Which comes first - the Title or the Words?

[New]

When writing a piece of work, do you write it out, then think of a title, or construct a piece based a title you predetermine?

For most of my work, I just write it out, and then choose a title that seems appropriate...only for one piece I wrote did I construct it based on a title, as it was a phrase which was worth poetry in my mind.

 

[Changed]

I write everything then give it a title later. Sometimes a title seems unnecessary and I just put a time stamp on it.

 

[(Wordy)]

Good question.

For me, sometimes the title comes first, but more often it comes last.

I often have working titles for poems.

 

[Raz]

Generally the theme of the poem drives everything else.

Sometimes though there's a particular turn of phrase I really like and will base the poem around that as the title.....or another thing I've noticed I do all the time is take the title of an existing song or book or whatever and then use that to write something inspired by the original or just inspired by that phrase.

 

[Jabberwocky]

i kinda free form write then choose a title.

 

[katmeow]

In general, the title always came afterwards for me (I use past tense because I haven't written anything in nearly 2 years).

Although, at one point, I wrote a poem titled sunday and then ended up with the two subsequent pieces I wrote being monday and friday. I had it in my head that I might write something for every day of the week, but I lost inspiration.

 

[L O V E L I F E]

I don't write poetry, but I do write jokes.

And for me, I don't write ANYTHING first.

Rather, the first thing that happens on the way to writing a joke is simply having my antennae up, ready to receive observations - the germ of the joke.

Then, once a worthy observation finds me, the punchline writes itself.

THEN, I work backwards, and actively write the set-up.

Finally (assuming the joke ends up being strong enough to enter my rotation - probably only five to ten percent of the jokes I write end up making the cut), I entitle the joke with the one or two words that allow me to best perform the joke, by triggering the memory of the observation that initially inspired it.

That way, I am in the mental and emotional state where I can best paint the picture I want in the audience's mind, all the while trying to hide the ball (i.e., the punchline) until the joke's final syllable.

Great thread - imo, we need more threads about the PROCESS - it's extremely interesting to me how so many accomplished writers have such starkly different processes for arriving at their respective finished products (which, as we all know, are never truly finished).

- LL




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[colicolo]

always the words for me

 

[sudzgoa]

When I start writing something, I usually don't know what it is about. So the title inevitably comes last. Often though, I do not have a title at all. That sucks a bit.