“I don’t know how to title this,” the author said to the novelist. “Do you ever have that problem?”

“What?”

“When you’ve written something. Then you have to give it a title. I hate that part, I hate it so much. Everyone hates the titles I come up with. I don’t even like the titles I come up with. It’s so hard! How do you do it? Have you noticed anything that helps?”

The novelist looked away from the author, then back. “I, uh, don’t have that much a problem.”

“How?”

“I come up with a title and then I write something to fit it.”

The author glared. “That’s backwards.”

“There’s a reason I have a pile of work that doesn’t go anywhere, you know.”