Trying to decide whether or not I want to use a pseudonym to publish original fiction
I've been getting back into writing a lot with this blog, and that's lead to more creative writing, too.
Besides writing more poetry than I have since high school, I've felt the urge to break into some original fiction. Most of my life I've written fanfiction, which I take quite seriously and I'm incredibly dedicated to it, but there's something to be said about a creation that is totally yours. Most of my fanfiction is slice-of-life type stuff. I'll be lifting a lot of the themes and motifs I use in my fanfic and importing them into my own content, whilst taking advantage of the liberties that original characters and universes provide.
One of the goals that I have for my original fiction is to write good representation of binary trans men. Trans men. Not trans "people", which is what a lot of people say when they just mean trans women. Not trans mascs in the sense of effeminate, young trans boys who are just starting out on T and oddly sexualized, or masculine-aligned nonbinary folks. I mean trans men. I can't remember the last time I saw good representation of binary, transitioned trans men, and I'm tired of waiting around for it.
But I'll step off my soap box and digress.
Point is: my original fiction will be very personal to me, and it will cover a lot of the topics that are important to me, ones that I talk about here on my blog. It would be difficult to hide the fact that I'm writing stories that cover the same topics.
On the other hand, writing openly trans fiction will probably catch me a lot of flak. Not to mention that I would want to incorporate elements of sensuality and erotica in my stories—ranging from vanilla fluff to kinky smut. I'd want to keep a pretense of privacy around my works to feel comfortable in publishing sensitive content.
I'm really, really torn. I've been mulling this over for quite some time and I can't seem to come to any sort of conclusion.
My wife suggested that I go ahead with the pseudonym, but maybe I could still advertise my works on whichever personal sites/social media profiles I have. It'd be just enough to keep my private life/real name separate from my work, but also let people see what I write if they so choose, and actively seek out that content.
I'd appreciate hearing from other writers on this, or anyone else for that matter. You can email me at xavier@xavierhm.blog if you have any thoughts or advice. Thanks in advance for reading/replying!