occupations

More Information on Faking It

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

We are getting near our series on pseudonyms. We will end off the the one that is far and above the best, the Fake Name Generator.

It generates legitimate names, along with real addresses, phone numbers, and occupations. It lets you specify gender and culture.

And, if you didn’t find anything you liked in last week’s list, here are some more you can try: 

Masterpiece Pen Name Generator, Fantasy Name Generator, Reedsy’s Pen Name Generator. And, you can use the anagram tool to create a plethora of names out of the letters in your real name. 

Let’s try some names generated from my name, Brenda Poulos:

Paul Boone; Raul Bendos; Brad Enos; and Lupe DanBoor. (It took twenty minutes for me to come up with these on my own. And, not very good ones at that.) Trying the generator tools is faster, easier, and the names are much better!

Next week, we will learn how to properly copyright and use a pen name!

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Reasons, Reasons, and More Reasons

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

Reasons for Authors Using Pen Names Might Include:

  1. If the author’s real name is similar (or identical) to another well-known person, an author might want to change it so as not to be confused with the “other person.”

2) To keep their writing career separate from their “occupation.”

3)  To have a more memorable name.

4)  To make certain one has access to the URL and social media handles they want.

5)    If one’s real name is hard to pronounce or is easily misspelled.

6)   Writing under different names may help to avoid readers’ confusion if the authors writes in several different genres.

7) If they are writing about something controversial and fear reprisal.

8)  If their real name suggests something negative. (I remember being afraid of our family doctor when I was a child. His name was Dr. Slaughter!)

9) Just for fun!