When a pseudonym isn’t just a pen name.
It’s been over a year since I published, A Girl With No Name, on my blog. And since then I’ve gained a lot more insight on what it means to write under a pen name. I myself have self-published my first book under a pseudonym. Some of my closest friends live entirely as a pen name online. My business partner and fellow Southern Writers Guild founding member Grace is one of them.
Musicians are doing it as well. My new favorites include a Canary and a Monkey!
The thing about writing under your own name is, regardless as to whether you call it Memoir or Fiction, everyone is going to believe it’s true. Then again, maybe people are more likely to think it’s Fiction if it’s labeled a Memoir, and vice versa. You know they’re always looking for an ulterior motive or meaning.
So, I make no attempt to hide the fact that I write under a pseudonym. And I openly admit that I write Auto-Fiction. I love pulling the stories from lives that I’ve witnessed, shaking them up a little bit and making it a Cotton Tale.
Because the thing is, it’s all real. At least for me, and those I know that write in this style. No, I haven’t actually saved a runaway from forced prostitution. But those feelings that Brooke felt, those things that Hank said to Jenny on the side of an old Alabama back road were real — really real.
I’ve been working on his novel quite a bit lately and I’ll tell you what, just because that story is being fictionalized doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. It fucking hurts plenty. And then you have to go back into the living room and put on a smile — because it’s not fair for the others to have to live through it again with you. They’ve done their time.
Maybe a pen name gives us a figure to hide behind — maybe it creates a little bit of separation — but that doesn’t mean that it’s not real. On the contrary, when we step into that other skin it is all too real. And it can be very difficult to step back out of it.
Grace has spoken at length about this in her recent post, Headstone Knew Before I Did.
Canary Vale mentioned as much in her recent SWG interview with Rick as well.
And Harriet Corvine, who we all know as a friend of the Guild has also talked a great deal about living online under a pseudonym.
Why I chose to write under a pseudonym:
The remainder of this essay is available for free at SouthenWritersGuild.com
