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Sometimes a turn of phrase just comes to me partway through drafting (or, rarely, at the very beginning - like with the short story "The Mother of All Squid Builds a Library") Other times I just find some words/phrases that have to do with the theme of the story and bonk them together for a while.

Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨@cometkins.bsky.social

How do you go about titling your works? Is it a line? A format you like? Etc #WritingPrompt

Titles can also change! THE OUTSIDE was originally called FALSE GODS but Angry Robot already had a similar GODS title so we went back and forth and brainstormed until we had one we could all agree on. Similarly, THE PRIEST OF CRAWLING THINGS used to have the working title MOTHER DRAGON.

IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS, on the other hand, was my original title idea. It had the working title SPACE CRIMES for a while but I knew that wasn't actually the title I wanted it released under. As soon as I visualized the IGNORE title on a paper book, I knew I had a winner.

Fun fact that I was already dreaming of writing sequels to THE OUTSIDE before it sold, so I originally had FALSE GODS-style names in mind for the sequels too (FALLEN ANGELS and FINAL JUDGMENT, for that F-theme) but then had to change them so they would stylistically match THE OUTSIDE. :P

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