Hey everyone how are you doing? It’s week two of Build-A-Book. If you don’t know what that is, check out my last blog here. As I’ve been buzzing about this week being about book naming. So keep reading to learn how I name my fantasy books.

It’s all in the family

All of my book titles have a word that references family. That’s because family and family dynamics are a big part of the series. My books are very character-driven and family relationships are a prominent reason why. How many of the characters are the way they are is because of the environment their family has raised them in or put them in.

May the Gods watch over you

In my book title’s the Gods of the fantasy story. There are four gods in the series, Space, Time, Life, and Death. And every book is based around one or two gods. At first Child of Tempus was supposed to be Child of Time. Which still could’ve worked, but it didn’t captivate me as the latter did. And so, after naming book one with a God’s name in the book title, I thought I’d do it for every book afterward. Yeah…no. The (God’s) names with the book titles did not mesh well. I decided the first book will be the outlier, and all books after will have the title of the gods instead of that god’s name.

Put it together!

I always know which god will be spotlighted and themed in the book. Then they read through the WIP to see the “greatest” family tie being spoken about. This doesn’t always come to me after one read-through. Sometimes, I sit and let the characters tell me what is important to the book’s title.

There is a twist! (Maybe)

For the rest of the series (which will be six books in total), The titles may have a slight change to them. This is because the characters have grown and changed after the original trilogy. And may issues that have been planted are coming to the forefront. So one of the elements I’ve discussed (either family or the Gods) will be less apparent in the book titles. Maybe, I am not sure yet. I feel the first three books deal more with the Gods and the last three deal with family. And I want to show that shift in the book titles. I am having problems with what direction I want to go based on the book titles, and that is where you guys will come in!