Thursday, October 09, 2008

To blog anonymously or not to blog anonymously

As a follow up to my very first post (at this blog), I am finding that I am having a very difficult time deciding whether I should blog anonymously or not.

On the one hand, by blogging anonymously, I have a little more freedom to discuss things going on in my life.

On the other hand, I already did the blogging anonymously thing and it turned right around and bit a huge chunk out of my ass.

On the one hand, I feel that when writing, you should write what you know and you shouldn't edit yourself to only include the happy, not-going-to-offend-anyone bits.

On the other hand, some people in my very own family will only accept that truth if you are 'in-fact' a writer...something that apparently can ONLY be defined by having a degree in literature, a previous history of the desire to write (which, incidentally, should NOT include any failed English classes no matter how much better you would have been in school had someone only recognised and treated the signs of ADHD in a way other than closing you up in a box in front of your entire fourth grade class so that you didn't daydream away from your assignment), published the great American novel to great acclaim and a weekly showing on the NY Times best seller list.

If I blog anonymously and say what I want to say and then someday get found, I could end up hurting others, including myself, all over again.

If I don't blog anonymously, I might feel censored and the whole point of starting this all up again was to be able to write.

I am at an impasse. I don't know what to do.

What would you do?

PS - while you are mulling over the answer to that question, can you also give up a suggestion for what I should be calling myself over here until I DO make a decision? Because, well, MZPuzzled is...uh... ...lame. Thanks.

6 comments:

  1. I like like most things, it's a balance. For the most part though I'm all for saying what you need to say and putting it out there. For the really touchy things, I write them, but just never hit publish.

    Names are hard! I'll have a think on it.

    By the way I had a "girl" moment tonight....stop by my blog and have a read if you need a good laugh.

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  2. I have a good friend from my junior year abroad who writes a fabulous blog and just has faux names for everyone. That way, those of us who know her know what she's talking about (her husband, who plays guitar, is The Rock Star on her blog, her daughter is Prawn).

    Seems like a good happy place - by using the names we know the "characters." I used this on my "other" baby blog so that BigScaryHMO can't come after me.
    ;-)

    As I say in my "About Me" section, I change the names to protect the innocent from the litigious.

    K.

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  3. Yeah, I hear what you're sayin', Kara. The problem is, on my former blog, I never used a real name. Ever. Not for people, not for my company not for me, not anything. And I still got fired.

    Maybe my husband is right. Maybe blogging is evil and should be avoided at all costs.

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  4. hahaha... my husband thinks blogging is evil too, but oh well. that's why we're different people.
    I'm not a very censored person to begin with, so I use my name, however I don't use my husband's or son's. If someone tried, I guess they could pinpoint exactly who and where i am, but I'm over it at this point.
    I blogged anonymously before, and my someone in my huge irish family stumbled across the blog, tied me to it somehow, and told everyone else. They did so with good intentions, apparently not realizing that my one or two secret, honestly-angry posts regarding family might rile some members of my clan. Bad news. I deleted some posts as soon as I found out, but not quite soon enough.
    now i'm not anonymous, but i have a filter. i'm honest, but i try not to be brutally so.

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  5. and the name! i would go with something redonkulous. Sasquatch. Bologna. my fantasy football team is Snake 'n' Bacon. :)

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  6. I vote anonymous. I think it would be really liberating.

    For your nom de plume, what about something related to the east coast...?

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