WRITING BEHIND A MASK

“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”
—William S. Burroughs

What techniques can a writer use to keep the Muse engaged and supportive? I ask this question when she seems elusive.


Is there a creative advantage for a writer to "hide" behind a pseudonym? There were certainly reasons in the past, especially for a woman to use a masculine nom de plume. Or for someone who had a reason to cloak his real identity to use a pen name. But why today?

It started out as as experiment. When I wrote my first mystery I created a pen name because I hoped it would free me to discover a new style. Using the unfamiliar name felt like putting on a disguise. It lured me into another mindset, made me feel wiser, tougher, younger, different, almost like becoming one of my own characters.

Eventually I published CRIMSON ICE,  A Pocono Mountain Mystery, under my own name. But using a pseudonym during the writing helped me to move outside of my usual sphere, to take an excursion to a darker world.  I felt alive to possibilities of a dangerous existence. Taking on another persona helped me to discover a catalyst  to my creativity. WRITE ON!