I give up! Charism it is. For now.

What's Charism? It's the original title of my work-in-progress. But what does it mean? It's a noun, meaning a God-given gift, basically.

Pretty harmless, right? It seemed like such a perfect title for the book—since there are too many books called "Gifted" already. Problem is, it means something more specific to the only people who actually use it. Just Google Charism and see what comes up. And my book has nothing to do with religious orders.

So why go back to it? Because I'm too stupid to think of a better one. Anyone remember The Qualia of Magic? Yeah, that was before I removed all instances of the word "magic" from the book and realized that one silly bit of advice I'd read was right:  don't use Latin words in your title. (Charism is Greek in origin—through Latin. Dang! I could call it Kharis, going all the way back to the Greek root word, which means "favor.")

At any rate, I can't for the life of me think of a title I like better. The Sense is misleading and that long one is cumbersome and I can't even remember it off the top of my head. Another one I kind of, sort of like is Gifted/Cursed. It's a little play on the common phrase gifted/talented, see? Yeah. No one does.

So Charism is a placeholder name, because that's what I originally named it, and that's how I think of it. If you have any brilliant ideas, please let me know.

In other news, I'm in a strange place right now. Let me explain...no, will take to long. Let me sum up. I no longer have any idea how Charism will be received by anyone. I've gotten so many different opinions that I've lost all sense of expectation about who will like or hate what about the book. I really like the book. I love it, in fact. Recent changes have really improved it, and as I work my way through each chapter, revising and adding a real live plot to it *rolls eyes*, I'm finally starting to feel satisfied by what I've written. I'm only two chapters into this revision, but when I'm done, I'll hand it to someone who's never read it before and nothing they say will surprise me. I've screwed up and fixed so many things that I'm way beyond thinking I've heard it all.

I now realize that I will never hear it all. Go on. Hit me with your best shot.

[Update:  I think I found a good title! In Memory. That's what I'm calling it, now.]

Comments

  1. AlbertaDecember 11, 2010 at 7:55 AM

    You know, there are very few books that I've read that couldn't be improved on (some significantly) and most of those are classics. So just because it isn't perfect doesn't mean it can't be published. I guess the trick is getting a publisher to "buy into" the story. And who knows how that is done! Persistence, I bet. As far as a title.... I'll have to think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SpendloveDecember 11, 2010 at 1:32 PM

    I loved it. Speaking of which, I've got a big ol' stack o' papers you might want back at some point. It gripped me, it enlightened me, it challenged me, and quite frankly, it impressed me more than most books do. Three enthusiastic thumbs up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlbertaDecember 15, 2010 at 1:31 PM

    Wow, I wish I had 3 thumbs.

    ReplyDelete

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