I have to admit, I was sore tempted to actually name this particular character Gamera until I read The Ghost Brigades. Scalzi beat me to it.
When I'm writing science fiction I often wind up using placeholders, generally boldfaced as well as listed so that find-and-replace will work. Sometimes they're just for me, because working out a name either requires some conlanging first. Other times it's because the alien's real name is unpronounceable or (as in S.G. Space!Kraken's case) they don't know their real name and need a new one--which can get entertaining even when I do come up with something. (At one point I realized I had characters named Betty, Veronica, and Reggie in one story. I draw the line at Jughead Jones, Space Alien, however.)
Yay for medical drama and natural disasters! That village flood sounds like fun. I'm somewhere in between on that one--my other story right now hinges upon a mage who, as he puts it, "has some affinity with stones." It turns out this means he's worked out an understanding with a VOLCANO ...
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When I'm writing science fiction I often wind up using placeholders, generally boldfaced as well as listed so that find-and-replace will work. Sometimes they're just for me, because working out a name either requires some conlanging first. Other times it's because the alien's real name is unpronounceable or (as in S.G. Space!Kraken's case) they don't know their real name and need a new one--which can get entertaining even when I do come up with something. (At one point I realized I had characters named Betty, Veronica, and Reggie in one story. I draw the line at Jughead Jones, Space Alien, however.)
Yay for medical drama and natural disasters! That village flood sounds like fun. I'm somewhere in between on that one--my other story right now hinges upon a mage who, as he puts it, "has some affinity with stones." It turns out this means he's worked out an understanding with a VOLCANO ...