Some of these titles have been collected in a document along with taglines, one-liners and snippets of dialog since 2006. Only quite recently have I started adding titles ready for use, but I already have a bit of a list. Most of them I will never use, so I decided to share them.

Free Titles:

Mn = Meaning

These titles are free to take as long as you leave a comment telling me which you are taking and leave a link to said  story.

•    Aberration Fixation [Mn – A fixation on things that go off plan/way from the normal way of things]
•    You’ll Like it, I Promise
•    I’d Run Out Of Money But…
•    Acatalepsy [Mn – Usually used in philosophy, but can be used in dialog/description. It is the incomprehensibleness, or the impossibility of comprehending or conceiving a thing. It is that the limit of human knowledge is never ‘certain’, no matter how much information you have.]
•    Gifts That Keep On Giving
•    Nothing I Wouldn't Do
•    Exiled to the Couch
•    The Dragon Beside Me
•    Lunch, With a Side of Doom
•    Good Boy, Bad Girl
•    Because It’s Fun
•    Ratification
•    Bad Intentions
•    Misery Loves Company
•    A Table for Seven and a Half, Please
•    Call Me Never
•    Moonstone
•    Lovers Always Lose
•    Wake Up When Stars Collide
•    Bet Me
•    From What I Remember
•    6 Things I Hate About [About Being A God]
•    Don't Bait Me
•    Blood On My Hair Ribbon
•    The Flower That Brings Death
•    Sugar & Ice
•    Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off
•    Women Are From Venus; Men Are From Hell
•    , Drugs & Cocoa Puffs
•    Systematic Dehumanization
•    How To Make A Monster
•    Infecting and Effecting
•    Visceral
•    Diaphanous [Mn - Floating, fine-eg fabric. Can be used as a word to describe a supernatural being.]
•    Emotionally Jarred
•    Microwave Mentality [Mn – Something that takes more than 5 minutes is not worth doing. Eg, Someone who has a microwave mentality thinks it's too much trouble to do something that will take more than a few minutes.]
•    Occam's Razor [See Wiki for a full explanation]
•    Mutually Assured Distraction
•    Over-Compensating Overalls
•    Even Death Can’t Cure Idiocy
•    Betray My Pride
•    The Manufacture of Madness
•    Never Say I Didn't Do Anything For You
•    Giving In To Your Primal Instinct
•    St Jimmy
•    Even Heroes Know When To Be Scared
•    In For The Kill
•    No Class & Bad manners
•    Cynosure – [Mn - Centre of attention/attraction]
•    Flesh To Flesh
•    Wild Nights and Dead Days
•    Mendacious [Mn - Not telling the truth; lying]

•    At Worst, You'll See Nobody Cares
•    A Love To Kill For
•    Rated [X]
•    The Boys Get Lonely When You Leave

Tips for finding an unusual title:

[1] Generators
Try Title Generators.
They’re all over the internet. Most of them come up with the most ridiculous things, but you can grab an understanding of structure and sometimes even a few unusual words to help you along the way.

[2] The Internet is Your Friend
Search through internet story starters! Tumblr has a lot of very good ones. All you have to do is visit that  stranger named 'Google Search Bar'.

[3] That ’s Too Common
Look at “The most common words used in book titles” and avoid them like the plague.

[4] Your Story
The plain old “Search your story for a ‘good’ title”.
Personally, I find this a flat and boring option.

[5] Jokes
Try the first half of a punchline of a joke told in your story.
This only applies to comedies. [Unless it's a black/dark comedy]

[6] IMDB
For deeper storylines, examine famous poems or the ‘taglines’ of well-known movies set in the same genre. If a movie has a tagline, it will be on IMDB.
I’m not telling you to copy – I’m telling you to think outside of the box and leave something ambiguous about your initial details. It will draw in your readers.

[7] Literature
Similar to point 6, if you’re using an extract from a poem/an already existing piece of literature somewhere in your story, you could choose between one and five words to create your perfect title.

[8] Tags
Have a gander through the ‘tags’ list on the front page. Believe it or not, they’re a valuable source – they show what is working at the moment and what is not. Even if you don’t think the story is any good, you should probably take a chance to at least check the ‘details’ page. If they’re the featuring story, they must be doing ‘something’ that the readers enjoy.

[9] Idioms and Sayings
Try out an idiom?
An Idiom is not a miss-spelling of idiot. Though sometimes, it should be.

Examples:

A.  Do/Doing a Devon Loch (pronunciation: Dev-on Lock. English.)
Devon Loch was a racehorse that collapsed just short of the winning line of the 1956 Grand National race in the UK. If someone does a Devon Loch, they suddenly fail when everybody expects them to succeed or simply crumble at the very last minute when they were almost winning.

This could be a ‘catch-all’ title for a story about a character that has it all within their grasp until the very last [maybe even – most probably – comical] moment.

B. All Talk and No Trousers

Most often a man who talks a lot about masculine things and then backs out. Someone who talks big but then takes no action.

C. Cat got your tongue
Imagine a cat eating or holding your tongue! Would you be able to speak? No, probably not. That is exactly what the phrase means. If a cat got your tongue, you are unable to speak. Your silence is oddly suspicious.

The last line of defence for finding a title:

[10] Songs

Pick a song title or line of a song. Try obscure bands or groups you don’t usually listen to for a fresh outlook.

I’ve found some people find this a bad idea, but within fanfics, I personally, think it’s acceptable – Especially if you pick a lyric [not within the chorus] rather than a straight-up song title.

I think it can inspire a whole other level of creativity, especially when looking to start a brand new story. Try a foreign group and look at their English [or whatever first language you speak] translation to find something. Even if the title or a line doesn’t work, maybe the ‘feel’ of the song will help you.

Author’s end note:

With these tips, I am NOT telling you to copy ANYBODY’S work – whether they be famous or not.

Wherever you look, there should be something to inspire you. Take advantage of the resources around you and take a look see. I know for a lot of people picking a Title is a daunting thing - Particularly when you want to post your story straight away – as I always do.

Remember, you can always change your title later – or even make a blog post on the matter. And then there is I, the weirdo writing this. I’m always happy to brainstorm or have random chats with strangers.

Updated: 20th April 2014 - 02:11