What's In A Name?

In this case, the name is the title of the creative nonfiction YA book just published. My first working title for the book was The Life and Times of FRED. At the time, I thought the story was all about the robot's creation and the year's competitions. Turned out, building the robot was a major part of the story, but the backstories grew and grew after I interviewed more and more people.

When I learned that a mock corporation was required in order for a school to compete with a robot, that expanded the first backstory and gave the book a gender balance. Then I found out that instead of committees, the CHS Robotics club had a series of vice presidents in charge of (1) the table display, (2) the t-shirt design, (3) the web site, (4) fund-raising, (5) the notebook, (6) the oral presentation of the corporate team. There were many more people involved than the two main robot engineers. My working title became Team FRED. Another backstory developed into a love story. 

The final title comes from the Hub competition when the spirit team started chanting “Dread the Fred, Dread the Fred” as they racked up more and more points in a huge win. 

I posed the series of potential titles to the key students involved. The majority chose Dread the FRED. It works.