I can’t think of many titles in my series that made it through to the end. Even when it comes to the series titles, things got changed along the way. Legends of Windemere, War of Nytefall, Ichabod Brooks, Quest of the Brokenhearted, and . . . Well, Bedlam actually stuck around for the long haul. Figures that one would be the outlier. So, what were the originals? By the way, click on each title for their Amazon page. Just an FYI:
- Legends of Windemere was originally ‘Cherished Dreams’.
- Beginning of a Hero remained the same.
- Prodigy of Rainbow Tower was originally ‘Running the Gauntlet’.
- Allure of the Gypsies remained the same.
- Family of the Tri-Rune was originally ‘Behind the Curtain’.
- The Compass Key was originally ‘Touch of Destiny’.
- Curse of the Dark Wind remained the same.
- Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue was originally ‘Temple of Power’.
- Merchant of Nevra Coil and Mercenary Prince stayed the same due to being spontaneous additions. Though, I think I called the second one ‘Delvin’s Journey’ for a time.
- Tribe of the Snow Tiger was originally ‘Barbarian Honor’.
- Charms of the Feykin was originally ‘Love of a Warrior Mage’.
- The Spirit Well was originally ‘Lost Temple of Souls’.
- Ritual of the Lost Lamb was originally ‘Fallen Warrior’ and a short story collection.
- Path of the Traitors remained the same for same reason as #9’s.
- Warlord of the Forgotten Age was originally ‘Blood of Heroes’, ‘Age of Heroes’, and ‘Destiny’s End’.
- Quest of the Brokenhearted was originally ‘Lacarsis’ and ‘The Shattered Heart Trilogy’.
- Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks was originally ‘Life & Times of Ichabod Jones’. It was a necessary character name change.
- War of Nytefall was originally ‘Realm of the Night’.
- Loyalty was originally ‘War Begins with Betrayal’ and ‘Evolution’.
- Lost was originally ‘Confusion’.
- Rivalry was originally ‘Temptation’ and ‘Queen of Apelios’.
- Eradication was originally ‘Antithesis’ and ‘Durag’s Wrath’ and ‘Orb of Durag’.
- Ravenous was originally ‘Hunger’ and ‘Mistress of the Corrupted’ and ‘The Ravenous Ones’.
- Savagery was originally ‘Fear’ and ‘Stronger’ and ‘Clash of the Abominations’.
- Anarchy was originally ‘Children of Anarchy’. Changed to fit the one word title theme.
- Eulogy was originally ‘Death of Shadows’ and ‘Clyde’.
Looking over all of my future ideas, I think I’ve got a better handle on titles. I made them after coming up with the general plot. So, I might not run into so much chaos as I did on this time around. Live and learn.
Legends of Windemere 
I often write something with no title in mind. Something usually comes to me. Voyage of the Lanternfish had its title before I even started, though.
LikeLike
There’s always one or two oddities, huh?
LikeLiked by 1 person
True.
LikeLike
This was great, Charles. Definitely shows the shift happened on most titles.
LikeLike
Thanks. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! Some of those titles are so different. The evolution of your titles is very interesting. Can you recall offhand the time frame between the original title on say The Compass Key and when you came up with the final title. (No worries if you don’t recall that. I was just curious. Did you finish the whole book and the title just came to you then?)
LikeLike
Hard to say with some of them. I think the originals for ‘Legends of Windemere’ were created in 1999 when I was still playing the D&D game. The new ones appeared probably a few years later after the game ended. We never finished the story, so I had to rewrite a lot to come up with a conclusion. Then, I had other Windemere stories that influenced the outlines. So, the newer titles appeared as that happened. All of the titles existed before I finished writing the book. Many showed up as I edited my outlines.
LikeLike
Interesting, Charles. I think I only have one title that didn’t change. That was my first book. The others have all undergone changes
It’s interesting to see how your titles changed. Some by not much and some by a lot.
LikeLike
There’s certainly a variety. I think the ones that stayed the same were made before I had the full story. So, the titles ended up by the jumping point. For example, I needed a story for Delvin to get the spotlight and came up with ‘The Mercenary Prince’. It was his title and seemed to work perfectly for the book. It helped me focus on where that story went.
LikeLike
Those are some fun comparison. I think you’re right especially that the titles in a series have to sound like they belong together. That makes it easier for readers to recognize that they are part of the series if they encounter them without advance publicity.
LikeLike
A series title can allow for more volume variety. There still needs to be a similar flow or something I guess. There are a few titles in Legends that aren’t long like the others. So, I wasn’t that good at consistency.
LikeLike