Day 04 — A blogger friend I’ve known for over five years told me she has been blogging anonymously all this time and most of what I know about her is her fantasy. My reaction to the news is…
I feel it is ok to use a pseudonym to blog or write as many writers have done in the past. The reason why writers use pseudonyms or write anonymously are:
To keep their writing career separate from their ‘normal life’ . A lot of writers already have a more or less succesful career in a different field and they do not want it to interfere in their artistic pursuit of writing.
Some writers also do it to increase sales, to experiment and to have fun.
Some writers also do it for social conformity. For instance, female authors using male names – Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein was published anonymously for the first two editions.
Richard Bachman is really Stephen King and John Le Carre is really David Cornwell. So also, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and recently Ashwin Sanghi have also used pseudonyms.
But otherwise, I do not see the need for being anonymous as the social media is meant for interaction and it is best to be ones own self than hide behind a mask.
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Buds Academy
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My Kaleidoscope 
I think the modern world has changed, the pseudonym is something of the past i believe. Writers nowadays come as a ‘package’ and their name being their brand. An readers want to connect with the writers deeply, just written material isn’t enough.
Sajeev, there is a difference in using a pseudonym to publish a book compared to developing a friendship over the time span of 5 years and then coming forward. But I believe the reason she would have come forward is because the friendship meant too much to continue the charade with this particular friend. You are right that there are a lot of reasons to use one.
Hi Tom – yes in my rush to write i overlooked the fact that it is a close friend you know over a span of 5 years!
Hi Brian – Personally, I do not use pseudonyms or alias as I believe one should be open and honest with readers!
I don’t see anything bad about using pseudonym. We all know Samuel Clemens’ was a well know Mark Twain. I thing using a pen name is in some way some psychological issue. Some kind of bipolar thing. It’s not bad its just we are using some other side of our subconscious perceptions.
Thanks Alex:)
An interesting take on it, perhaps that person didn’t think they’d end up making friends – they just wanted to write and thats it 🙂
I learnt something interesting today! Didn’t realize such awesome writers worked behind another name at some point. x