Could Using a Pen Name Help You Write More Honestly?

Self-Editing Strategy #5

[Read the companion piece WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? USING A PEN NAME at The Naked Page.]

¹“Have you ever taken activated charcoal before?” my naturopath asked me last week.

Should I tell her? Okay, fine, I’ll tell her.

“Only that one time after I ate fire,” I sheepishly muttered.

My test results for mold came back high again. After a 5-year battle, my naturopath decided I needed a new detox plan. I don’t often come clean with people here in the South about how I ran away and joined the circus—I mean performed burlesque. But she was my doctor, right? I had to be honest with her.

Truth is I loved the opportunity to use my theatrical training to DIY my own stage experience by performing burlesque. I still have highly artistic friends from that period whom I write copy and do ghostwriting for. I’ve hung up my pasties, but my time in burlesque still serves me creatively.

My burlesque career started as an offshoot of pole dance lessons back in 2009. At the time, I wasn’t feeling great, and I’d read somewhere that pole dancing was one of the most physically demanding activities you could do.

“Sign me up!” I thought, “I’ll just sweat out all my health problems.”

But after several months of pole burn, I realized I wasn’t exactly enjoying climbing up some shiny spire or impaling my calf muscles upon my stripper shoes. These classes lacked the rhythm and grace of more traditional dancing, and I just couldn’t get the hang of it.

When a new teacher showed up at the studio to instruct moms on how to regain their inner sexy by doing burlesque numbers, I was intrigued. But I wasn’t a mom. Sigh. The next class was for all women, and I soon discovered a new love affair.

The Sex Pistols had the Filth and the Fury. I had the Bling and the Bawdiness.

Pyrrha Sutra, Queen of the Blazing Bustier taught me everything I needed to know about the art form. And I immersed myself in the mockery of social norms for several years. My real life proved it.

By day, I was teaching high school English. I looked as dowdy as you might imagine a teacher or librarian to appear. No makeup, hair in a bun, sweater sets. But at night, I’d work my tail off in the little studio learning fan routines and striptease numbers. When I quit teaching, I was ready to unveil the new me as a professional burlesque performer and I soon started emceeing local shows.

My health was improving, and I was finally able to use that theatre degree that had been tossed aside for teaching. But burlesque wasn’t going to be forever. In 2013, in a bid for practicality, I traded my bling for wings. I became a flight attendant so I could sustain myself financially (barely) and took up travel writing on the side.

All I had to do was turn my stage name into my pen name.

Blissom Booblé. She’s been with me through several career changes.

A few days after my doctor learned the truth about my old life, I spotted someone online struggling with whether they should adopt a pen name.

I understood her dilemma. I’ve had two sets of social media accounts and two email addresses for about 13 years now. When I took up writing, I needed to reserve my writing life as separate from my profession. To dip into my performance experience and use material from it meant keeping the name.

This isn’t a Beyonce/Sasha Fierce situation. Blissom isn’t some alter ego who comes through me as a wildly different persona. The name is an extension of myself, not a separate character. Think of using a pen name like having a nickname. Your family and friends might use the name, but your work colleagues don’t.  

You can be radically honest and 100% yourself while still writing under a pen name.

But I would be lying if I said acquiring a pen name fixes all your problems when you’re writing—it doesn’t. There are pros and cons to adopting a nom de plume.

Here’s what you should know before you adopt a pen name:

Pros For Using a Pen Name:

• You may feel less conflicted about expressing yourself openly and writing authentically because you’ll have some anonymity.

• It can be great for keeping problematic family members and other acquaintances from meddling in your business. I currently homeschool my daughter and many of the people we interact with are staunchly religious. I’d hate for anyone to judge or treat my daughter differently because of my history.

• It can give you more confidence to address certain taboo topics. Along with my burlesque career, I’ve also written about my involvement in the HIV community and as a sexuality educator.

• You’ll be able to reserve your real name for the future if you choose to embark on writing in a more professional or serious tone. For example, I hope to go back to school to complete a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. When that day comes, I plan to publish under my real name and drop my pseudonym.

Cons For Using a Pen Name:

• It can sometimes make your life more complicated. I’ve accidentally sent emails using my Blissom account to the wrong people.

• You’ll never have complete privacy—it’s not like going into witness protection. If anyone wanted to find out who Blissom was, they could. It doesn’t take a detective to put the clues together. Your pen name won’t keep a stalker from unveiling your identity. But does that happen a lot? If anyone put together my real name and pen name, I’d say, “C’est la vie.”

• Online publishers often make mistakes. There have been a few times when I’ve had to reiterate to a magazine that I’m publishing under my pen name, and they’ve had to make online corrections.

• Some people do act uncomfortable when they discover your pen name is not your real name. I do my best to minimize these situations, but I’m not responsible for how anyone else reacts. Using a pen name is not me being dishonest with anyone.  

• You may need an adjustment period to hearing people call you by your pen name. I was lucky that I had the experience of using Blissom as my stage name first. We all had two names in the burlesque world. But I can understand how weird it might feel if you wrote books under a pen name but never heard anyone call you that until you did a book tour.

It should NOT make it more difficult for you to get paid if you are working with reputable publishers and/or self-publishing at Amazon. Most places understand the need for pen names, and you should easily be able to set up banking info to get paid with your real name.

The power of a pen/stage name was revealed to me when I assisted Pyrrha Sutra at an annual breast cancer survivors’ summit in Arizona. She and I set up colorful boas and other sparkly paraphernalia for our student ladies to get their hands on as soon as they walked into the room. We began the class by encouraging these women who had recently had chemo or surgery to pick their burlesque names.

One by one, they’d step forward and scream out some shiny new name. “I’m Sapphire Sunshine or Ruby Tuesday,” or one of a dozen gem-encrusted variations they’d picked to claim their courageous new identities.

I’ll never forget Diamond Doll who thanked us at the end by revealing, “This is the most feminine I’ve felt in years!”

That was the power of a pen name to me and it’s why I carried it over to the writing world.

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