And no, I’m not being rude or euphemistic. As you know this whole title thing for Book 2 (or The Nameless Horror as I’m coming to think of it) has been weighing heavily on what little there is left of my addled mind, so today I thought I’d do the old brain a favour and let it stew for a while in a nice hot bath. Let the old cogs and gears work away on their own, unfettered by endless word association games and fruitless searchings of the internet. Which is pretty much how I frittered yesterday away. I even succumbed to the dubious lure of random title generators, hoping to at least start some sort of spark going inside my head. Not exactly a rip-roaring success. You wanna see what the inside of my head’s been like for the last week?"Think, think, think. Dismember, hack, tear, rip, shred, blood, stain, bruise, ‘the partial corpse’, prostitutes, hookers, whores, hoors, tricks, favours for favours, fond, but not in love, batter, bruise, broken, ruptured, burst, corpses, ‘trick of the dark’, bodies, hunting, disposal, torture, malicious, indifference, fate, force, need, want, rage, revenge, bleed out, finger bones, pale flesh, corpses, sunshine, revenge, alleyway, suitcase, Labrador, sickness, betrayal, revenge, poison, Logan McRae and the Dismembered Labrador..."
All nice and healthy stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. Which was why today was designated ‘Bath Day’ – fill the tub, steam for a bit, top it up when it gets cold, steam for a bit longer, think, think, think. And what did I achieve? Well, I managed to get all wrinkly...
Then, on the backblogs Lynn suggested the Bonsai Story Generator – so off I went (post bath time) and tried sticking a random chunk of the opening page in it. And what did I get back?"Scruffy wee shites in the last nail, keeping time with pierced noses and stepped back to watch him work.
Up above, the shadows, on the upper floor, where a thin drizzle drifting down, making sure it solid against the beat, and hooded tops: the women with moisture.
Half past eleven and stepped back to be seen.
No one yet.
They would be screaming soon enough.
Oh yes indeed."
And believe it or not, this random convergence of words sparked a couple more titles from the brain. Could TNH finally have a nom de plume it could be proud of? Of course it could! So I sent them off to Sarah. And she said, "Nope." in a nice, supportive kind of way, but "Nope" nonetheless. So once more I’m back at the computer, surfin’ and smurfin’.
Tomorrow I’m going to cut my toenails, see if that gets me anywhere.