On Pseudonyms

To pseudonym, or not to pseudonym?

That is the question – if you are a writer.

Unless you are the most self-confident writer in the world – and if you are then you might consider why exactly you’re bothering to write since neurosis and self-criticism really do come as part of the package – then you will probably have, every now and then, thought about writing under a different name.

It’s a privacy thing. Anonymity gives you the chance to write what you want without fear of criticism, hurting anyone, or revealing too much into your private world. When the infamous London blogger Girl With a One Track Mind was unmasked, it was humiliating all round. She’d anonymously written about her personal life, revealing private, sexual thoughts that she never would without the supposed safety net of a pen name. After her book was published as a compilation of her best blog posts, under the pen name Abby Lee, there was much speculation about the author’s identity and she was exposed after a ruthless campaign to track her down. Needless to say the whole incident was humiliating for her, and she camped out for weeks in her home contemplating her self-made, self-penned prison. Just a regular girl with an amped-up sex drive, she has been both hailed as a harbinger of sexual feminism, and derided as a sex addict who is morally no better than a prostitute.

Someone who actually is a prostitute is the blogger Belle du Jour, author of Diary of a Call Girl, who has survived a high-profile book publication and an even higher-profile TV show (starring Billie Piper taking a wide U-turn from her squeaky clean pop star and Doctor Who image) with her anonymity intact. She has worn her sexual conquests on her sleeve, and now has the double benefit of being a recognizable author – she could now write a couple more guaranteed bestsellers – without being actually recognizable. Many writers, even writing about something less personal, would say that is the best of both worlds.

Blogging is easy, and most bloggers are unlikely to become famous enough to worry about reputation. A bit of advice though: If you are planning to bitch about the boss, then it’s probably wise to keep it among your friends and not publish these thoughts for the world to see, anonymous or not. And if you desperately need to share your secret S&M fantasies, then a pseudonym is probably a good idea, unless you are a Playboy bunny or professional dominatrix. Which I’ll assume you’re probably not.

But what about fiction? How far can you take a story under your own name before it becomes too personal for comfort?

JK Rowling is by no means a pseudonym, but don’t think that Joanne Rowling didn’t make her gender deliberately vague. It was a canny move designed to invite the readership of young boys who might be putting off by reading a ‘girly’ book written by a woman.

Someone not afraid to plant a big neon sign (or should that be pen a big inky blob) over her gender was Jane Austen, who published her first novels under the simple title ‘A Lady’. She wrote for the love of the storytelling, rather than for any glory, but inevitably word spread of the ‘Lady’s’ identity, and the notoriously shy Ms Austen was outed.

Perhaps the most famous example of a woman using a pseudonym is Mary Ann Evans. Never heard of her? Well, she wanted to be taken seriously in her time as a writer, and so she called herself George Eliot, author of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. She, probably rightly, assumed that as the author of serious works and not just ‘woman’s novels’ (aka. Romance), she would not get very far under her own name. 128 years after Eliot died, a lot has changed, and being taken seriously shouldn’t be a concern for female writers, thank goodness.

Of course, it goes the other way too sometimes. There has been, and always will be, a stigma attached to men writing about certain topics. Science fiction? Great. Dark stories about the inner workings of a messed up male psyche? Channel Holden Caulfield some more and you’re golden. Got a great crime story to tell with a private eye, a femme fatale and a healthy dose of bloody murder? Bring. It. On.

Want to write a touching romance? Erm. (Pause.) Forget about it.

This is why Victoria Gordon, Gill Sanderson, and Madeleine Ker are actually all men writing with female pen names (Gordon Aalborg, Roger Sanderson and Marius Gabriel, respectively). So for any guys reading this who feel that their calling is really in the romance market, you have two options: either accept the status quo and do a literary Tootsie. You never know, it might give you a creative freedom you haven’t yet imagined. Or you can be bold, and tell the world that you write about love and romance and tender moments between consenting adults, and damnitall, you don’t care who knows it.

Writing is a very personal business. It pains the writer when an editor changes words around or – worse! – deletes them altogether. And it can pain a writer to reveal too much about their inner world and private person in an open forum. It can be a creative drain to be worried about what your parents, friends, teachers, children, colleagues, etc, might think about you after reading something you have put your heart and soul into. For some, a pseudonym is certainly the wiser choice.

For others though, the pain of exposure might be worth the joy of public authorship. It’s always a risk to bare ones soul on the page without hiding behind a fake name – but sometime’s it’s a risk worth taking. 

From this August’s Calliope.