4 Common Problems With An Everyman

1.  No personality

     One of the top issues with an everyman is that they have no real personality; their entire personality is "I'm an average Joe just like everyone else," but that's not enough.  There has to be something to them, flesh to add to bone.

     Having a character that's average is fine.  In fact, in literature, that's practically an act of rebellion against the status quo.  But you can't allow that character to become boring.  Average doesn't have to be boring--some very interesting people are perfectly average, just in ways you wouldn't expect.

     Maybe they have an eclectic interest, they're just not very good at it, or they know a little bit about a lot of things, or a lot about a very few things; maybe they have skills which were never top notch, but they still love to practice.  Whatever it is, just don't make them a boring bland personalityless nobody.

     Make them into someone we'd want to travel with (or someone we'd hate to travel with), not just someone we tolerate.

2.  Mouthpiece

     An everyman, being that they're our touchstone to reality in this journey through the cosmos or elven lands or what have you, can sometimes serve as an author stand-in, revealing to us all their thoughts about the new places, people, events, and the old people, places, events that we're used to.

     This is all well and good, but be careful you don't go running away with it and turn the character into just another mouthpiece trying to spread an agenda; commentary is great!  We love commentary!  But commentary is sometimes just a hair's breadth away from preaching, and once you get to preaching it's a steep descent down into moralizing bluffs, and no one likes being moralized.

     TL;DR:  Speak, don't preach.  Comment, don't vomit.  We're not here for a sermon, we're here to have fun.

3.  No purpose in the plot

     Other than providing us with information about our new environment and giving us a running commentary on how the nature of whatever's going on relates to the nature of whatever's going on in real life, does your character have a purpose in the plot?

     And I mean a real purpose; look at what's happening in your story.  If you took your everyman out of it, would any of the action change?  If not, you either need to scrap that character, or give them a reason to be on the scene.  Give them something to do, something important, don't just let them laze around observing things; that's how they get flat and boring, and boring is the enemy here!  Boring is the reason people hate everymen!

     Don't subject your everyman to everyman hell; let him have agency.

4.  Stock Personality

     Often, when an everyman does have a personality, it's one of the stock personalities that three hundred other everymen are loaded with.  They're flat cardboard characters with no real backstory that just show up to drive home the author's point or reveal information to us.

     Don't fall into that trap; make your everyman a well-rounded person, with interests, talents, flaws!  If I wanted a stock character, I'd read comedia del'arte.

3 Reasons Why You Should Write Periods (That Are Really All Secretly The First Reason)

1. Normalization

     Once every month people between the onset of puberty and the beginning of menopause who possess a functional uterus shed their uterine lining through the vaginal opening.  This uterine lining contains blood, an unfertilized egg or two, and various tissues.  Since a baby didn't quicken that month, the body doesn't need all that extra material lying around getting old and stale and gross, so it hits the eject button and forces the uterus-possessor into a little mini practice labor, which lasts for somewhere between three and seven days.  For most women, and some men, it happens every month for somewhere around thirty-five or forty years.

     Periods happen.  It's a biological fact and a day-to-day reality.  Sometimes it sucks fat honking monkey dicks; sometimes it only sucks a patch of crabgrass.  Either way, it's something as normal as eating or sleeping, and it happens literally every month for like half your life, if you live a long life.  If you add up your average number of bleed days a month and calculate the math, the average uterus-owner will bleed for somewhere between seven and ten nonconsecutive years of their life.

     If you think about it, it's kind of metal.  I mean, we can bleed for /seven days straight/ without dying!  I'd like to see a penis-bearer do that!  Yet because--one second.  *Steps onto feminist soapbox*  Ahem.  Yet because the Penis is King, our patriarchal society treats periods as something weird and gross and unusual, like having one is freaky-deaky and mad strange, yo.

      There was a photographic series that was popular a while ago wherein a photographer took pictures of women going about their daily lives when their period set in, with blood trickling down their thigh as they walked out of a restaurant or swirling in the bathwater as they luxuriated.  The controversy the series was met with, and the disgusted responses, were really quite astounding--people who watch people fart on each other as a recreational activity acted as if capturing such an everyday aspect of the human condition was crossing some horrible, unspoken line.  Hell, people are more comfortable watching blood siblings bone each other than they are with seeing women bleed (unless it originates from the head, legs, or torso, of course, because a gaping chest wound is perfectly natural and nothing to be ashamed of).

     We even treat piss and shit better than we treat menstruation, and menstruation is both more hygienic and better smelling.  Imho, at least; matters of sense are of course a matter of taste (buhdum tiss), but personally, I've never gagged cleaning menstrual blood up off the floor.  We even treat the blood that flows from our veins like it's somehow safer than menstrual tissues, glorifying things like the blood brothers ceremony, then acting like so much as touching an unused tampon will give you a horrible disease.

    But guess what!  Unless you have an STD, or a yeast infection or something, your uterine blood is sterile!  And really, why wouldn't it be?  It's all the food that would have nourished a baby had you conceived one within that moon-cycle.  It may not stay sterile once it's exposed to the elements and bacteria find their way onto it (as they inevitably find their way into everything, sneaky little bastards), but when it's coming out, and shortly thereafter, it's totally safe, it usually doesn't smell all that awful....  It's kind of like spit; maybe you don't want it on you, but if someone drools on your arm a little bit while they're sleeping all you have to do is wash your arm and it's like there was never an issue.

     But here's the thing; in this patriarchal western society, Penis=King, Vagina=Prisoner.  Sort of.  We treat male as the default, is what I'm saying; pants are considered genderless but a dress automatically indicates femininity; a flat chest could mean male or female or neither but boobs automatically equal woman; guy is male and gal is female but even though guys is gender-neutral, gals is still strictly feminine; male nipples are a just part of their physiology but female nipples are a political statement; and the list goes on, and on, and on....

     The really weird thing is, if any sex were going to be the default, shouldn't it be the sex that was in the majority?  And yet, despite the statistic that there are 2% more uterus-owners than penis-owners, penises (penii?) are the default sex organ.  And nothing ever comes out a penis that isn't piss or semen (unless you are very very ill, in which case you should please consult a doctor immediately), yet it's more acceptable to talk, in great detail, about a penis emitting biological waste or sexual fluids than it is to mention the very existence of menstrual blood.

     And why?  Because, as I said, we live in a patriarchal society.  This means that everything is tailored to the cis male experience; male is automatically normal, female is automatically abnormal, which is why it's totally cool to have a movie with only dudes in it, but totally weird and sexist to have anything at all ever with only women/girls as the leads.  So penises are funny and normal and vaginas are weird and disgusting, both alluring and vaguely intimidating, greatly sought after--but only if they never do anything that hints at biological processes, because why would you want to fuck something that's like, alive, and like, human and equal to you and stuff?

     Okay, I'm getting off topic, and I could go on for hours so I'll just stop myself here.  What I'm getting at is; periods are not a political statement.  Periods are not weird, they're so normal more than half the world has them.  There are so many myths attached to periods that it can be hard to keep from backhanding someone who tries to plant misinformation within your range of hearing, and some families are so embarrassed by this biological fact of life that they never tell their uterus-bearing children about it until it's too late.

     Some people still call it "Eve's Curse."  Kids make fun of you in the locker room if you don't have it, then they make fun of you when you do.  People get laughed at for leaking through their pants or skirt or what-have-you, like they could have helped it.  People act like putting in a tampon provides a sexual thrill, or if you're involved in sports you can get ridiculed by your coach for choosing to wear pads instead.

     I repeat; there are teenagers who don't even know that periods are a thing!

     Periods.  Are.  A.  Thing.  That.  Happens.  And chances are good that if you have a uterus, you have either had one, or will have one in the future.  And yet in all the many, many, many years that I've been reading books, I've only come across periods three and a half times; in the Earth's Children series, Ayla's period isn't a big plot point, but it is mentioned from time to time.  Jean M. Auel talks about the method Ayla uses for dealing with and collecting her menstrual blood, and the small effects it has on her life, such as her sex life with Jondalar.

     In what I believe was A Girl Named Disaster (I'd forgotten the name of the book over the years, and this is the only book I could find in which a girl from Mozambique makes her way to Zimbabwe whilst becoming a woman, so I'm going to say that it is the one I read as a ten-year-old), young Nhamo begins to menstruate for the first time while alone on a deadly journey to find her distant relatives, and struggles with the pressures of becoming a woman while so utterly cut off from everyone she loves.  Later on, she also struggles to let go of the concept that menstruation means that one has become a woman, since the fact that your body is technically ready to bear children has nothing to do with emotional and intellectual maturity.

     It was a sizable enough plot point that it's most of what I remember from the book, and it touched on important aspects of the experience of "first blood" that no one ever talks about because no one ever wants to talk about it.  If I hadn't been raised with a mother who saw no reason to be ashamed of biology, this book could have been my only exposure to menstruation outside of school "your body and you" seminars, and that kind of writing is pretty important.  "Your Body and You" seminars ghost over the details of pubescent changes and what's happening physically, but it never delves into the emotional and psychological effects of a reaching a milestone that one is being constantly told one should be both proud (you're a woman :D!) and ashamed of (you're a woman >:|).

     Menstruation is so, so, so physiologically simple, but as simple as it is to explain biologically, it is every bit as difficult to navigate socially, culturally, emotionally.

     These books both treat periods as a normal thing in different ways--Earth's Children by incorporating it into the world as a fact of life and mentioning it largely in passing, and A Girl Named Disaster by supersizing it, bringing it out into the light where young uterus-owners can stick knives in it and say, "Even though it's normal to feel this way about these things, maybe I don't have to."  At the very least, they can identify with the struggles of the character, which is sometimes all a kid needs.  To know they aren't the only one.

     So why should you write periods?   Reason number one:  Normalize.  How can something be seen as normal if we lock it in the dark and pretend it doesn't exist?  That's why there's been such a big push lately to write more female characters, more gay and bi and pan and trans and genderqueer and PoC and disabled characters, etc etc, it's why I talk about Tourette's and did presentations all across New York state--because you can't normalize something you don't talk about.  If you can't talk about it, it must not fall under our current societal definition of "normal."

     So let's talk about periods.  Let's write about periods, write about characters having them, write about characters talking about them, hating them, laughing about them, bonding over them.  Let's write about people having to borrow a tampon from a friend or offering a spare pad to a stranger on the bus, about the infinite kindness and desolate cruelty that surround the biological process.  Let's talk about it as a scientific event, as a social milestone, as just a daily bother.

      Let's normalize, normalize, normalize, so that maybe one day, when one of our grandchildren reads Carrie, they balk at the motives and actions of the characters, seeing them as completely unreasonable.

      Bleeding from your vagina is not weird, damn it.

2.  Plot Complications

     Okay, so the desire to normalize menstruation isn't strong within you, or you can't find a good reason for it in your story.  Consider:  Plot Complications.

     "How could it complicate my plot?" you ask.  "My character getting PMS and tearing someone's head off?"

     "No!" I shout, thwacking you with the hammer of Don't-You-Sass-Me-Fool.  "That's one for the garbage fire!"

     See, periods are normal, they're usually sterile, but they can be messy, they can be embarrassing, it may not smell as bad as feces but menstrual blood does have a distinctive odor, and when it hits you unawares, it's definitely something that needs dealing with.

     There could be a whole subplot wherein a character has to sneak off to the nearest hygienic-materials-dispenser at an inopportune time, or they could meet the love of their life by offering them their jacket to help cover the stain forming on their ass.  Hell, a young person's quest for a Maxi Pad when they find out the bathroom dispenser is jammed could be what leads them to find the Sword of Destiny or discover the horrible secret that the principle's been keeping.

     And if your story takes place out in the wilds, your uterus-owners coming into their monthlies could be a deadly issue if they don't have a good means of flow-stoppage and/or self-defense.  Predators are hella good at sniffing out blood, menstrual blood in particular since in a lot of animals it indicates heat, which is a great time for boning.  If a predator gets a sniff of that blood trail, it can mean big trouble, and if your team is already being hunted by something with super senses, it can be all the more deadly.  ESPECIALLY if it hits in the middle of the night, when the character in question is defenseless and unawares.  >:3

     And yes, the symptoms that go hand-in-hand with the blood can be used to complicate the plot, too.  Some people do experience emotional sensitivity or mood swings during menstruation, which can cause arguments that might not otherwise happen, especially under stressful situations.  Periods can also be very painful, particularly on day one, making it hard to so much as get up and walk around, which if you're trying to get somewhere fast--or get away from somewhere fast--is going to be a problem.

     Even if the stakes are only maintaining your character's current lifestyle, period day one can muck things up, dampening desire for social interaction, diminishing social and intellectual energy as well as physical, embarrassing you in front of your friends, whatever the case may be.  Plus, that pain I just mentioned?  Makes it a lot harder for a lot of people to maintain a pleasant attitude when talking to assholes or misogynists, so maybe when Angelina gets her period on the day of the big test and has to walk around with her sweater tied around her waist all day is also the day she punches Big Bigot Bob in the face and gets suspended from school.

     If your villains tend to be of the misogynist sort, oh boy, is there no end to the shit you can stir up!  Like I said, menstruation can be messy and uncomfortable, and just like anything else, that can be used to kickstart drama, to heighten tension, or to cause problems, and as we all probably know by now, causing problems is the best way to keep a story going strong!


3.  Realism

     It comes down to this; periods happen.  And you can write a perfectly good book without ever once mentioning menstruation, as many have done!  You can also write a great book that's all about menstruation, or centers heavily around it, or just bandies it around a lot.  Or you could just mention it in passing.

     One of my favorite parts of a fanfiction I read recently was a passage in which a woman excuses herself to use the restroom, realizes her period has started, puts on a pad, and returns to her date.  Why is it my favorite?  Firstly because it wasn't that great a fanfic, but mostly because it was just so casual.  Just a detail.  One of the many small details we pepper in that don't really matter.  The fact that her period had started mattered as much as the color of the diner walls, and I had never seen it dealt with so realistically before.

     The thought that ran through the protagonist's head when she realized she was menstruating?  I'm glad I don't work tomorrow.

     That made me smile because, I mean, how fucking real is that?  My first thought when I realize I'm bleeding is usually, So that's why I've been so tired today.  Plus, I had an instant connection to the protagonist (an OC) because for me, the first forty-eight hours are always the worst, and life is always better when I don't have to be responsible for the first day or two.  I relate.  And I may not have loved the direction the story took after that chapter (the character became too impossibly humble for all her incredible talents for my liking), but that section of that fanfic is now stuck in my head, and I think I'll remember it for a long time.

     Mentioning something small and real--"Mike took a piss behind some weeds while Edgar scoped out the scene," "Johnny pulled at the loose tabs of skin around his fingernails and chewed on the inside of his cheeks," "Mary stopped by the store to pick up Kotex and Raisin Bran,"--can make your world and characters seem more real.  You don't always need to be detailed about it, but mentioning that your characters do normal human things is often refreshing in our world of godmodded protagonists and underpowered villains.

       Let's be real.  Let's be complex.

     Let's naturalize.

Fixing Talking Head Syndrome

What it is:

     "Talking Head Syndrome," as it's known in literary circles, is a condition characterized by the metaphorical detachment of your character from a physical form during dialogue or monologues, especially if world-building or info-dumping is involved.  Essentially, the monologue or dialogue goes on for so long with so few indicators of what's actually happening in the scene that the reader gets lost and confused and, worst of all, bored.

Why it's bad:

     Talking Head Syndrome results in a couple different things, but most importantly, it's boring.
     When THS creeps in, all that's left is words, words, words--words that usually aren't that interesting, don't hold our attention, and make us want to skip over everything to get back to the action.  We lose track of what's going on with the characters, where they are physically, emotionally, etc, and you lose opportunities to really get in touch with the character, advance the plot further, or entertain the audience.

How to fix it:

     There are a couple things you can do to try to cure your MS of Talking Head Syndrome.

• Action Tags:  Action tags are essentially what they sound like; the action that goes on during and between dialogue, and they might be the simplest way to cure your THS.  Instead of saying, "she said," which is a dialogue tag, you cap the end of a sentence (or interrupt the sentence, when it flows that way) with action.  

  For example, instead of, "'I hate this,' she said," you'd use, "'I hate you.'  She put down the clock and crossed to Henry.  

  This is a relatively quick way to let your reader know what's going on while your characters are chatting, which, when done right, won't interrupt the conversation and will keep the details clear in your audience's heads.  Plus, it's more interesting to read.
• Dialogue Tags:  Dialogue tags ("she said," "he asked," "they inquired," etc) are the Action Tag's annoying cousin.  A necessary cousin, who isn't always annoying, but can be.  These don't help terribly much with THS (you can load your MS up with them and still have talking heads as far as the eye can see), but they do help the reader keep track of who's speaking at any given time.  And not knowing who's speaking is a dangerous side effect of THS.
• Slash and Burn:  Another solution is to cut down your dia/monologues.  Instead of having those long-winded passages of speech that take up six pages, you can make it more of a back-and-forth to break it down into more manageable chunks, which can help create space for action and narration.

      Talking Head Syndrome is tricky; it's one of those issues that just keeps coming back around and around and around.  I'm 99.99999% certain that there are talking heads somewhere in your first draft, because it's endemic, and it's natural; when you get in the dialogue flow it's hard to break out of it.  It's not spilled milk, it's nothing to cry about, just try to keep things interesting, and remember to balance your dialogue, action, and narration, lest you end up with more of a play than a novel.

5 Reasons Your Story Isn't Working

     Sometimes a story just doesn't work.  You're typing along, lalala, story story story, and then suddenly, BAM you hit a wall!  Then it's goodbye story, hell-llo writer's block!
     The first step in getting your story back on track is to figure out why you're stuck.  Here are five reasons you may be having difficulties.

1.  You've lost your passion

     Sometimes the spark just goes away.  You lose interest in whatever gave you the idea for this story in the first place, you realize you don't really want to work with these characters anymore, you start to hate the genre it's in--whatever the reason, you lose the will to keep pushing forward.  When you just plain lose interest, it's hard to reignite it.  You could try reacquainting yourself with your story, reworking the plot, throwing in new characters--or you could put it away for a while and see if it calls out to you again later on.  It may have potential, but maybe your gut is trying to tell you something.

2.  You're using the wrong medium

     Some books are made for a Word document, some for pencil and paper, and some for carving into the cliffside with a rusty spoon.
     Different mediums create different actions, different motions, different moods, all of which affect the way you think about your story.  A slow-paced urban fantasy written in heavy dialect might call for longhand, but a fast-paced passionate science fiction tale might need to be hammered into a keyboard.  Try experimenting with different mediums and see if there's something that clicks.

3.  You're using the wrong narrator

     Your narrator should be in the best position to tell the story--they need not necessarily be the coolest character, the most powerful character, the character who ultimately wins, or even a character at all, but they do need to be in the best place to describe the happenings of tale, which means that if they are a character, they need to be in the thick of the action, or in a position to see the story as it needs to be relayed.  If your narrator is off in the background of the story you really want to tell, you should consider either bringing them closer to the action, or making another character the narrator.
     At the same time, if you need to hold certain information outside of the audience's reach, you need to put the story in the hands of a narrator who will either not know this, or have a good reason for keeping it out of the narrative.

4.  You don't yet have the tools or skills you need

      Sometimes there are more complicated maneuvers that a story necessitates which we don't yet have the experience or finesse to pull off, and that inexperience can drag at the story, sometimes causing the tires to blow or bouncing up to break the windshield.  You might be able to get yourself to the point you need to reach through simply pushing yourself through this story, researching what you need to and putting yourself through writing exercises, but sometimes you need to stop, put this manuscript aside, and let it stew while you build your skill level.

5.  You're not telling the right story

     Sometimes there's a really amazing story embedded in a manuscript--"this galactic war is so fascinating," the reader says, "so why are we spending only three pages looking into it while eight hundred are wasted on a forced and cliched romance?"
     If your story doesn't seem to be working, look it over again.  Is there something more interesting, more enthralling happening behind the scenes?  Does some of your world's history or a character's backstory jump out at you as a better read?  Maybe you need to expand upon that, instead.
     Or maybe there's a completely different story out there, waiting for you to come and claim it.

On Picking A Title

     Choosing a title for your story is a big responsibility.  It's the first thing most people will notice about your book, and, let's face it, when was the last time you picked up a book with a terrible title?  It's hard to sell a thriller novel if it's called "The Wacky Fantastic Journey of Silly Sam and his Funtime Weasels," or a children's novel entitled, "KILLZONE SEVEN:  THE RE-MURDERINATING."
     Titling isn't just as simple as choosing something that sounds nice, either.  You can have a really nice title, and it may not be right for your work, and you can have a very accurately descriptive title, and it might be too clunky--even when you think you've got it all figured out, you might still have some work to do.  It never hurts to take another look!  Here's some of the many, many methods that exist for choosing a title.  (I call it: *Dramatic announcer voice*  LISTICLE 3:  A LIST TO THE LEFT)

I.  Compiling a List

     1.  Isolate the main themes of your story

          What is your story about?  The struggle between good and evil?  The appalling nature of America's treatment of minorities?  The difference between looking both ways before crossing the street and sweet, juicy, death?
          Whatever it is, hunker down and write a list of all the words you can think of that pertain to your theme, even if they're only related tangentially.  Also, write down any symbols that might occur--sometimes great titles can be made of symbolism.  Make the list as long or as short as you want.  Do any words jump out at you?  Any combinations of words?  Write down whatever combinations seem to best describe the story.  Keep those around.  If you're still not sure you like what you have...

     2.  Consider your characters

          If your story is pretty character-driven, you may want to consider using your characters to name it.  You could use a character's name (or several), or you could make another list (it's a list-heavy article.  Strap in, kids, it's gonna be a bullety ride) of words related to your character--traits, triumphs, defeats, arcs, character changes, colors--anything goes!  Then, again, pair things together.  Experiment!  Write your favorites down on your To Seriously Consider List (TSCL).

     3.  Are there any recurring gags or sayings/events that could be used?

          Especially in a humor novel, naming your book after a recurring joke can be a big hit--if you name it after the right one, everyone is going to be associating the line with your book anyway, so why not capitalize on it?  In a more dramatic novel, a particularly striking line from the book, or a common phrase--twisted or played straight (Live and Let Die vs. Catch 22), a certain level of familiarity can catch both the eye and the imagination.  Make another list, then pick your favorites and add them to your TSCL.

     4.  Are there any poems or songs that fit your book?

          I often name my books after fitting song lines or titles--if it fits the book, then most people won't realize, and the ones who do will get a total kick out of it.  Plus sometimes music is the best way to describe a thing.  Throw a few on your TSCL and prepare to examine their worth!

II.  Refining your list

     1.  Take a look at your TSCL.

          You probably have a lot of options left over; first thing's first, go through and divide your titles into the four categories above.  Go down each list and mark them S (strong) M (moderate) and W (weak).  Can you strengthen or save the weaks or moderates?  Get rid of the ones you can't; fix the ones you can.
     Check each list and decide if any of the above methods don't, for whatever reason, fit your story.  Does a song title seem too gimmicky?  Are you adverse to naming a book after a character?  Eliminate categories as you see fit.
          The rest you can eliminate using these criteria:

     2.  Does it fit the tone/genre of your novel?

          I don't go too much off genre conventions myself, but it IS important that you don't confuse your reader--BIG FANTASY NOVEL XXX isn't a title that would grab the attention of a chaste group of sci-fi nerds.
          You also don't want a title that doesn't fit the tone of your novel, and I think this is the big one.  The Grapes of Wrath doesn't sound like a comedy, and Love Story doesn't sound like a book discussing a revolution; if that's what the authors were going for, they would not, by any means, have been as well received as they were.  You may not want the audience to know absolutely everything about your story just from looking at the title, but it's the first step in deciding you want to buy a book, and as such, it should never be a liar.  Rule out anything that doesn't fit.

     3.  Does your title mean something?

          Titles are often most powerful, and have the most staying power, when they possess a double meaning, and can be viewed one way at the beginning of the novel, and another at the end.  It may mean many things, or, as I suggested above, be a literal symbol that appears in your novel.  Of Mice and Men, for instance, is named after a line in a poem--"the best laid plans of Mice and Men often go awry," which relates strongly to the recurring theme of the death of dreams and failure of plans in the figurative wasteland depression-era America was (the entire story is about two men who plan to get the money together to start a farm, only for one of them to SPOILER ALERT end up dead, the other with no will left to start the farm on his own).  But it can also be seen to refer to the relationship between Lennie and the mice--soft, fragile things, which he loves but always kills--a very important element which foreshadows the death of both a puppy and his employer's wife.  These things you realize only as you get deeper and deeper into the novel, but it works.
     Your title doesn't have to have two meanings, but it can definitely add some depth.  Play around with it, see what you can find!

     4.  Don't be afraid to go simple

          sometimes Simple is Best--capitalized and lowercased for emphasis.  Carrie, The Hunger Games, The Hobbit--all very simple, very successful titles.  The big flashy titles are great, and can do a lot to capture a reader's attention, but sometimes it's best to allow the story to speak for itself.  Name it after a character, an in-world social structure or event, a county, a planet, a species--whatever's best for your book.  Sometimes bigger isn't better.

III.  Test Your Title

     1.  Is your title original?

          Take this new and exciting title and slam dunk it into Google or Amazon--if another book comes up by the same name, this probably isn't the title for you.  While it's perfectly legal to use the same name as another book, it's not a good idea just based on the public aspect of it--if the other book is spectacular and has a large fanbase, you wouldn't want your book to be buried under the avalanche of praise for the other book, and if the other one is terrible you don't want its reputation to bring you down.
     It's impossible to be completely original, but you should still do your very best to try.

     2.  Does it fit your story?

         Be honest with yourself; did you choose this because it fits your plot, your characters, your world, or because it sounds cool?  If it's just because it sounds cool, go back to the drawing board--pick one that's cool but actually pertains to the story being told.  Don't lose hope; your title is out there.
          Look again at the tone of your novel.  Make sure it fits--or, if it doesn't, that it's purposeful.  Sometimes a misleading title can work, but only if it's done with a lot of forethought and not by accident.

     3.  Sit on it

          In writing, we spend a lot of time sitting on things.  Literally and figuratively--there's a lot of sitting involved in writing or typing, but you know what I mean.
          When you have a refined list of titles (or just the one), let them stew a while.  Name files after them, jostle them around in your head, reread the story with that title in mind.  After a week or so, you'll probably know whether or not you like it.  Maybe you'll grow attached!
          Whether you become partial to one or still have it up in the air, don't forget to ask yourself;

     4.  Does it resonate with people?

          Pitch your title to your friends and family members, followers, classmates, even strangers.  Ask them their opinions--would they read a book with that title?  At least check the back cover?  Does it stir up any positive or negative emotions?  Do those emotions fit the tone of your book?
          Explain the plot and ask them if they think the title fits.  Do they have any suggestions?  Don't take their critiques to heart, but do take it to mind, especially if they're critique partners or betas--keep a log of what they say, and analyze it to see if you think it holds water.
          Ultimately, this is your decision--NO ONE knows your book better than you.  But it can definitely help to get a fresh perspective.

     Picking titles can be difficult, especially when we think we know what we're doing.  If you find that you've made a mistake with your working title, don't feel bad--I once called a superhero novel about a villain named Labrynth (spelling intentional) and a hero named The Extraterrestrial The Extraterrestrial In The Labrynth for a year while I wrote it, because until I had finished it, read through it three different times, and given serious thought to the plot, it seemed like a good idea.
     It can take a lot of time and effort, but landing on a good title is worth it--for you, if for no one else.  It can help pull a book together, give it a sense of identity--it's no longer that novel I've been working on--It's The Great Capibara Adventure, The Amazing Trimalchio, Escape From Calcutta! A good title can even be the difference between an agent's desk and the slop pile.
     If you've already spent ten thousand hours putting your book together word by word and edit by rewrite, don't you think it deserves that extra 5-10?  Every story wants to be finished.  Let yours live its dream.

The Importance of Fanfiction

   The first story I ever wrote was called "The Hecatense Goose;" I was three and could neither read nor write, so my mother wrote it down and it was eventually lost.  I have no idea what the story was about.
     But my second story was a series of scribbles that told a tale of Peter Pan's post-Hook adventures, and my third was a sequel to the then-unfinished Series of Unfortunate Events books.  At the time I did not, of course, know anything about fanfiction or copywright laws, but since then I've done a lot of growing as a writer--yet still fanfiction calls to me.
     It's a polarizing issue.  As a once-B-rated-star of the Megamind fandom, I am very biased in favor of fanfiction, because it's fun, it's flattering (I can't think of anything better than having such a wide fan base that they take inspiration from and write about your world and characters!  How great would that be??  ((Super great is how))), and reading/writing it can help you grow as a writer.
     Here are a few ways it's beneficial to a writer.

     Fanfiction can....


1.  Be great place to start

     At any level of writing skill fanfiction is great practice, but it's especially good for beginners, since it allows you to create stories with pre-established characters in a pre-established world, often in a pre-established style, which gets you comfortable with developing plot, using detail to your advantage, and using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and format.
     Once you're comfortable with the writing basics, it's easy to rocket through the ranks, stepping up one rung at a time rather than going in all at once--you start deviating in style, then move the characters from one world to another, and finally start creating OCs (usually either using author inserts or child-of-PC characters at first).  Before you know it, you're creating fanfiction that's only tangentially related to the original story--sometimes barely related at all.
     When writing original content there's a very sharp learning curve--you essentially go from zero to three-sixty in nothing flat, but fanfiction allows you to build at a pace you're comfortable with, without feeling pressured to be your best most original self right off the bat.

2.  Offer a source of feedback

     One great thing about fanfiction is that, at least when published online, it offers you a source of feedback through the fandom.  When you do well, this means instant gratification, which can make you feel amazing, but arguably the more valuable form of feedback comes in the form of constructive criticism and suggestions from the audience.  You learn a lot about spelling and grammar--always useful--and even more about story structure and character development.
     Whether what you're writing is offensive, or just poorly executed, it's always nice to have eyes on your words, people who can tell you when your characterization is inconsistent or when you need to plug a major plothole or if your "super secret" ending/plot twist is visible from a mile away.  And while beta readers and critique partners are great after the fact, feedback from the community usually occurs as you publish each chapter, which allows you to make changes as you go forward rather than having to double back--and by implementing changes as you go forward, you'll remember to implement them in future projects, too.

3.  Be inspiring

     Fanfiction is great even if you don't write it.  Just reading fanfiction can be inspiring, as I mentioned here; good fanfiction makes you want to run out and write a story based on X idea or Y character arc, and bad fanfiction makes you want to write something amazing just to prove to yourself that you can do it.  It's a good idea.  You should do it.

4.  Give you a sense of accomplishment

     Fanfiction is, I find, relatively easy to produce--there's a lot of work that's already been done by the original creator, which means that a lot of your characters don't need descriptions, a lot of places don't need explaining, and a lot of events are already common fandom knowledge--yet there's still a TON of work that goes into making a truly quality fic.  When you finish a fic, or a fic chapter, it feels amazing--when people respond positively, you feel like you're on cloud fucking eleven; it helps with your sense of self and it increases your confidence, and when you feel good about yourself it becomes a lot easier to make progress on the next or concurrent project.
     Progress begets progress, so sometimes it's great to use a little project (like a fanfic oneshot) to jump-start a larger project--like a couple thousand word down payment on your new MS.
     Plus, again, you feel really great, and who doesn't like feeling really great?

5.  Community

     Because the entire basis of fanfiction is that you're writing in a world someone else has created, the people you're trying to reach are already fans of what you're watching/reading, and, as fandom flocks together just like birds of paper feathers, you're not just pitching to individuals but to a ready-made community.
     One of the best ways to become a fully realized member of a fandom community (and through doing so find a place where you belong, people to help you in your quest for perfection, friends to see you through until the end) is to write fanfiction (or make fanart but, while I am very enthusiastic about art, this is not an art blog).  The more obsessive you are about a fandom, the more fanfiction becomes something akin to a need, and the best fillers of those needs are gods on high for a fandom nerd.  If you're fanficcing on the same account where you present your real life persona, it also creates a community that revolves around your work, which can be a great marketing platform when you start launching original content.

6.  Make someone else's day

     You know you have done your job as a writer when someone tells you that you have made their day.  The only thing that even comes close to describing the feeling is "euphoria."  This, like before, creates an increased sense of self, a greater feeling of self-confidence, and a driving desire to continue working.  Writing is an addiction, and like all addictions, the more you do it, the more you want to do it--and the more people agree with your addiction, the better it feels to give in.
     Also...

7.  Fear of disappointing your fans keeps you trucking along at a good speed

     One of the things I have trouble with is meeting my own deadlines.  This is really bad for a writer.  I do, however, do very well at meeting deadlines when someone else is waiting for the update with bated breathe.
     When I was especially absorbed in the fanfiction world, I could pump out several chapters a week in a good month--sometimes several a day, because when you know people are enjoying your work it, again, encourages you to work more, but it also encourages you to work toward not disappointing them.  The last thing you want when you have fans is to lose them.  Worse than just losing them is losing them not to your own incompetence, but to laziness, of all things.  It's definitely an incentive, and if you smarten up and get organized with your attempts to deliver quality content at death-defying speeds (I didn't), you can put the same updating strategies you use with fanfiction on your writing.
     Maybe you have a flow chart, or a friend you can submit chapters to the same way you'd submit to your chosen hosting website--whichever way, organization in one realm of your writing life should definitely lend itself to organization in others, and as they say, an organized life is an organized mind (or something like that), which lends itself to productivity.

8.  No limits, no consequences

     Addendum:  There are no limits in original writing either, and there are some minor consequences to writing (and publishing) bad fanfiction.
     hOWEVER; it's easier to write without limits when you're playing with someone else's characters.  It feels like there's less to lose--you can't screw it up, because the worst thing that happens if you do is you need to write something else, or maybe apologize for a few mistakes.  You're more likely to follow tangents and do silly, seemingly unnecessary things, or kill off or bring back characters at will, playing with the rules when it seems convenient (or refusing to ever play with the rules, whichever isn't your default), which can be goldmines for your creativity.   Just because it's not being used in a "real" project now doesn't mean you won't use it later.
     There are a lot of pressures fanfiction allows you to let go of, which is important practice for when you need to forget about society while you write your magnum opus.  One of the best things you can do for your writing is allow your creativity to run wild, because you can always--and should always--edit later.

     The long and the short of it is, fanfiction is amazing.  Use it as an outlet, use it as practice, use it just for fun--any way you dice it, it's worth whatever time you do--or don't!--want to put into it.