When you write, people like to give you free advice based on their own ideas about what it means to be a writer. I appreciate all of the advice. I’m not going to follow most of it. One of the pieces of advice I have spent time thinking about is that I choose different pen names for different genres. The idea being that if you like my BDSM erotica you might not like my self-help books. Or if you like my fantasy you might not like my horror. I hope you like all my offerings. If you don’t however, that’s OK too. Your choice. My name is Penfist. Call me Pen. I’m going to write whatever I want. That’s why I chose to do this.
I am a writer because I need to tell stories. The stories that I want to tell. You can float me an idea and it might grab me by the teeth and pull me into itself. That’s a wonderfully terrifying experience when it happens. I encourage you to engage with me that way. Send me an epiphany so large I have to write an entire novel or tome about that idea. In the meantime, understand that one person has many facets. You do. I do. We all do. I’m trying to simplify my life be exploring them all. I can’t do that as effectively if I have to wear masks. Commercial success will happen if the work I produce resonates. Entertains. Pulls you in.
I write self-help, erotica, horror, contemporary fantasy, post-apocalyptic stories and whatever else I decide contains a story that needs to be told. That’s going to make some people dismiss me as “that guy who does whatever he wants.” I’m totally comfortable with that. I want to attract people with malleable minds not brittle ones. The point of writing this out and putting it into the world is that I hope you’ll choose the same path. Be true to your own muse. Create art. Own the results. Learn from the feedback. Keep creating. It’s your story and the characters in it belong to you. Surround yourself with others who believe in that and you’ll explode with endless inspiration. Both given and received. That’s what I believe. It’s why I won’t create a bunch of different writing personas. I want to focus on being that guy who writes whatever he wants. I’m being true to myself and I think you should consider living that way too.
Now go buy a book so I can pay the web hosting fees this month.
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