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Monday, September 22, 2008

Novel Ground Rules

Okay, I'm going to do it. So here are the ground rules.

I'm going to post the "prologue" of the novel tomorrow morning. Please feel free to savage it as you will. I'm not, however, going to post a chapter a day, as I want to give people enough time to read and digest the thing, as well as give myself time to digest the comments and incorporate them into the ongoing draft. I'm thinking a chapter a week is a pretty good pace, with regular blog entry stuff plugged in to the other days. However, I want everyone who wants to comment on the book to feel like they can do it any time during that week - it's not just a "one day post, let's move on" kind of thing.

The original title of the book was Jumper, but only about 5% of that book has survived into the new version. The current working title is Jeff Downey Fights Badness, but that's a fairly recent development. Other titles under consideration have been, in no particular order, Jeff Downey Can Fly, Titans Homecoming, The Homecoming Game, and Hero Worship.

I don't really like any of them.

Feel free, prior to reading a single word of the book, to tell me which title sucks the least.

13 Comments:

Blogger Andy said...

Knowing absolutely nothing about the novel (other than the fact that our wife doesn't like it), I vote for either "Jeff Downey Can Fly" or "Hero Worship."

Jeff Downey Fights Badness - seems like a title of a novel for teenagers (maybe that's what you are shooting for?)....and doesn't spark any interest.

Same goes for anything with "Homecoming" in the title.

With the two titles I suggested, at least the reader won't know the novel is lame until actually reading the book. ;-)

PS - Thought you might find this interesting....for no particular reason, of course.

http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2008/guide/28506-1.html?type=printer_friendly

September 22, 2008 at 4:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The more words in a title, the more it sucks. And the harder it is to remember.

September 22, 2008 at 4:49 PM  
Blogger WhiteEyebrows said...

The coolest title there, which would make me take a book off of the shelf, is Jumper. But if the book has nothing to do with jumping anymore, maybe it doesn't make sense.

September 22, 2008 at 4:52 PM  
Blogger The Wiz said...

Your protagonist is named Jeff? Cool.

September 22, 2008 at 5:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I need a premise to work with blog boy.

No Pressure!!!!


SM

September 22, 2008 at 5:38 PM  
Blogger Heather O. said...

I agree with anon about longer titles being hard to remember, unless, of course, you have the words "Captain Underpants" and "Professor Pippy P. Poopypants" in there, but that's so last year.

I liked Jumper, too, by the way, both the title and the novel.

September 22, 2008 at 6:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I vote for Jumper, but the book better be super cool.

The others just don't do it for me.

September 22, 2008 at 6:45 PM  
Blogger David Little said...

Hero Worship. Definitely.

September 22, 2008 at 6:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let's call it "Leave it to Cleaver"

It has all the right elements in it.


SB

September 22, 2008 at 7:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK, "Jumper" is out. That is the name of a bad movie that came out this year starring your favorite actor, Hayden Christensen. I think it was based on a book by the same name, if I'm not mistaken. "Jeff Downey Fights Badness"? Sounds like a book for a fourth grader. Based on the options, "Hero Worship" sounds the best.

September 23, 2008 at 7:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Hero Worship" sounds a little too girly. Unless this is a shipper book, then it’s fine.

September 23, 2008 at 8:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"BlogBoy - Blood on the stage. A tale of gay rage."

September 24, 2008 at 8:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You could also call it "Queeros - Save the understudy, save the world"

September 25, 2008 at 9:25 PM  

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