A Pen Name – Why Have It?

Pen Names – Why Have Them?

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all okay during this time of quarantine and social distancing.  Today’s blog post is about my decision to create a pen name, where it derived, and my reasons for keeping one despite my very public writing journey. I know many of you have asked and/or wondered where it came from, so here we go!

First, my pen name is part of my middle name and my last name, which is my married name. I am recently married, so I haven’t quite established a personal identity, or an identity at all in that regard with my new name. Therefore, I figured, why not create an emerging identity with my changed name? I have several personal reasons for wanting a pen name beyond that, however. I will talk extensively about each reason in hopes that you understand or can possibly relate!

1. Wanting Anonymity… at first

When I first decided I wanted to publish my writing and disseminate it to the public, I, at first, was extremely nervous about letting others even know that I write. This is particularly because of who I am in the community and professionally. I didn’t want to be judged for how I wrote and/or the fact that I had an imagination and built worlds that were completely detached from my own and be forced to merge my imagination and my reality by others. I wrote books that had profanity. Books with detailed sex scenes. Books with an unapologetic Black voice that, in reality, I have to censor on the daily in order to fit a professional norm. So I wanted a pen name to hide myself. But then, I really had a come to Jesus moment with myself. Why did I give a damn about what others thought of me? I had proven who I am to my community already and the type of person that I truly am. If professionals and others couldn’t discern who I am as a creative and who I am as a professional, then they weren’t someone I should be working for. And that was the moment I no longer cared about anonymity. 

2. Separating My Professional Identity

This reason is similar to number one, but different. Although my writing journey and career is far from private (my face is all over my website and my social media pages), I still have a professional identity that I would like to only be associated with my legal name. When I decided that I would publicize my writing journey and career, I also made the decision to keep my pen name. When potential employers search my legal name whether local or from afar, I want things related to my education, awards, and my professional expertise related to the education field to be at the forefront of their search. If they happen to eventually know I have a writing career on the side, then so be it; I’m not hiding from that part of myself. If I were to also to establish my writing identity under my legal name, that would lump all of my writing into the mix, and that’s just a no-go for me. Writing is a side hustle, a passion, and a hobby. Mixing both identities under one name is too much. Myself as an educator is much different than who I am as a writer, which leads me to my final reason.

3. Adventure and Establishing a New Voice

Creating a new identity is just cool as fuck. It is risky, adventurous, and gives me a clean slate to establish the type of voice, imprint, and impression that I want to make on others who read my work and for others who don’t already know me. If I were to publish under my legal name, you would already know what to expect because I’ve already created a name for myself and how I want to be portrayed, whether you know me or not. Those who don’t know me would search my name would expect either some academic work, or very clean books related to education or equity. That’s not the type of writer I am nor want to be. My writer’s identity is the person I don’t get to be under my legal name. Janee’ can cuss like a sailor, she can be sexy, mysterious, a bully, romantic, steamy, raunchy, she can be extra and over the top, and she can be so many things through her characters that my legal name will never get to be in reality. My legality would overshadow those things quite a bit and would cast judgment all over my prose. A pen name erases all of that. And that’s the best fucking part.

Can you relate? Leave your thoughts below!

Janee’