Why a Pen Name?

Hello All.

Here I am on the NEW new blogger account. Evidently you figured out what was going on from my email. Thanks for following me here.  Today I'm talking about names, and choosing a pen name.

Pen names have advantages and drawbacks. I decided to use a pen name for the sake of privacy. My personal Facebook and Instagram accounts are set to Friends Only. I prefer to interact with my friends without worrying about unpleasant comments from strangers or creepy friend requests. But authors these days are expected to actively promote their books on social media, which of course means author accounts have to be open, so people can find them.

I wasn't completely comfortable with that, so I'm using an author pen name. It will separate my writing life from my personal life, including the social media aspects. From a business point of view the disadvantages of a pen name are minimal, for me at least. If I do manage to get a book publishing contract and adjustments have to be made, I'll deal with it at the time.

Back to names! Most of my life I've been fascinated by names, their meanings and history, how they look on the page, how they sound. To me, the look and sound of a name carries emotion, meaning, and an additional layer showing a person's character. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean, but it's similar to synesthesia, in a way. 

In my youth, before the internet, I discovered name dictionaries and baby name books in the library. Some long-time favorites are "New Age Baby Name Book" by Sue Browder; "Character Naming Sourcebook" by Kenyon, Blythe & Sweet; and "What Shall We Name the Baby" by Winthrop Ames. From those I learned the origins and meanings of common names, which incidentally became an entry point for learning their root words in Latin, Greek, German, or whatever language.

I love choosing names for characters in my stories. I want the name to feel *just right*. Sometimes I'd choose a name with symbolic meaning, and sometimes I'd just make up a name that sounded cool and looked good on the page (Eventually I learned those "cool and exotic" names were hard for people to pronounce. I'm trying to do better now. :-)

But having a chance to choose another name for myself? Pretty much irresistible! 

It took me a few months to figure out a pen name. I started with online name dictionaries, including The Name Generator, https://www.behindthename.com/random/) and https://babynames.com/. I also found blogs and interviews where writers discussed the do's and don't's of choosing a pen name, and how they chose one.

Some things I learned;

• Choose something with a personal meaning or connection to you. You could be tied to that pen name for a long time. It needs to be something you'll still love years from now.
• Check the nickname and initials of the name for rude or embarrassing meanings.
• Do a search on the name. Partly to make sure it's not already being used by a published author or media personality. And partly to see how common it is. You want to stand out from the crowd.
• Make a short list and live with each name for a while. After a few days it might become irritating or sound stupid. You can cross it off the list and try the next one.

When I had a list of five possibles, I pretended each name was mine for a few days. That helped me narrow down to a first and last name I liked most, Rowan Swynford.

Swinford is one of my ancestral family lines. One of the oldest Swinford ancestors is Payn de Roet, father of Katherine de Roet Swynford who married John of Gaunt. It's unlikely my line of Swinfords in America are directly related to de Roet's line, but the history is interesting.

Unfortunately, an online search for Rowan found it was a very common name for authors. Not ideal. Then I thought of that ancestor, but I mis-remembered the spelling as "Roen". When I looked him up again I saw I'd got the spelling wrong. But by that point I was so attached to Roen I decided to use it anyway. Even with the quirky spelling, both names have a personal connection to me, and are unusual enough that I haven't found anyone else using them.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment.

First Post!

Well, I’m taking the plunge. This is the first post on my new author website, RoenSwynford.com. For now it’s going to remain invitation only. Many many thank-you’s for accepting my invite. I appreciate your support.

If we’ve talked at all this year, I probably mentioned I’m writing a novel, high fantasy. It’s something I’ve wanted to do all my life, but never really had time. Yes, many people work full-time and write books. I wish I was like that, but after 60+ years I feel pretty confident saying I’m not. My day job required sooo much narrative writing, I didn’t have the mental energy to write for myself after work. But with retirement I have the freedom and time to do it, so I decided to go for it! When both my parents died 10 months ago, it made me realize my own time is running out. And if I don’t take my writing seriously, I can’t expect other people to.

I’ve been learning as much as I can, reading books on writing craft and attending online writing conferences. One thing I’ve learned is how much publishing has changed in the last five to ten years! Self-publishing through Amazon and other services is much more common, with less stigma attached. With increased competition, traditional publishing houses have cut staff and funding. The best way to get trad published is still to become ‘agented’. But even if you sign with one, many agents want new authors to have a following. Or at least a list of email contacts for their newsletter. 

That seems so weird and backwards to me. Probably to you too. What the heck am I going to say, and how do I accumulate followers when I haven’t finished a book yet!?? And why would I spend precious writing hours on blogging and social media? I’d rather be writing!

But publishing is a business. A debut author with a following has a group of potential readers who will (hopefully) buy the book, making the author a better financial risk. 

It’s also highly recommended for writers to have a presence on social media platforms, but there are varying opinions on how effective that is. And lots of writers, like me, are not comfortable on some of those big platforms. And the content on social media websites belongs to those big companies.

The platform I am comfortable with is my own website. There’s been talk recently about a resurgence of online blogging. Neil Gaiman, for one (https://calnewport.com/neil-gaimans-radical-vision-for-the-future-of-the-internet/). You have control on your website. You create the content, you “own” the space, you decide who comments and who sees your work.  I will be cross-posting on Facebook and my Bookstagram account (those accounts are still in development). The important things will be here, on this site.

As far as the book itself, the plot is sketched out to the end, characters are outlined, world map is drawn, and world building has progressed far enough to start, although it continues as I write. I’m using four or five character POVs. I’ve written about 20k words so far, all the opening events. Next is the middle, where all the important action happens. My intention is to finish a first draft by mid 2024. That seems really far away now, but it’s not!

Finished fantasy novels average around 80-90k. I expect my first draft to go well over that. But then there’s the editing. Lots and lots of editing, polishing, re-organizing, etc. I plan to submit to agents, eventually, but that’s another long process. We’ll see how it goes.

 I appreciate that we’re all busier these days, and there’s so many people asking for your clicks, likes, views and retweets. So I’m keeping this first post fairly short. After all, as I may have mentioned, I’m writing a novel!  And the thing about writing is - you have to spend time writing! :-) My plan for this website is to post at least once a month, to begin with. In my next post I’ll talk a bit more about the book itself.

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