Title: Untitled

Titles play a very important role in story telling for all medias. They are the first thing a person notices right off without any pictures or other context clues. Sometimes I think a title can help or hurt a story in it's success or failure. A title is something that needs to snatch the attention of on goers and would be readers/viewers. In a movie preview at the theater, it's typically the last thing that shows after the trailer so that the video trailer can stir your interest and let the title stick with you at the very end so you can go home and mark the release date on the calendar or what ever you do to remind yourself of a movie or book you'd like to see/read.

A title can be used to summarize the story in order to grab your attention, or it can simply puzzle you, leaving you wondering why the title was given such a name. Was there a purpose? Meaning or thought to the title? Some titles I find to be completely absurd and just blah. "Sucker Punch" for example. Does that summarize the movie? Not really. Does it have any direct meaning to the story? Nah. Does it sound cool and entertaining? Eh... Sounds more like a bunch of guys sat around an oval table and didn't allow anyone to leave for ANY circumstances until a title was decided upon. Now I'm not hating on the film itself. (I actually enjoyed it, was one of the few who did), but I think there is a certain art to titles. It's the spray finish over a painting, the vase to a set of flowers, the cherry on top if you will. Make them pop, stand out and exciting, or mysterious and inviting.

Now I realize this is  coming off to be sorta "advice giving" type of blog post, but really it's just a thought. Ironically enough I SUCK at titles, names even for that matter. I can't for the life of me develop names easily. When/if I have children, their birth certificate would be blank for probably days if not weeks, months and or years until I decided on a name if it weren't for Stephanie. (who already has names picked out 0_0).

True Story: I'm currently working on revising my novel which is still code named SPNovel:Untitled. The entire damned thing is already written and there has yet to be a tail pinned to it's sorry ass. I just hope I don't fall victim to the round table method when the time comes to actually give it a name.

That being said, another typical/bland title I've seen recently for a movie is "Bullet to the Head" starring Sylvester Stallone (Which he totally looks like a bad ass in the movie) but still...I'll probably end up seeing it because I'm a Stallone fan, and I'll probably like it. But the truth is here, the title kind of sets me off to the point that I'll probably just wait til it comes to Red box, or even Netflix.

That all being said:

What are some strange, funny, stupid and or completely misguiding titles have you run into in the past?

Putting a Foot Down

 So today I start blogging. Something I should have done long ago but always had an excuse. "I don't understand it. It's all too confusing. I don't know what to blog about. I'll start one later." Blah blah blah, I'm too lazy is more like it. Well maybe the third one is a little bit true. What exactly would I blog about? I like to think of myself as a fiction writer. I gave non-fiction a try when I attempted to get published on The Voice (Tri-C's School news paper) and failed epically. So I chucked that out the window, along with any other hopes of trying to write for some kind of news paper or magazine. I just simply can't do it. More importantly, I simply don't ENJOY writing non-fiction. So why even bother?

 Well then, why would I try blogging? It's non-fiction (essentially). But this is different. It's about me of course, or things I find interesting and hope others will find interesting as well.

 But I still have a problem. What exactly am I going to blog about? Well instead of using that as an excuse not to blog, I'm just going to let it be a motivation to get up off my ass and think of something to blog about, get my creative juices moving again. Something new and exciting to share to the world, book reviews, movie reviews, maybe even video game reviews. Or maybe even open up and share some of my short stories via blog since I don't have the guts to try and get them actually published just yet. So tonight I'm erecting my victory flag over laziness on the battle field toward glory. Tonight I make a stand, and I put my foot down, and I will stand tall.

 I'm going to dedicate this blog spot to my soon to be Wife, Stephanie King. Who was the one to push me out there to try and get this thing I call a future writing career started. To open up to the world and TRY harder. To take my hand off the mouse from playing online video games (all the time) and plaster my right hand on the keyboard along side the left a little more often than I have been.

 So after I post this, I'm going to homepage a writers forum website. I would like to register for two or three of them. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

 Also, I think at the end of all my posts I'm going to ask a question. So my very first question is:

What movie or book cross over do you think would at first sound kind of silly, but actually could possibly work? :)