Does your name, or the name you choose to use, influence the way you speak, behave or even post on the internet? I've started to wonder about this in the last week or so.

Those who know me are familiar with the WYSIWYG person that I am. (Or think I am). I always use my real name for writing and when I use a screen name on the net it's always Verse Artiste, because that's who I am. Or is it? I've done a little research.

It started off as a joke. I was a bit down in the doldrums and there was football on TV, so I escaped to one of my online haunts, a place where I am known by a lot of characters. This time was different though, because I went incognito and intent on having fun. The liberation of being unknown was great and I found that I was rapidly able to do and say things I would never do and say as 'me'. I made a couple of new friends, experimented with my photostudio skills as I played around with my avatar image and finally found myself writing stuff I didn't know I could write, I have a new story in a genre I've never written before and some new poetry. I'd never have written that particular story in my own ID. Is this why writers often use a pseudonym, to divorce the writer from the real person? Is it so a former convent girl can hide behind a mask and write something 'adult'?

I'm hanging onto the disguise, I can get a lot of mileage out of it which will help my writing. It's also useful because the lads I teach know that I write, and there's some stuff you don't want showing up on a Google search. 

I owe special thanks to two people I can't name here at the moment, who now share the secret of my alter-ego and who helped me learn so much. 
You know who you are - I love you guys! 


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