The story behind the pen name: "Hakawati" is the transliteration of the Arabic word for "Storyteller."

And I like the sound of "D.A."

#PenNames

Here's some #writingAdvice: Do not describe your character to the reader, reserving everything you can until needed. This especially works for first person, but it can work in third person, also—accept for those pesky gendered pronouns.

The idea here is to depict character through action and dialog rather than initial, prosaic, and often forgettable description. As a bonus, this frees up initial paragraphs of a story for a hook.

Choose a strategic point for your reveal—if you chose to reveal at all!—to challenge the reader's preconceptions and prejudices. It can be wildly effective. It can also be used to turn the MC into a mystery for the reader to solve, though I caution against using this technique heavy-handedly.

I chose RS as a pen name to make me a character for all these reasons.

(Boost if you wish to share this with others.)

#writing #writingLife #fiction #PenNames #boostingIsSharing

@vortex_egg There's a very long and substantial history of people adopting pseudonyms, nicknames, pen names, stage names, nommes de guerre, etc., for any number of reasons.

Some you're no doubt aware of, many you're quite likely not. ("Willy Brandt" was a particular surprise for me.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonym
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pen_names
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stage_names
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms_used_in_the_American_Constitutional_debates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononymous_person

#pseydonyms #pseudonymity #pseudonymous #PenNames #StageNames #NommesDeGuerre #Anonymity #Identity