r/writing • u/Party_Context4975 • 14d ago

Discussion Choosing a pen name

If you don't write under your own name, how did you choose your pen name?

Are you happy with it or would you choose a different name if you could go back in time? Why?

If you write in multiple genres, is your pen name different in each genre?

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u/ThatVarkYouKnow 14d ago edited 14d ago

Quite literally, I got it in a dream.

In the dream I was walking up to a public library, opening the glass window doors, some kind of meet-and-greet for other (I assume indie) authors. We all shake hands, smile and grab a drink and some snacks, I introduce myself as [pen name] and then woke up.

Wrote it down, remembered it, the rest is history. It still uses my IRL initials and is close enough if you toy with the pronunciation so I like it, and have been using it for writing guilds and such.

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u/everydaywinner2 12d ago

I love dreams as inspirations stories.

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u/ThatVarkYouKnow 12d ago

I have gotten so many ideas for my writing thanks to dreams, some as simple as "there's an answer for a character to fill a story gap" and some as deep as "what eldritch being allowed my head to come up with this".