Is a Pen Name for You? 5 Reasons to Consider it
By: Eir Thunderbird
Tags: Pseudonyms, Marketing, Feminism, Strategic Thinking, Writing

What Are the Top 5 Reasons for Choosing a Pen-Name?

1. Drawing yourself from scratch

A long time ago, when the Internet was at its dawn very few people used their real names online.

All were enjoying building online personas that enabled free exploration of the Internet. Later on, when Facebook started, social interaction was redesigned to help us keep in touch with families and friends. Rather than making friends with strangers, people started using their real names to be searchable.

Empirically supported, the best reason for using an online persona is the liberty to explore. It gives you the possibility to draw yourself from scratch, which is rather difficult to do IRL, once you’re an adult with a real job, a real partner, and real children.

2. Maxing out creativity and authenticity

I don’t know about you, but I love to experiment. I don’t have a niche in which I predominately write but I do vent a lot. In fact, one of the reasons I started writing was to assist me in my therapeutic process. Since it’s been working wonders, I decided to make my own venting publication to serve other people as well. Why?

I’m tired of people telling me to look at the bright side. Or to breath in and breath out and relax. I need a good shout once in a while. Positivity doesn’t work. I’m tired of all the self-help books that promote a happy go lucky attitude towards life. Screw it! I need, and I’m sure that other people need it too, to stop being nice for a second, and just be me. I’m not always bubbly and fun. I come in shades and some of them are intensely dark. Which I am fine with, as long as I’m in a safe place to express it (sort of like Fight Club, haha).

But I can’t throw shit at my husband online and then not expect it to be used against me in case of a divorce. Yet, this is exactly what I need to do in order to make the relationship work. It’s strange, isn’t it?

3. Accepting criticism like a pro

There was a time when the slightest negative remark about the quality of my work upset me so much that I would ruminate over it instead of accepting it gracefully and moving on. I took all criticism very personally.

With age, I managed to overcome this issue. As I grew into a self-confident woman, I stopped letting my worth be dependent on outside validation. As a result, accepting criticism became key in my development. I became willing to mess up to learn, and it was fabulous.

Nonetheless, I don’t feel that I am there yet as a writer. Eir is ready to take the criticism, but I am not. I want to protect myself from unnecessary stress and thus, I will cowardly if you want, leave it on Eir. She has the strength to take whatever is going to be thrown at her.

At the same time, I also accept that success will be hers, not mine. But this is a small price to pay, and I am more than happy to accept it.

4. Using mystery as a brand strategy

I love puzzles. Who doesn’t? But a good puzzle is hard to build. This is why I love puzzles. In order for Eir to be a puzzle, she must be interesting enough for people to wonder: “Who is Eir really?”

And that’s on me. Eir’s stories should be so compelling that the reader will be entranced to learn who’s the wizard behind the curtain. And this is not an easy job. Building a brand for someone that has zero history is going to be damn hard. Eir can’t rely on friends, family, or colleagues. She must build a crowd from scratch. The only asset she has is writing.

To find out who Eir is, the reader will have to follow her stories and pick up on any details that could add up to the image of a real person. And that’s basically my marketing strategy.

5. Keeping things clean

Life is simple. Until we complicate it. For me, adding an extra layer to my current identity by letting people in my real life know about my pseudonym, would be a hassle. I like my privacy and compartmentation. I don’t want to mix things up. Also, I never plan to make writing a full-time job. If that would happen, I’d be very surprised.

I always struggled to say what my hobbies are because most of them were work-related. Therefore, writing should belong in its own drawer.

Using a pen-name is not for everyone. There are plenty of reasons against using it but the most important one is the lack of credibility. You’d have a missing identity and risk being called a hypocrite. Depending on what you write about, this could be more or less important in various topics. For example, I won’t care if an author of erotica is a 70-year-old grandma writing juicy stories about young handsome firefighters. But if the guy that offers financial advice is called Duffy Duck, I’ll probably say “No, thank you.”

It might be quite difficult to establish yourself as a full-time writer while not disclosing your real identity to anyone.

Finally, hiding behind a pen-name diminishes commitment if you’re prone to ditching the writing when things become difficult.

Before you take your pen-name, think a little about it. Take it for the right reasons and put it to good use. Also, close your eyes for a second and allow yourself to dream. When I’m famous, what does my name sound like?

Love,

ET.