anyone here write under a pen name? i've been toying around with the idea of having one for as long as i can remember, simply because no one can pronounce my last name, but i can never settle on one. (i want it to have some kind of significance, so my mother's maiden name for example.)
any tips or tricks?
Okay, my last name is ridiculous to pronounce (Elliot is an English form of it) and I’ve had the same problem. I use Elliot as my username on almost all sites I joined so I’ve been looking for something when I actually become a published author (in like a 1000 years or so).
So what I’ve been doing to look for ideas is going to my family tree (and I mean beyond your grandparents, even great-grandparents). I focus on the maiden names that are the easiest to pronounce (my mother’s maiden name is even worse than my last name). But if you don’t have access to your entire family tree, another thing I do is I choose the English or shorter equivalent of my last name, like I did for Elliot. That is if you have a shorter/English equivalent.
My name here is my pen name. My last name doesn't seem (to me) that it should be hard to pronounce, but it's uncommon and very similar to another, more common last name. In the end, people mistake my last name for the more common one. (This has actually caused some issues with me accessing my child's medical records at one point.)
In addition to the difficult last name, I also want to get into writing more "adult" fiction, and I don't really want anything to easily tie back to me as an individual. Wade and Ferry (the F. in my pen name) are both easy to pronounce, not super rare or super common IMO, and are further up on my family tree. There's only so far I can go up my tree due to poor family records (such as an orphan ancestor whose maiden last name I don't know), but I think it works pretty well.
Other ideas are to use similar names (like what @Celia does) or use part of a last name from your family. E.g., if your last name was Smithson, you could use Smith, Swift, Stone, Smitty, Smyth, Smythe, Smythson, etc. or vice versa. In this case, you could have a full pen name: Sonny/Sunny Swift/Smith/etc. You have a lot of options. Feel free to post some you're considering here, or ask some of your writer friends for feedback on how the names you come up with sound and read.
I have had the same idea! I've considered using something that's less of a name and more of a handle (like how I am 'Broken Princess'), but I actually had a really good idea concerning this recently. If you are unable to access family tree records (or, like me, just are to lazy to) you could try using an anagram of your own name. The anagram generator on futureboy.us helped me find two potential pen names I might use. It feels personal, given that it's your own name, but it would be nigh impossible to figure out if you don't want it to be.
I always write under a pen name. My username is usually Astrid because my real name is confusing to pronounce when in writing: 'Aisling' (Ash-ling)
I went around looking for appetizing last names and found 'Slader'
Astrid Slader sounds nice and it's easy to pronounce so that's fun I guess.
:)
I write under the pen name Rori. This is a partial anagram of my last name as well as me being a Gilmore Girls fan who has been compared to Rory many times before. I have yet to decide on a full name but for now, it's Rori.
I write under the pen name Felix but prefer to be called Lix. Lix Hazeldine is my favorite to go by, but I have occasionally gone under different last names. None of this is even close to be real name. I really like it though so when people say their name is Felix sometimes i accidentally slip up and say, "Hey, that's my name too!" before realizing its not. Felix is practically like my secondary name now.
:P
I write under the pen name A.L.Ferry, which is my initials and last name. My first name is quite hard to pronounce for people who've never seen it before, or people who have met me and for some reason call me names that sound like my name but aren't - I hate that so much honestly.
My real name is Amelie - pronounced 'Am-ah-lee', but I often get called Emily, Amelia, or Ameal.
I also really like my middle name, so I wanted to add that in there, but mostly because A.Ferry sounds really clunky. I also use this as my artist alias.
@TinyZombieKat I totally get the not wanting people to know it's you writing. I'm very insecure about my writing so I kind of hide behind my pen name. Oops. If I use a different name, they can't pin it on me, am I right? I sort of live in fear of people not liking what I write so the ability to scream "I DIDN'T DO IT!" at the top of my lungs and run away is a real plus for me. :P
@alice the curse of writing, am i right? You love your characters and story to the farthest reaches of death but as soon as someone else wants to read it all, it's like SUDDEN AND INTENSE TERROR.
You want to drop that bish like a hot potato.
XD
@TinyZombieKat YES! Someone finally understands me!