How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Jason Mosberg's website.
Titles are important, and the reality is that sometimes writers never come up with the perfect title for their book or short story or play or movie. I have found that for about half of my projects I come up with a title that I love, and the other half, no matter how long I think and no matter how many people I ask, I never quite come up with a great title. I'm curious if other writers agree, but I think once you're done writing a project and you don't have a title and you get into that stage of brainstorming titles and running lists of possibilities by people, you never end up with a great one.
My Dirty California was a title I came up with early on in the writing process. My agent and editor and the other folks at Simon & Schuster all loved the title and we never discussed alternatives. It has a nice ring to it, and the word dirty plays against how people often think of California. "My Dirty California" is the name of a video log website that serves as the connective tissue between the four storylines in the book. Marty, a drifter living in Los Angeles, is the creator of this website. When he gets murdered, he leaves behind thousands of entries. His brother uses the video log as clues to solve the murder. And the three other intersecting storylines are also connected to the website "My Dirty California." So not only does it have a nice ring to it, but it's also...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: My Dirty California.
Q&A with Jason Mosberg.
--Marshal Zeringue
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