Naming Names

[gnomi]

OK, so I was going to be all spiffy-like and construct a real poll about this, but I couldn't come up with any cute/catchy/snarky answers, so instead I'll do this the boring way.

I've been thinking a lot about pseudonyms and why/if people choose to use them. If I were to ever publish any of my fiction, I don't know whether or not I'd use a pseudonym. And that made me wonder - as I look around at all the writers on my friends list, and boy there are a lot of them. So, some questions:

1. Do you write?
2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?
3. If you use a pseudonym, why?
4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?
5. How did you choose your pseudonym?
6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)

Curious gnomis are waiting with bated breath for your answers.

Comments

[gem225.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?

Yes, and happily so. :-)

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?

No, unless you consider using my first name only for my fiction is using a pseudonym.

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?

I never even considered it, which is strange. Maybe because I'm Gail and it's taken me so long to *be* Gail that I couldn't consider being anyone else.

I was young and reckless and full of energy when I came online and started posting my stories. Maybe that's the best answer. *g*

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)

People know me by my real name, although LJ people might know me as gem225, my LJ handle, although I go by Gail there too.

Now breathe, please, dear curious gnomi. :-)

[sdelmonte]

1. Yes, I write, if infrequently.

2. As my lj-handle indicate, I have a pseudonym I use for many things, but writing anything beyond Internet posts and letters to the editor is not one of them. Yet.

3. If I ever do get published, I want to be able to point at it and say "me!"

4. The "Simon DelMonte" name was coined when I was in highs chool when my mother objected to seeing my name in comic book letter columns and then getting phone calls from strange relatives. After ten years of using the name, and having about 100 letters printed, I kept the name for use on DC Comics' original message boards. It stuck, I guess.

5. Knew a girl in high school named Simone Delmont. Thought it was a cool name. (No, I didn't have a crush on her.) I altered it by one letter and thus my name wa born.

6. Most people know know me as Alex, but there are a few who I've met in person who I confuse with having two names. A couple - Greg Weisman of Gargoyles and Captain Atom fame comes to mind - always call me Simon.

Time was, a pseudonym was frowned upon. Now with so many people using pen names on line, it's a lot easier to accept. I do plan to "out" myself as Simon DelMonte next week on the comic book panel at Lunacon, essentially to establish my bona fides, but I doubt anyone will really care.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Sort of. I use a portion of my real name. Basically because I'm told fanfic is supposed to fly under the radar -- not that my real name wouldn't be pretty easily findable by someone putting the research in, but you'd at least have to put the research in. I'd as soon not put it out there and make myself so easy to find that I'm a tempting target for anyone who wants to make an example.

If I ever publish any SF or fantasy, I'll use my real name. (I already have for the few poems I've had published).

But if I ever publish any Regency romances, I'll probably use a pseudonym -- partly because I don't want to get pigeonholed that way and unable to publish anything else, and partly because the convention of that field appears to be to write under a name as flowery and British as the heroines' -- and mine is way too Jewish to qualify. (I'll probably use my middle name as a first name and my first name as a last name, if I can't think of anything clever.)

Mer

[cicirossi.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?
yup

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?
cicirossi for all things fannish, though it's not hard to see my real name in my LJ. Julia Talbot for the published stuff so far, and I have co-writer pseudonyms too.

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?
Well, when I started fandom, there were folks I knew that I didn;t want to know. The Julia pseudonym was more for the distancing work me from writer me, and the co-write ones are simply convenient.

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?

5. How did you choose your pseudonym?
cici and julia are both old characters of mine

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)
heh. I dunno. I imagine my real name

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?
Yes

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?
No

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?


4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?

When I started writing, I didn't see the sense. Now, it's too late to start.

5. How did you choose your pseudonym?
6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)

n/a


MamaDeb is a handle rather than a pseudonym, and was more or less bestowed upon me in IRC. I do have a TPM story written under "MamaDeb", but that's the only one.

[tinnean.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?

Yes. Actually, that's about all I do.

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?

Again, yes.

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?

When I first started writing fanfic, I had a friend who preferred to keep her online personality separate from RL. I picked it up from her.
Plus, as stakebait mentioned, why make it easier for TPTB to come after you for playing in their sandbox?

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?


5. How did you choose your pseudonym?

I had a separate pseudonym for writing het, and when I decided to try my hand at slash, I wanted to keep the two genres separate. (Again following that friend). If you've seen Jaws, you may remember a line from Quint's speech about the sinking of the Indianapolis, about them sailing from the island of Tinian to Leyte. (I've had characters follow that route a few times in stories I've written.) 'Tinnean' is how I chose to spell it, and my website, Tinnean t'Leyte, takes it one step further. Kind of a private joke between me and me. :-)

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)

More people know me by my pseudonym. My real name is quite boring, unless you go by the Italian translation.

::facedesk:: And that *has* to be more than you really wanted to know.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?

Yes.

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?

No.

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?

N/A.

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?

It never occurred to me to use one. The big question I had, though, was what form of my name to use. I considered "M.A. Burstein" once, but decided to use the name under which I think of myself. I think of myself as "Michael A. Burstein," and so that's what I chose.

And "Michael Burstein" without the "A" was never an option.

5. How did you choose your pseudonym?

N/A.

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)

N/A, although some people have started calling me Mabfan. I prefer Mab.

[eal.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?

uh, yeah, but you know that already.

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?

Sort of. All of the fanfic is under the name you know me by. The lj is under a different name, and ironically, it's the name I'd be inclined to use if I decide to ever publish for real.

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?

I use one, first, because I realized that I was being hyper-critical of my boss here, and I didn't want it to be quite as easily traced to me. If I do really publish, I probably would use a pseudonym mostly because of P's privacy issues.

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?

As far as the rest of it, the fanfiction, I'm not embarrassed about what I write, and I don't much care if I get traced to it.

5. How did you choose your pseudonym?

Um. Blame beths_stanley. She started it. Marcie is a nickname she gave me and I like it, so I use it. There you are.

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? I honestly don't know anymore. I imagine more people know my real name, actually.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

1. Do you write?
Constantly. :)

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?
Yes.

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?
I hope to have a pro writing career someday, and I'm unfortunately very concerned about the reputation that could attach itself. Or rather, I was. Now I have a decent rep as a fanfic writer and am thinking, "You know, if I wrote original fic under my pseud, I might have a market!"

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?
N/A

5. How did you choose your pseudonym?
(Wince.) It was the name of a Mary Sue in one of my stories (Fern Withypoll). I took the name and changed the character, but she's still a Sue. An even bigger Sue, going from "Fern" to "Lily."

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)
What, that's not the normal way of life? :)

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

1. Yup!
2. Sometimes
3. I write my own stuff under my own name, but use a pseudonym for my slashfic and fanfic. I started reading regular science fiction way before I was old enough to read about sex; I don't want some kid looking for their favorite author online and finding something inappropriate.
4. N/A
5. Partly as an homage to T.E. Lawrence, partly as a takeoff on a childhood nickname, Tumbleweed.
6. Depends on the context. When it comes to fanfic, most people know me as T.W.

[eal.livejournal.com]

Hey, book suggestion.

I know you're getting all process-y and stuff. So, with that in mind,you need to go pick up Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit.

Flat out one of the coolest books I've ever read on process.

And it's amazing how much of the stuff she talks about we, as a team, have already incorporated into our stuff. Lots of cool/interesting ideas. Etc., etc.

M

[celli]

1. Do you write?
Yup. :)

2. If you write, do you use a pseudonym?
I do. My first two or three stories in my very first fandom were under my real name; the rest are under Celli.

3. If you use a pseudonym, why?
So that people in the "real" world can't Google my fic. Particularly my explicit stuff.

4. If you don't use a pseudonym, why?
5. How did you choose your pseudonym?
My online handle in my first bulletin board was "Celimene" after a character in a monologue I was doing in acting class. It was speedily shortened. :)

6. Do more people know you by your pseudonym or by your real name? :-)
Hee! Most online people eventually learn my real name...I'd say half and half.