On naming a book

Its taken three years, almost every weekend and holiday, and several weekdays; but the 50,000 words are finally over. Edited and ready for design flow.

A book never finishes in the same way that one imagined it at the start. The words begin to have a life of their own, tugging the fingers to type words that the mind has yet to comprehend. The title too, never remains the one that the author started with. It evolves and molts, till you finally see one that feels right, and start feeling comfortable with it. And usually, that one stays. 

As chapters keep getting added and shuffled, the name comes back in question. Of the three ways to name a book (i.e. in the beginning, in the end, or letting it evolve as the book-writing happens), starting with a title comes with more than a little trouble than the rest. 

Each time you make a structural change in the book (of which there are plenty!), not only does the name come into question, but all the contexts within the book with regard to the title also have to be changed. This is often, the most unnecessary time spent on the book. So, I would ideally prefer to name the book in the end. 

But, naming the book in the end, has a bigger issue (at least for me). I cannot seem to think unless I have a title to start with (and naturally it also means that I cannot allow the name to evolve as I write). So the method I adopted, was to begin with one. 

It changed. At least 6 times. And each time, wherever the context of the content referred to the title, that too had to go through a change. But finally, I have managed to settle onto the final name for my book on communications. 

Decoding Communications - that's what it is finally called.