housekeeper who also acts as his nurse, who is young enough to be his daughter.
His son hates him and has since a child, because he believes that he (the aging man) killed his mother, though in reality, it was an accident and he tried to save her, but only the man knows that. Obviously, his wife is dead. Most of the town he lives in hates him because of the rumors that spread about what had happened to his wife.
He is deeply depressed, and finds comfort in women that he hires, which is another reason that the town despises him, though he hires these women to just sit in the room with him, or lie next to him so he can sleep, because he cannot imagine relations with anyone but the woman he married.

Any thoughts?

To Whom It May Concern

Interesting story idea, by the way.

Hello KaitieL, I have written a script almost exactly like that, but with horror content. Is your story set in the USA? Why not title it the name of the cattleman or perhaps his drive such as The Chisolm Trail - perhaps his town is his name as he founded it? Any use?

How about going with a "working title" for now until it is fully developed? You don't really have to commit to a title until you are promoting it anyway. Something will come to you that is appropriate I'm sure and most likely it'll be about 2 in the morning! Good luck.

Thank you all for such wonderful responses

I think I may just stick with what it is for a working title for now. Something will come in mind eventually....
I may post an excerpt of it on here.

Thanks.

I like the story a lot based on its outline. There is a collection of three stories called 'Asleep' by Banana Yoshimoto which included one story about a girl who sold herself into that same sort of sleep prostitution for want of a better term. It's quite unique and beautiful. I absolutely adore that collection and recommend it to whoever I can.

When I get particularly stuck for titles, I usually look to favourite lines from a song which says something about the story. I won't use the line outright, but will try to recreate the conversation between it and my story in my own words. Does that make sense?

For a random example, I'm currently listening to Grandaddy - The group who couldn't say. It contains the great line:
'And the sprinklers that come on at 3am sound like crowds of people asking "Are you happy what you're doing?"'

If there was a conversation between my story and that song, I'd try to recreate the image. 'Late at night, the sprinklers start to ask me why I'm not in bed yet.' Is a perhaps-too-literal example... but something like that.