ciroccoj | Fanfic Titles Meme (Reply)

OK, let's see if the cut-text thing works any better today as I once more, lemming-like, follow where others have gone and do a meme.

I'm continually amazed by just how uncreative I am when it comes to titles. Sometimes I think I wrote the Aftershocks mostly just to be able to avoid having to think of titles for a long, long time.

Anyway, in roughly chronological order:

Confession: It's an L&O ep title (for a great Mikey ep) and has something to do with the subject - basically, Mikey makes a rather public confession.
It Might Not Be A Pretty Picture: It's a quote from the ep that made me first think of this thing, and it pretty much describes Rey's life as I pictured it - not a pretty picture, at all. Also, more catchy than my subtitle, DrearyFutureRey(tm).
Burden: It's the title of the L&O ep that spawned the quote above, and also pretty much describes the state of DrearyFutureRey's life at this point in time - one big, sad, dreary burden.
Matrimony: Again, L&O ep title, and relevant to the matrimonial issues being worked out in the fic.
Aftershock: Curtis, Aftershock: Briscoe, Aftershock: Kincaid, Aftershock: McCoy: What joy. The titles speak for themselves: the episode Aftershock, from each of the main character's points of view. Even the titles of the chapters had me cruising on auto-pilot, since they were all the same:
- Execution: Duh. Brief background leading up to the execution, the execution itself, and the first little while afterwards.
- Aftershock: AKA "Where Things Start to Turn to Crap for Our Heroes", roughly at lunchtime. Except for Claire, poor girl, whose day actually takes a turn for the better before its rather abrupt end.
- Accident: Duh.
- The Day After: For each of Our Surviving Heroes, this was the only bit of title-creativity I had to subject myself to. Curtis' was called "Tangled Web", Briscoe's was called "Twelve Steps", and McCoy's was called "Absence". Not a lot of thought there, each was a phrase or word from the chapter that pretty much described the after-aftershock for each of them.
- Funeral: Duh.
After Effects: This is the only fic I ever wrote where I had more than one title idea. And gawd, did I have lots. I thought of Post-Mortem, because it was three letters meant to be read after the death of either the writer or the reader; Letters From the Edge, because it's letters from the edge of life; Dear Cathy, Dear Deborah, Dear Claire, self-explanatory; Forgiveness, because all three letters are asking for forgiveness and it's an L&O ep title. Went with After Effects, which was suggested by a friend as a tie-in to Aftershock.
Purgatory: Not an ep title, much to my dismay. But it's supposed to be a POV on a Pretty Picture chapter called Purgatory, and it pretty much describes the feel of what's going on. Grimmest thing I've ever written, and I've written lots and lots of grim.
Justice: Ep title. Also describes what's going on: trying to get justice for Rey, after the ultra-crappy things that happened to him in Pretty Picture.
Open Letter to Fanfic Writers: Self-explanatory title. bear's description on The Ham Sandwich made me giggle: "The characters assassinate back!"
Stakeout: Duh, Lennie and Rey are on a stakeout.
Walk and Don't Look Back: the words to a song playing in the background during the fic. A liiittle too close to songfic for me, but there you go. Also describes what Rey has been told to do about his past.
The Child is the Father of the Man: suggested by Leslie Rampey, it's a quote from... Wordsworth? Help me out here. Also descriptive of the fic: we're all products of our childhoods, for good or bad.
A Very L& O Valentine's: This one was Leslie's choice. I wanted to go with A Valentine's Day Massacre, because that's basically what we did to the poor characters, but Leslie preferred this one and I didn't mind compromising. It may have been a reference to A Very Brady Christmas, I'm not sure.
Plain Sight Exception: When cops don't have a search warrant, if they start poking around whatever they find is inadmissible. However, if they see anything in plain sight (like a bloody knife left on a counter-top), that's OK. Descriptive of how Lennie stumbles onto a secret. This is quite possibly the only halfway creative title I've ever come up with, and I think that'll probably be it for me for the next couple of years.

I swear, it's a good thing I'm not from some ethnic group where you're supposed to name your children something descriptive. Where the other moms would name their babies "Joyous Welcome Gift" or "Laughter Like a Shimmering Waterfall" or "Music to Our Hearts", I would probably name mine "Brown Eyed Boy" or "Loud Baby".