What's in a name?

I decided to create this blog to vent some of my frustration about not having a title for my novel-in-process and wouldn't you know, in the process of creating this blog, they actually wanted me to name it.  I nearly gave up right then and there.  Then my post had to have a title.

I'm being inundated with requests for a title before I even have the finished product to reflect upon.  To me, the title should either sum up the meaning of the piece, or point out a critical detail within it.  Yet despite how well I know the summary of my book, I still can't name it.

I threw two ideas at my husband tonight, who, by the way, is also very familiar with the content of the book.  The first, "Refocused", didn't sound right to him.  The second, "Skip the Next Step" didn't work either.  No explanation of course, and he apologized for not being able to give me further insight.  Fat lot of good it did me.

I have been agonizing over this "minor" detail since I decided that I needed to write a novel.  I inserted a place holder in my manuscript - "Book Name" - and it frustrates me every time I open the file to work.  I did this so that I could move on to the business of writing, but it's like a slap in the face every time I see it.  It feels like I've forgotten to name my child prior to leaving the hospital, and here it is, 2 years old and still no name.

Yes, I've been working on my book for 2 years, and no, I don't know what to name it.  The file name is "Hannah and Garrett", because the book is about them, even though it isn't really about them.  It's really about Hannah and her self-deception and her nearly cataclysmic mistake of almost marrying Marc.  And luckily she's saved from her own - how do you say - momentum.

Now that's an interesting word.  It's the first time I've thought about it in relation to Hannah's life course.  Or even Inertia - a body of motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force.  Anyone remember The Breakfast Club?  "Physics, laws of physics, properties of physics..."  No?  It's my favorite line from the movie having been a geek all my life.  I'm still a geek, but now that the geeks have taken over the world, it's a lot more cool than it was in the 6th grade.

So, back to Hannah.  Inertia makes sense if you think of Garrett as the outside force.  Because if it weren't for him, She would be Mrs. Hannah Gennaro and would probably be in the middle of a miserable divorce not 2 years from the end of the final chapter.

Inertia.  I'm not married to it, but maybe it will grow on me.  If not, there's always "Book Name".