When do you write your titles?

[ses5909]

Do you write them before or after your posts? Most of mine are before unless I can't think of anything good.

[BPartch]

I generally write mine before but there have been a few times that I have waited until the content was written then made up a title based on that.

[pbradish]

I write them before but almost always tweak with them at the end as well.

[davemcnally]

I have normally thought of a title before coming to the content. I guess sometimes though, writing one after the content may give you more of a fitting title.

[deronsizemore]

Before. Sometimes I change them as I go along or even after I've published the article.

[Glen Allsopp]

I write them before but can certainly end up changing them during or after writing the post

[doorlight]

Nice question.
I write my titles before I write posts.

:)

[Dan Schulz]

I write my titles after I get the content. What I do is pick something I want to write about, write it, and then let the tone of the written content determine the title.

[shyflower]

I write them before but almost always tweak with them at the end as well.
Same here. The title is the "idea" behind the article (or blog post) but often as I develop the idea it snowballs into a whole new area.

[Kirk M]

For me it varies from post to post. Sometimes it's a great title that comes to me out of nowhere which I end up wrapping a post around. Other times I get rolling with an idea and the title grows out of the content.

The most frustrating times (besides good old writer's block) is when I have a post finished and my head absolutely refuses to come up with a title. Then I get stubborn about it and won't publish it until I think up a title. Can anyone say "draft"? :o

[HAWK]

Usually before, but occasionally I just can't think of anything catchy until the end.

[fatnewt]

I usually write the title before an article/post and then change it at the end to make it fit with the tone of the post. Unless, of course I had a brilliant idea first, and managed to keep focus the entire time I was writing.

[ses5909]

keeping focus....I have trouble with that :p

[rodaniel]

More often than not, I already have a rough title in mind when I start a blog post. Sometimes this is a real challenge tho. I've been trying to be more aggressive about using titles that fit the post and will help my SEO efforts too.

I have a post waiting in the wings now that I'm totally stumped on a title for. The article is about a dolphin calf in Florida who's receiving the world's first prosthetic tail. It's a topic that some others have blogged about as well, but it ties in with some older posts I've done, so it's not just a rehash - it's got some unique content that might set it apart from the others. I tweaked on the draft for a couple of days earlier in the week and finished the article yesterday but I haven't come up with a title yet...

[Kirk M]

I tweaked on the draft for a couple of days earlier in the week and finished the article yesterday but I haven't come up with a title yet...

Let's see now (forgive me but I am trying to help). :)

A Tail of a Sea Going Prosthetic

The Six Million Dollar Dolphin

Artificial Tail--They Did It on Porpoise

I'm home with a flare up of my own service related disability so that's all I can manage at the moment. Hope you don't mind. :D

[rodaniel]

Simply inspired, Kirk! You rule! :-)

[goldfries]

Post is always in my head. so i write the title first. and save it as draft. then i continue writing. :)