A writerly post!

[rhienelleth]

I get really frustrated, naming stuff. I am not good at it. If a book title occurs to me easily, for example, I'm really, really lucky. Nemesis was like that. However, if it doesn't, I'm totally screwed. I will have a heck of a time coming up with something good. Dark Vision (a title i am still not entirely satisfied with) was like that.

The same holds true for naming things in books. For example, the dropship/gunship I've added to Nemesis. I cannot come up with a name to save my freaking life. Everything else is based in mythology - the Titans are the fighters, the capital ships mostly have names stemming from mythology, partly because it makes it easier to come up with names, and partly because I fell in love with calling the fighters Titans - it seemed fitting, the sort of thing that comes across as just arrogant enough, you know? The whole point of naming a ship meant for killing other ships something like that is to inspire fear, right?

The dropship has a different purpose: troop and/or equipment deployment, combat search and rescue, etc - think the helicopters of Vietnam. I remember in We Were Soldiers, they equated the helicopters with the horses the cavalry used to ride into battle. But that doesn't feel quite right, either.

I cannot come up with a name. *sigh* Right now, I'm using a placeholder, because not having a name was holding up the actual writing.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[dthon.livejournal.com]

The power of a high-caliber web-based thesaurus, with optional synonym attachment, works pretty well. Also, freeform word association, at a coffee counter with paper and pen also is good, provided you have the time to let yourself freely jump from one mental construct to the next without rules or reservations?

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

What about the Anemoi --greek wind gods? If you needed names for several drop ships, you could take individual wind gods' names: Notus, Zephyr, etc.

Or you could branch into different mythology, say Egyptian...Isis? Osiris? Nephthys?

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing Trojans is right out... ;)

On the Egyptian front:

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Heqet - goddess of childbirth and fertility, who breathed life into humans at birth.

Horus (Or Heru) - The falcon god.

Ma'at - a goddess who personified concept of truth, balance, justice, and order.

Nekhbet - goddess depicted as an Egyptian vulture - protector of Egypt, royalty, and the pharaoh with her extended wings - referred to as Mother of Mothers, who hath existed from the Beginning, and Creatrix of the World (related to Wadjet); always seen on the front of pharaoh’s double crown with Wadjet.

Nut - goddess of heaven and the sky.

Good Luck!

[woodrunner.livejournal.com]

Keeping in theme with equat[ing] the helicopters with the horses the cavalry used to ride into battle, how about:

Chariots?

I'm thinking of Apollo riding across the sky in a chariot. But at the same time, I'm also thinking "wagons", as in Westerns.

How about "Trojan" as in "Trojan Horse"? Same idea, same function?