Still Waters
Full Member
- Aug 1, 2024
I would like to know people’s thoughts about using a pen name. Does anyone here use one? What are the practices one must adhere to when using a pen name?
I have always intended to use a pen name. One long-standing reason for this is that I have never wanted anyone from "the family" to discover anything I’ve written. I’m intending to write a memoir. I also know I have to take measures to address liability issues.
The second, and, at this point, much more important reason that I need to use a pen name, is that I live in a country which sees fit to publish online extremely detailed information about every citizen—street address, phone number, name, birthday, full name and age of every person living in your household, year and make of all vehicles, part of your social security number, income range in your neighborhood, how many dogs or horses, etc., you have and so on. Literally anyone in the world can look this information up and find all of this out about the people here. I only have the ability to keep my phone number private. There are “special” people who get protected from this invasion of privacy. They are criminals and… rich, famous people I guess.
Some years ago, I was studying art at a certain small school farther south and midway through the first semester, a guy joined our class. He was very creepy and stalky. We had student residences and thankfully he did not live in mine, but he used to stand outside my residence and look in at me. He would especially do so when he knocked on the door and I wouldn’t answer. I had to leave the school, partially to get away from him.
Fast-forward a year—I’m in my new current home in a very remote area, low population density, in a completely different state—I run into the very same guy in the town. He followed me up here. He moved into an apartment a short walk away from mine. He is one of the “protected” people. Even the crimes he has committed have been erased from the public website where court proceedings are accessible to everyone.
He’s gone now, because he was a criminal and got kicked out of his apartment. But I no longer want anyone to find me, so I need my pen name to be an alter identity.
I guess if I am going to start a blog on here, I should use my pen name for it. I’m not sure what it is yet, and I was thinking I would use two initials and a last name, like J. K. Rowling, so it might be a little strange to have a blog with a name consisting of 2 initials and a last name… any thoughts? I really don't want to use a first name.
37 more posts until I can start a blog...
I have always intended to use a pen name. One long-standing reason for this is that I have never wanted anyone from "the family" to discover anything I’ve written. I’m intending to write a memoir. I also know I have to take measures to address liability issues.
The second, and, at this point, much more important reason that I need to use a pen name, is that I live in a country which sees fit to publish online extremely detailed information about every citizen—street address, phone number, name, birthday, full name and age of every person living in your household, year and make of all vehicles, part of your social security number, income range in your neighborhood, how many dogs or horses, etc., you have and so on. Literally anyone in the world can look this information up and find all of this out about the people here. I only have the ability to keep my phone number private. There are “special” people who get protected from this invasion of privacy. They are criminals and… rich, famous people I guess.
Some years ago, I was studying art at a certain small school farther south and midway through the first semester, a guy joined our class. He was very creepy and stalky. We had student residences and thankfully he did not live in mine, but he used to stand outside my residence and look in at me. He would especially do so when he knocked on the door and I wouldn’t answer. I had to leave the school, partially to get away from him.
Fast-forward a year—I’m in my new current home in a very remote area, low population density, in a completely different state—I run into the very same guy in the town. He followed me up here. He moved into an apartment a short walk away from mine. He is one of the “protected” people. Even the crimes he has committed have been erased from the public website where court proceedings are accessible to everyone.
He’s gone now, because he was a criminal and got kicked out of his apartment. But I no longer want anyone to find me, so I need my pen name to be an alter identity.
I guess if I am going to start a blog on here, I should use my pen name for it. I’m not sure what it is yet, and I was thinking I would use two initials and a last name, like J. K. Rowling, so it might be a little strange to have a blog with a name consisting of 2 initials and a last name… any thoughts? I really don't want to use a first name.
37 more posts until I can start a blog...