A list of proposed fics with one word titles · 6:57pm Jul 6th, 2020
The list started after someone quoted the sentence:
Single-word titles have to work exceptionally hard to stand out.
which happens to be from a post by Dave Bryant. What follows is inspired by the one sentence in isolation, not the whole post from whence it came.
I shall now propose fics with single word titles. Why? No good reason.
Prestidigitation -- Trixie becomes a pickpocket.
Floccinaucinihilipilification -- Two character studies, intercut with one another to highlight similarities (both literal and thematic.) Odd numbered chapters are about what Twilight Sparkle thought about Friendship pre-Ponyville. Even numbered chapters are what Sunset Shimmer thought about friendship pre-rainbow vortex.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia -- A horror story in which Rainbow Dash attempts to survive and escape a realm where egghead style words have been given physical form. That they want her dead almost goes without saying.
‘A‘ā -- The EqG seven are stranded on a forming volcanic island.
Autexousious -- Tale of Sunset escaping through the mirror in an alternate universe where Sunset was, for the most part, not a jerk and Princess Celestia was an evil controlling dictator who wanted Sunset to be, basically, a mindless slave. A detailed look at the difficult process of asserting one's right to self determination while trapped in a cult-like atmosphere.
Defedation -- The contamination of the human world as Starswirl throws all of Equestria's undesirables (like the Sirens) into it, and Clover the Clever does the same with artifacts (like the Memory Stone.)
Eicastic -- People stepping into other people's lives.
▣ A changeling takes on the role of an abused underling named Private Pansy, allowing the real pansy to run away. The results are . . . interesting.
◉ Sunset Shimmer and her human counterpart swap places. Human counterpart doesn't manage to pull off the deception, but does fake it long enough for the portal to close behind her.
✸ Other things too, though I haven't figured out what they would be.
Filicology -- Unsure what to make of people, Wallflower uses metaphor and analogy to classify her new friends as various types of fern.
Igniparous -- Sunset transformed into a demon, Twilight destroyed the portal to protect Equestria, and Sunset didn't take it well.
locupletative -- With the portal able to be opened at will, and having a much better understanding of human economics than when she first arrived, Sunset does what any self respecting A-mare-ican would: she gets rich. This is the tale of her rise to corporate power by selling manufactured goods in Equestria for bits, selling the bits in the the human world, using the money to buy manufactured goods, and then repeating the process.
mowburnt -- After a heat wave causes the apples to spoil on the trees, the future of Sweet Apple Acres is cast into doubt.
Namelings -- Glimpses into the lives of ordinary individuals who happen to share their names with famous, or infamous, individuals.
Obstrigillation -- An anthology of tales from the resistances in various timelines where things went badly.
Oporopolist -- How the first Apple got into the apple business.
The Orgiophant -- A story for C2.
Pamphagousness -- How the wasteland timeline got that way. Specifically: parasprites. Alternatively, fighting to make sure that something doesn't become a wasteland timeline.
Pessundator -- In the wreckage of what was once Equestria, foals gather round to hear the story of the demon (this is an evil Sunset story) who ended the golden age that preceded the present darkness.
Phylactology -- After the eleventy-sixth thing where Equestrian magic put on a show in human world, the human government decides to figure out what's going on. Consequence? CHS needs to learn counter espionage in a real hurry . . . without having actual learning of the stuff the school actually teaches taking a hit.
I'm not gonna use "portmantologist", but we all know that Pinkie Pie is one. See: "nervouscited".
Prescited -- Sunset believed that it was her fate to be a villain, so she embraced it. (Luna and Nightmare Moon would work too.)
Ptochology -- Slice of life story about Sunset and other homeless kids.
Quadrimular -- Unfocused story, leaning toward slice of life, following the entire high school career of the main characters' class.
Redamancy -- A NSFC2* anthology. Love stories that start with one side is already in love while the other is simply unopposed to the idea, and willing to give dating a try.
Resarciation -- Sunset's grand post-Fall Formal apology tour.
Soleated -- Sunset buys human shoes for the first time.
Sophronizing -- Sci-Twi teaches an AI to be ethical.
Sparsility -- Alternate universe where Twilight (either one) remains an anti-social loner.
Originally I looked at the definition and responded with the expected, "Nope. Not gonna touch that." Then I had a thought:
Surgation -- A story about body dysphoria as experienced by a trans girl, probably Rarity or Rainbow Dash.
Temeration -- After Anon-a-Miss Sunset Shimmer jumps off a bridge decides that maybe being assigned to the role by a princess is not the best way to become a friend, and decides to look for people who will become her friends of their own free will. Part of that is cutting ties with the five.
This one was by request:
Tachypsychia -- Plants were easy. In part, because they tended to have a constant speed, and that speed was easy to cope with. They weren't like people who would slow to a crawl when you first encountered them and then suddenly race at a speed you could never hope to keep up with (i.e. Wallflower has anxiety to the point of a fight or flight response every time she speaks to someone now that she no longer has the Memory Stone to fall back on.)
Theomeny -- Sunset dies because of Anon-a-Miss (or anything really), Celestia goes apoplectic. Pissing off someone who's basically a sun god proves just as catastrophic as it sounds. All is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well . . . that and nuclear fire. Die hard Anon-a-Miss fans go fucking nuts about the story. It makes the featured box in no time flat. None of them seem to realize that disproportionate retribution (on the level of mass murder) is a bad thing.
Tragematopolist -- Slice of Life story in which Pinkie Pie's saccharine day/week/month/whatever is described using some of the least appealing words possible. Think "pulchritude" for "beauty".
Trophaeal -- Character study of Rainbow Dash, highlighting how her feelings of inadequacy have not been assuaged by her numerous accomplishments.
Uglyography -- Pony-Twilight, circa the first movie, is forced to come to terms with the quality of her human writing ability, and learn proper penmanship.
Vacivity -- Having successfully taken over Equestria, and become its sole alicorn princess, Sunset is faced with a simple truth: her life is utterly empty. (Canon Sunset: Even with all that magic and power, you'll still be alone.)
Vappous -- Character study of Vignette Valencia.
Volgivagant -- Another "homeless Sunset and other street children" story.
Xenization -- Sunset's life upon arriving in the human world as a child.
Dave Bryant said:
This needs to be a Fimfiction journal post. Or maybe several.
so it is.
One can note that, as I went on, I pulled more and more words from the lexicon I was looking at. A through L accounts for six words at the start while S and T have four words from the lexicon each.
"Prestidigitation", "Floccinaucinihilipilification", and "‘A‘ā" are the only words that I came up with off the top of my head. "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia" fell into my lap when checking the spelling of "Floccinaucinihilipilification". As noted, "Tachypsychia" was by request. All other titles were pulled from the lexicon.
* Not safe for Csquared08. Why does "Csquared08" get written as "C2" instead of "C²"? No idea. I didn't create the shortening. Any story that involves any kind of shipping, and therefore any kind of romance, is not safe for Csquared08.
I will fight you.
5302374
Coming soon to a platform near you!
What I love about this list is its incredible range. Some of the ideas are utterly silly, some actually would work darned well, but all could be written.
5302374
You already said that.
5302377
I could probably write a few of them. They really do spark a sense of creativity in me, though I could probably write a one shot based on single word prompts that make absolutely no sense.
5302379
I'll say it again!
Autexousious looks really cool
Ohhh. Proposed.
Thats a whole load of NSFW Twilight and Celestis ship fics? In fact, almost all ship fics?
Including the ones with actual ships? Or at least vehicles? After all, the one with teh Kitchen Sinks already been done?
I probable know a couple dozen current single word title fanfics, but at this moment, all I can remember, is Legacy.
Not named as such, but already done!
Now I need upvote for blog posts. 👍