Hi, Brendan. Did you ever think of calling yourself Brenda? I wrote a 5MP in which there was a “Brendan/who now identifies as Brenda” but I held it back because it was more ‘discursive’, you might say, than my usual style. I’ve used 3 fake identities so far on OTP. I regret every single thing that’s ever been published under my real name. And I’ve been published here and there under the names of relatives and friends. I have a friend who tried to impress a girl by claiming he’d really written one of my stories because I’d used his name. He probably still does that. I like to name characters after him now and then. Good luck with your new writing identity (-ies). (Of course, commercially, sticking to one name makes the Brendan Brand recognisable. But I doubt anyone is hoping to get rich off OTP.)
So much introspection, self-criticism, and “personal audits” in today pages! Is there something about typing that brings about such confessionals, or is it the fact that this page becomes a sort of meta community in which our personal reputations and each others’ feelings rise to the top of our considerations before posting while elsewhere on the web it’s the anarchic wild west?
In all seriousness, the very process of typewriting encourages introspection, insofar as the content is more permanent from the moment of its creation. Typewriters (meaning people, not machines) seem to be more willing to expand on a thought, explain a motivation, or provide the underlying bases of an opinion.
The “Wild West” of the web/blogosphere generally seems content with pithy observations and crass insults — not entirely due to the mode of creation, but certainly a factor?
One Typed Page 
Hi, Brendan. Did you ever think of calling yourself Brenda? I wrote a 5MP in which there was a “Brendan/who now identifies as Brenda” but I held it back because it was more ‘discursive’, you might say, than my usual style. I’ve used 3 fake identities so far on OTP. I regret every single thing that’s ever been published under my real name. And I’ve been published here and there under the names of relatives and friends. I have a friend who tried to impress a girl by claiming he’d really written one of my stories because I’d used his name. He probably still does that. I like to name characters after him now and then. Good luck with your new writing identity (-ies). (Of course, commercially, sticking to one name makes the Brendan Brand recognisable. But I doubt anyone is hoping to get rich off OTP.)
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“I regret every single thing that’s ever been published under my real name.”
Leo — you just wrote the epigram for my tombstone!
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I blew my pseudonym by posting my real name and address recently. I am a chucklehead. Maybe no one noticed.
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So much introspection, self-criticism, and “personal audits” in today pages! Is there something about typing that brings about such confessionals, or is it the fact that this page becomes a sort of meta community in which our personal reputations and each others’ feelings rise to the top of our considerations before posting while elsewhere on the web it’s the anarchic wild west?
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In all seriousness, the very process of typewriting encourages introspection, insofar as the content is more permanent from the moment of its creation. Typewriters (meaning people, not machines) seem to be more willing to expand on a thought, explain a motivation, or provide the underlying bases of an opinion.
The “Wild West” of the web/blogosphere generally seems content with pithy observations and crass insults — not entirely due to the mode of creation, but certainly a factor?
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Dato, Yes, your full name was noticed.
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Yikes!!!
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