Hey, writers. On and off I’ve thought about pen names. Should I use one? Should I change my name only a little or completely?

Hit the jump, writers, and let’s discuss.

In general, I’m a private guy. Anyone who knows me already knows that. Pen names, by their very nature get a kind of anonymity that is quite appealing to me.

My very good friend, Peanut Butter, was telling me about his Facebook account. Naturally, applying to one of those things means he had to fill a form that wanted his first name, his last name, and a few other things. He said he just filled it in and “It never even occurred to me” to [lie on those forms]. Which made me laugh because I absolutely know people that lie regularly on those things. It was such an odd and pure-of-heart moment.

But back to us and theoretical pen names. Sometimes following influential people can help. I remember an actor, his name was actually Micheal Douglas but he wasn’t Micheal Douglas. (Quick proofread, and… yup that reads weird.) Essentially this man had an audition to go to and he knew he couldn’t tell them his name. “Hi, I’m Micheal Douglas and I’m here to read for the part.” But then they’d be looking at this guy, and just be shaking their head because he isn’t the actor they were expecting. For the record, I believe we know this man better as Micheal Keaton.

Another famous “renaming” would be Stan Lee from Marvel. His name isn’t actually Stan Lee. It’s Stanley Martin Lieber but his name became Stan Lee. Aka his first name with a different emphasis on the syllables.

Coming Around the Mountain

Writers, there’s two key points I wanted to make for us. Unless you have a famous name you probably won’t have a Micheal Douglas problem. In theory, even if you did have a similar name you might be okay. There’s gotta be more than one Jennifer Lawrence or Pamela Anderson.

And that other note, about anonymity? Well Stan Lee may not be his real name but I just told you it’s actually Stanley Martin Lieber. And that isn’t breaking news either.

So if a pen name doesn’t really accomplish the things I think it will.. I have to ask myself, should I use one?

Then again. Having this website is already kind of crazy. I mean my name is literally in the name of the site: AlohaAlvin.com

Then again, I’m a pretty private guy. Maybe I wouldn’t actually use my real name and that is a pen name.

Hm.

Well then.

>.>

Aloha,
“Alvin”

P.S. Haha.

P.P.S. What do you think, writers?

Are you yay or nay on pen names?

Sound off in the comments!