A Writer's Name

For a writer social media is just another platform, a stage, a place for a writer to show their work to their audience.

Thus, just as in real life, the name one chooses for oneself is very important.

Especially if you have several different social sites you are active on.

In my writing I have chosen to always use my real name. I don't necessarily think everyone should do this, but I thought it would be fun to share my reasons for doing so, and maybe even explain why I think all should follow along.

Haha... not totally serious.

1. I use it because I like my name.

Hey, I'm not trying to be humble. I love my name. I am very proud of it. So why shouldn't I use it? On a side note, I love the author Charles Lamb. Not necessarily becauseI love his writing (I do but I haven't had much opportunity to read much of his stuff) but mostly because of his last name.

But what if you don't like your name?

And there's no author that you like to look up to because of your name?

Let's just say I feel sorry for anyone having to live with a name they absolutely don't love. Because a name is definitely a gift that only YOU can completely have and love. It is one of the most precious first-gifts we are given after life.

2. It makes it easier for people to find me.

For people that know me in real life if I want to share with them my online writing, I don't have to explain or try and make them remember a complicated fake name or user-name.

Or if they are too shy to ask my name they can still find me. ;b

I've also had the opposite scenario where I've met people that knew who I was once I said my name BECAUSE of my writing name online.

3. Organization.

Even though I like to say I go with the flow, I can be a perfectionist, which means everything has to be organized and perfect and according to the way I want it online – which of course doesn't happen a lot still, as you can tell, because there are just some things I don't know how to do.

But for the most part, all my writing sites are linked to each other, all my online names are the same, or as close to the same as I can get them to be.

It's all together, making it easy for people to follow up on what I want to share with the them and the world.

And if I were to ever be published, being organized under my real name will make it easier for the people looking me up to find me and see what I'm like (saying this I need to make better sure that what I write is all work-worthy approved ;b)

But even for these there are arguments against publicizing yourself to the whole world...here's my opinion on those.

 It's dangerous. People could steal my I.D.

Well...anything in life is dangerous. And the way I look at it, your identity can be stolen and used no matter what name you use. Catgirl667 can be scammed just as easily as Catherine Jones, and either way, she is going to have to recover her information.

As for dangerous. Even when publicizing my writing, I do have to be careful. I don't just accept anyone's friend requests. I don't message people I don't know. People I do know, I message them each appropriately to how they need to be spoken to.

With everything you have t be careful, and it's no less the same with online social net-working. I just have to keep my goals, ideas, and purposes in focus.

Basically it's about the writing, and getting it out there. I'm not trying to stay in a safe shell.

Of course, there's also the thing that people could steal my writing.

I have a couple things to say about this.

The first, I save most of it previously, so there's proof it is mine.

Secondly, all my writing is meant to edify and encourage. It's not for me. It's for others. So if it was somehow stolen, and I can't recover the rights to it, why should I care?

It may end up helping people more than I could have ever meant to do in my own name.

Still, I do try to be careful with what and how I share.

And so that is why I use my name.

But don't think I'm condemning any one for not using their real name. Most people, I've seen have very good reasons for using the names they end up choosing. I'm not against pen-names. I don't think it's wrong or hiding from the world.

In fact I've considered using a pen-name in the future for certain works of mine, that are so different from what I write, involving controversial subjects that could give my writing a new reputation. I'd want to keep my two different writing styles separate, so the one would not affect the other one.

So, what name do you use? Why did you choose this specific name? What's your thoughts on all of this? It's sort of a fun topic to think on, isn't it? :D