I’ve thought about it long and hard and I still don’t have a proper answer to the question of what name to go by on my website. There’s my pen name which I eventually plan to publish one of my many novel manuscripts under, and there’s my real name.
This website and all my social media currently uses my real name. Those who know me well enough know both, so it doesn’t matter there.
But at what point do I use which name?
The reality is that ideally you’d like the people who don’t know you to only ever find out your pen name, where as the people who do know you already know your real name, and the pen name is an additional surprise. However, when your real name begins to carry weight online as well, you begin to kind of put your foot in it trying to keep the two separate.
Where do you use which name? Do you figure out that fine line?
I’ve been contemplating switching this website over to my pen name and using it as the official blog as an author. That also means taking down a lot of content that is more personal. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter would stay personal. (Twitter because I actually have a separate Twitter account for my pen name already. Twitter makes it relatively simple to switch back and forth between accounts.) I may have to outright start separate accounts for my pen name in everything else however.
This is so complicated.
Do you have issues like this? Or do you put everything out on the line?
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Edit: 25 April 2014
In case you were wondering, I made the final decision regarding whether to use my real name or my pen name here, and I’m in the process of clearing out anything that could give a clue that I’ve got both. (If you know me in real life, you’ll know which one I’ve decided to go with.)
Sadly, this decision means that I’ve had to get rid of professional info on this site so that it’s not obvious. However, I think I’m okay with that. I wasn’t really using this as a resume pushing ground anyway.