Hey, writers. Today I wanted to talk to you all about masks. But first. If you’re here from the podcast… Welcome! Second. Masks come in many shapes and sizes.

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

First, here’s a link to the How’s It Cousins podcast:

Alright, let’s continue.  (Always remember that my About page has the info for this stuff.)

[Edit:  Yes, it’s been brought to my attention the link is broken.  No, I don’t know what’s wrong.  iTunes might be the best way to go for now.  Hm…]

So back to masks. On Halloween it’s something we wear to have fun and play around. In the writing world, I tend to think of anonymity. There’s a lot of freedom and power in anonymity.

One of my favorite authors of all time is Piers Anthony. He is the man responsible for the Xanth series as well as the Incarnations of Immortality series. Both extremely fun, and if you haven’t read them then I highly recommend checking them out. Last I checked there were many, many Xanth books so enter at your own risk. You may find yourself down a deep rabbit hole.

(Just checked. Holy smokes he’s up to 41 with another three on the way. I stopped at around 26. If you go beyond that let me know. Super fun series, all in all.)

The reason I mention Piers Anthony is because he writes these…blog-ish things in the back of his books. Like how he as an author prefers one kind of a pen over another. Specifically, he’ll talk about projects that he’s working on. A long time ago he mentioned that he occasionally wrote under a different name. He didn’t really want to but he recognized that his Xanth books were loved by children and that he didn’t want them exposed to more adult themes.

What exactly did he write about? Well, let’s just say if the god Eros were a writer this is what he would write.

One. If it’s written by Piers Anthony then yo, I want to check it out. Two. Because it’s under a different name, I have no clue what the titles of the books might be.

If you know, throw it at me. I’d be glad to check it out. One, to learn from one of the greats, two, to analyze style changes, and um… “For research purposes.” Haha. Had to throw the Internet meme in there.

Anyway, writers. Piers Anthony, being a smart man, knew what kind of demographic read his books. He also didn’t want to alienate them. He still, meanwhile, recognized his Jones to write different things.

The “mask” he put him on allowed him the freedom and anonymity to write other material. Writers, if you have any reservations at all about your writing, remember that you too could put on a mask and change things up sometimes.

My only warning though is that as who haven’t hit JK levels yet, changing your name makes it harder to build up your writer cred.

It seems counter-intuitive to go this route, and in a way it is. Having said that, if you have crazy Jones and it’s been distracting you, this could be a way to scratch that itch then get back to your main project(s).

So tell me,

Have you ever “put on a mask” and written something?

Sound off in the comments!

Aloha,
Alvin

P.S. Happy Halloween!

P.P.S. Check out the podcast.  If you enjoy this site at all, you’ll likely like the podcast.  Please keep in mind it isn’t G-rated all the time.  Heads up.  But yes, please enjoy:-)