I Chose a Title (for now)

The Book - Part Two

If you're not interested in the book I'm working on, I understand. There are plenty of things I'm not interested in either. Feel free to go back to whatever you were doing before; I hope it was something cool.

I already posted about how this project started as a Tumblr, but I wrote that before I had millions of fans on Substack. If you're interested, you can read about it here. For the first post about the book, click here. Ok, that is enough links.

I can't remember exactly how I came up with the name "Last Night at the Bus Stop," but I think my initial plan was to shoot photos at night and post my favorites the next morning. I never did that. I never posted more than one photo at a time, and it was usually not the day after. So, the title ended up being a misleading project description.

I kept the name because the series quickly gained some attention, being featured in various places and leading to a few interviews. I felt I needed to stick with the name, which was fine until I noticed something: even people who knew me well and liked the photographs couldn't get the title right. They got close but usually said something like "On the Bus Last Night."

Here's part of my process for coming up with a new name. I did a “stream of consciousness, there are no bad ideas” exercise, just writing every word that popped into my head when I thought about the photos. This resulted in many bad ideas and two or three that I liked.

The first idea I liked was "Commuted." I enjoyed the double meaning, as many of the people on the buses were commuting. However, I decided against it because a second meaning—related to jail or death sentences—was too serious. I even wrote it on red gaffer’s tape in my notebook, but it felt way too heavy for what I was doing. This name made it seem like I was trying to make the book or photos into something they are not.

too serious

The next name I liked was "Some Go Home." It is vague and kind of poetic sounding, like a sequel to "You Can’t Go Home Again", or a zine by Alec Soth or something. Most of the people I was photographing were, in fact, going home. Now I can’t remember why I decided against "Some Go Home." Oh well.

Being a fan of Jack Kerouac, I flirted with the idea of using a bit of his writing for the title. "We’ve Got To Go Someplace, Find Something" comes from him and feels romantic and hopeful, but it didn’t quite fit with what I was showing. These are not road photographs, and I wanted something original.

Briefly, I liked "The People in This Place." It was a reaction against my previous ideas, a straightforward title saying what the project actually was. That didn't last long.

Now I'm tired of writing about the names I didn’t choose, so I’ll tell you the name I did choose: "Someplace to Be." It has that multiple-meaning aspect I like, isn’t too long, and hopefully, people will remember it. I considered "Somewhere to Be," but my publisher said "Someplace" sounds uniquely American. That might be an insult, I’m not sure, but I’m leaning into it.

A young woman reading my Substack on the bus.

So that’s it. I hope you like the name. If you do, please let me know. If you don’t, maybe keep that to yourself because it might make me change it again.

Next time, I’ll probably share the photo I chose for the cover, and try to explain why I picked it. If you have any questions about the process, please ask.

Also, a reminder that you can “pre-order” the book by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. That will get you something else too—I don't know what yet, but it will probably be amazing.

Thanks, Travis

While writing this I was listening to: