Helpful Hints from Mris!

[mrissa]

Dear Other Writermonkeys,

Let me check my calendar. Why yes! It is! It is 2008! I thought it might be. And therefore, is now the time for dismissing characters as "hysterical, like that kind of woman always gets"? Not really! Not so much. And if you do it, surprise! I will stop reading your book. ("But you already gave me money for it!" Haha, no I didn't! It was free!)

You know what else? Bodily fluids? Not inherently interesting. In fact, you have to work pretty hard to make most of them interesting. You don't need two per page, with one in the gratuitous background description in case a page has slipped by under quota. They do not serve to epater les bourgeois so much as to ennuyer les bourgeois, by this late date. And you know what? A bored Mris will -- surprise! -- stop reading your book! ("But you already gave me money for it!" Haha, no I didn't! This one was free, too!)

Oh, and one more thing: it turns out that having a pseudonym is not the same thing as having a superhero name and secret identity. It doesn't actually make your book cooler. It is a net neutral. Look at K.J. Parker. She doesn't prance around going, "You should read my books! Because K.J. Parker is not really the name of the person who wrote them! And that makes them cool!" Or look at Robin Hobb. Almost no singing of, "Nyah, nyah, that's not my name!" Robert Jordan? Did not, in his lifetime, have jacket copy about how he could tell you his real name, but then his Very Powerful Enemies would get him. You are neither Bruce Wayne nor Rumpelstiltskin, so write the best book you can, slap whatever name you want to on it, and get on with your life.

I'm so glad we had this little talk.

Sincerely,
mrissa

Comments

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

You are +1 for this. Well done!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

So...what're you reading? *g*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have just picked up Ken MacLeod's The Execution Channel in hopes that it will not make me want to fling anything. At least not in ways the author didn't intend.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Snicker-snark indeed.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I'm going to publish all my books under a pseudonym. I'm thinking of Sedonie Escorial Featherstonehaugh de Wanhoop. But only you will know it's really me.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

And me! I know too! So now I'm one of the cool kids. [pose]

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And then you can publish in a different genre as S. Escorial Featherstonehaugh de Wanhoop!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

That is such a totally *you* kind of pseudonym, that absolutely all of your friends will know it's you, even if they didn't read this comment thread. Seriously. I didn't recognize your new icon and so I had actually read through the pseudonym before pausing and thinking to myself, "Self, that is just the sort of pseudonym athenais would use," and then I looked at who wrote the comment and thought,"Yeah! See?"

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Darn it, now the writerbrain is going on "what would a character who is Bruce Wayne and Rumpelstiltkin be like ? How about one who is Bruce Wayne and Rapunzel ? How did they get to be like that ? What's their motivation in life, Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot who PULLED MY HAIR AND I WON'T TAKE IT ANY MORE ?"

.....aaargh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heehee. Sorry. For the values of sorry that mean "not really very sorry at all."

[redbird]

You don't need to write that novel.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Hmpf. You're just hysterical.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Probably due to sweat or phlegm or something.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Would it be possible to learn who the pseudonymous writer alluded to in paragraph three is? I'm always curious about the motivations of the "I am using a pseudonym and I feel a need to TELL you that I am using a pseudonym" syndrome, as it strikes me that it rather defeats the purpose.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

James Church would like us to know that he has such connections in the North Korean diplomatic situation that it would be very very dangerous for his actual name to appear on his mysteries set in North Korea. Very dangerous. Very.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Well, except that most authors use pseudonyms for marketing reasons such as they already did not well enough under their own name (Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb, Alys Rassmusen/Kate Elliott). I doubt it's a coincidence that Kate Elliott is also a totally neutral/'english' sort of name. So there's no real 'secret' in their names.

Personally I only object to a pseudonym if they're coy about it (such as m'ris's example, clearly.) or if it's a stupid name.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I have a friend with an aunt who was a librarian in a prison. She self-published a novel about being a librarian in a prison and used a pseudonym so that none of her former patrons could track her down if they happened to come across her book. Makes perfect sense.

Except that she also placed a large full-color photograph of herself on the back cover. Makes you wonder.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the logic went out the window on that one.

I always thought having a psuedonym would be more of a pain of the ass than anything else.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I didn't know Robert Jordan wasn't his real name.

And of course, the best pseudonym is Aureate Nimb.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Jim Rigney. Didn't know him well but he was a good friend to some friends of mine.

[skwirly.livejournal.com]

Does this mean I should stop writing that book about temper-tantrum-throwing hysterical bodily fluids? Under my pseudonym, Phlegm Girl? Because I was like halfway through already.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, use Phlegm Girl if you like, just don't pitch fits about it on the back flap of your masterwork of hysterical bodily fluids.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You are wise and sensible.

A funny thing about the Robin Hobb pseudonym.

Once, there was a thread on rec.arts.sf.written about "Who is Robin Hobb?" And I went to Eastercon, and rozk told me. And she said, well, I know, and I know it's OK to tell you, and it would be OK for you to tell people you trust, but don't broadcast it. So I emailed people I trusted, and I told them, with that information, and they emailed people they trusted, and in a remarkably short time that thread was populated only by people nobody trusted.

Then someone found out for sure from the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, so that was that.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Populated only by people nobody trusted" sounds like a James Morrow novella seed.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Oh my. Not a good week for reading, then?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm no longer reading these things, so that brings the prospects up immensely.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I tend to appreciate things learning like that because it means those books leave my to-read pile rather quickly. Sadly, too many of my books are bad, but not *that* bad, so instead I keep them and slog slowly through them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My book piles are currently moderate enough that I'm not actually looking to get rid of stuff at a greater-than-normal rate. Part of this is that I have banned myself from the library book sale forevermore; there are lots of books that are worth less than a dime to me that aren't actually worth time and shelf space to me.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Peculiar Title (http://www.masquerademaskarts.com/memes/yourtitle.php) generator site? I was thinking that could make for some entertaining pseudonyms.

Do you think I could get published as "Her Exalted Highness Duchess Paula the Reticent of Tempting St Mary"? (That should be an effective disguise, the "reticent" part especially.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They might make you shorten it to Paula Tempting.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

This post confirms for me that you are made of awesome. And then some.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, you too, you know.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

You are so very cool, M'ris!

Chica*---