Voting
I voted. I’m a good citizen. My ballot is stamped and ready to go. Now I’ll just be edgy and crabby until the results.

Titles
I started working on a story that is cutting really fast and close to a bunch of personal stuff going on with me. The interesting part, though, is not the subject matter (well, it is) but what I want to discuss here is that I just started the draft and I came up with a really good title.
This does not always happen. In fact, I feel like I used to be better at titling my stories, then somewhere along the way, I lost the ability to consistently come up with good titles. This frustrates me, because I see what a lost opportunity a mediocre title is. A less-than-spectacular title makes me feel like I am ending my story out into the world, half-dressed. Or worse, wearing flip flops with an evening gown.
Once in a great while, a fantastic title occurs to me as I am drafting a piece, falling fully formed from my head like warrior Athena from Zeus. Like today. But most of the time, I struggle with the title long after I’ve called truce on editing.
The last draft I finished, in fact, is sitting, waiting for revision—which I can consciously avoiding because I can’t come up with a halfway decent title for it…and it’s driving me bananas.
I really don’t know how to trap the elusive title if it doesn’t happen naturally during drafting. I’ve tried various approaches: combing through the piece and circling phrases that seem to stand alone or suggest things; brainstorming words that were synonymous with the theme I hoped to underscore; letting it percolate quietly a while and hoping the universe will align and reveal a title to me; forcing a title by retrofitting something into the story post-draft; and having a couple dozen drinks and re-reading the draft. These have all worked to some degree—usually a lesser one.
Some days, I envy the visual artists who can just call something “Untitled #75” or some such and let the work stand, as it is.
Endings I think I have nailed. Beginnings I can fake in draft #2. But titles? Shit. Titles are hard.

Meme!
And now…a meme. Some intrepid readers have told me that I am “mysterious” and “vague” about personal stuff. So, here you go. I’m throwing anyone curious a bone.

Ten things you probably didn’t know about me. All totally true.

1.     I am slightly nyctophilic, and not in a goth-chic way. I really do not care for bright sunlight very much. I never have.
2.     I savagely bite my cuticles when I am stressed out. Like, until they bleed.
3.     I really like to knit, but only hats. Nothing else.
4.     I consider myself a Unitarian Universalist.
5.     I’m obsessed with purses, bags, and containers.
6.     Writing with a pencil sets my teeth on edge. I am picky about pens, but I’ll take the worst pen choice over a pencil. Pencils make me really uncomfortable.
7.     I had scarlet fever when I was seven. No one knows where I caught it. It is the cause of several chronic medical conditions.
8.     I can’t walk in heels of any height for more than ten minutes. Even kitten heels.
9.     I do not like the color yellow. At all. Any shade.
10.   I wince when I eat crunchy foods. I don’t know why. It’s like I am preparing to have my teeth crack.