Several years ago I began a running list of titles. Essentially I would come across an interesting word or phrase during my day-to-day life, think that it sounded like the name of something artistic, and jot it down for future use. Then, in the subsequent weeks/months/years, whenever I had a creative project that needed a name, I would reference my list and either grab one of the titles or allow the titles to spur a new idea in my head.
The other day, I encountered a new addiction to my list — the name “Muscle Car” — and realized that title would not easily be applied to any project I had ever conceived. It’s a cool name, and evokes a certain vibe, but it’s not a vibe I’ve ever worked within.
And so it occurred to me that this title, and perhaps many more from my list, could be good starting points for a blank page writing challenge. In other words, write a story that deserves the title “Muscle Car.” Would it be a story about a car, about a guy who drives a car, or perhaps a story about a car tattooed on a muscle? Could I write a story that evokes the same feeling as “muscle car” without being about a literal muscle car?
With this in mind, I post the following list of titles that I think could be the starting point of something interesting. Feel free to grab a title as a starting point for a new project. Perhaps you’ll see one of my future projects have it’s starting point from this list.
- Adopted Princess
- Agent of Chaos
- All Souls Aboard
- American Carnival
- American Skeleton
- Angel Empire
- An Intimate Gathering of Crocodiles
- Baby of the Beast
- Behind the Woodshed
- Bermuda Triangle
- Besieged Cannibal
- Bitter Embers
- Bizarre Museum
- Blood Money
- Botched Execution
- Breaking Bread
- Cause of Death Revealed
- Cellmate Selfie
- Charming Monster
- Chocolate Box Pretty
- Clever Assassin
- Complicated Handshake
- Crossroad Bargain
- Darwin’s Waiting Room
- Dead Cat Bounce
- Death by Misadventure
- Delusions of Mediocrity
- Dig My Grave Deep
- Disappointing Silk
- Divine Information
- Dog Whistle Sonata
- Dry County
- Faded Pop Star
- Feed a Fever
- Fielders Indifference
- Fire Break Road
- Fled the Scene
- Fluid Retribution
- Forever for a Limited Time
- Frog Boil
- From Parts Unknown
- Game Show Theatrics
- Gaming the System
- Giant Killer
- Going Out in Style
- Hollywood Riot
- Home for Lost Souls
- Inside the Palace Gates
- Intrusive Thoughts
- Karma’s Leash
- King of Rats
- Lessons in Burning Bridges
- Like a House on Fire
- Love and Fear
- Love Letter from the Asylum
- Madness Runs Deep
- A Memory of Blood
- Misspelled Tattoo
- Muscle Car
- My Friend’s Brother’s Cousin
- My Name is Nameless
- Neural Hurricane
- No Retreat No Surrender
- Nothing To Be Gained
- Perp Walk
- Possum Kingdom
- Post-Punk Revival
- Praying in the Dirt
- Precious Filth
- Pretty Hell
- Professionally Glib
- Professional Strangers
- Profitable Torture
- Queen for a Day
- Quick as a Hiccup
- Rattlesnake Park
- Ready to Do Bad Things
- A Reasonable Person
- Reckless Extravagance
- A Sacred Wound
- Saints and Devils
- Sarajevo
- Scapegoat and Alibi
- Seduction of the Innocent
- Separated from the Pack
- Shoeshine and a Dream
- Sixth Finger
- Skin on Fire
- The Smell of Treason
- Sour Thing
- Step Backwards Into Hell
- Sufficiently Scorched
- Sugar Creek
- Superstitious Natives
- Sweet Demise
- A Sweet Prospect
- Synapse Bloom
- Take on the Devil
- Targeted by Fate
- Tempest Denied
- Ten Thousand Typewriters
- Tongue and Groove
- Top of Her Lungs
- Tortured Analogy
- Two Behind the Ear
- Uncommon Brutality
- An Unconvincing Lie
- Unemployed Prophet
- Untaught Jargon
- Unusual Mortality Event
- An Unusual Wound
- Vestigial Organ
- Viral Infusion
- Waffle House Index
- War Crimes
- Weapons Grade Stupidity
- White Girl
- Who the Devil Was
- Witness my Hand
- The World That is Not Yet
- Worst Day Ever
- Written in Fire
- Yesterday’s Papers
- Zealous Lemmings