A rather silly question (Using real name for fiction? Moved: Novels to Roundtable)

to the cooler, MaybeThisTime!

I'm using my name because I want to own my writing. And because I published a little story before ever really thinking about it
I know people who use pseudonyms because they need their writing life and their other professional life not to intersect. Writers may use different names when writing in different genres (cf Kim Harrison, writing as Dawn Cook when it's YA).

Also, yeah, this is probably in the wrong place, since it's not just for novel writers, after all. I'm moving it to the Roundtable.

I use my real name, but there are times I do feel like a target. But then other times, most of the time, it's really exciting to see it out there. So I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

I've been doing non-ficiton, PR, marketing, etc. for 20 years. I'm using my real name for fiction. As for the "letting every casual acquaintance read my diary"-- I'm over it. I used to care but now I don't. I'm looking forward to exposing deeper issues, thoughts, feelings, etc. Catharsis I think.

I write under a pseudonym. It's not about protecting my "real self" -- the pseudonym is fairly transparent -- but more about the fact that I hope to write in more than one genre someday, which meant I'd be using a psued eventually, so why should some of my books have my real name and others not? Besides, I found the idea of a pen name fun.

Every once in a while this can be awkward (people saying, do I call you Claudia or Amy?), but by and large it hasn't been a problem. Also, I find it useful on a psychological level: When I read either heady praise or nasty criticism, I always know they aren't talking about me. They're talking about my work as Claudia Gray, and it is very much a good thing to be able to tell the difference. I don't know if using a pseud would work like this for everyone, but it does for me.