A Note On Pseudonyms

[redbrunja]

 nimblnymph  was commenting about sexism in language, and it got me thinking about usernames. Specifically, (and I know I have people on my flist who do this and I don't mean to be insulting, this is totally just my opinion) how much I hate it when people use some part of a character's name in their username.

You know.

Mrs_Hatake

I_heart_hakkai.

Anything with Snape or Severus.

Even more subtle references: blooming_sakura or whatever cause me to twitch.

First, I always wonder how long you are going to like that character enough that you want them to be the most visible part of how you present yourself online. Secondly, I make the assumption that you are fourteen and feel the need to wave around your fictional boyfriend or (also fairly common) your OTP like a banner. I also (despite knowing really excellent writers who do this, and often aren't writing about the character referenced in their handle) assume that your fanfic is not worth my time.

Comments

[castalyne.livejournal.com]

I kind of like references to a certain character.

It's more of an annoyance to me when an original character name is used for an online handle, particularly if they're currently using said character in something they're writing whether it is fan fiction or original fiction and submitting it online for viewing. It's hard to get over and through a story if every time the character is brought in I'm thinking about the person who is writing it. Plus, it just screams 'Self Insert'.

It's kind of funny though that you brought this up when the 'Writer's Block' question is 'How did you choose your Live Journal username? Is there an interesting story behind it?'

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the writer's block was a very nice coincidence.