Guess what, Mister Kapre? I’ve just completed my first novella! It’s still in horrible shape, riddled with plot holes and spelling/grammar errors galore. I’ll also need to fix up the first part where I’ve experimented with Point-of-View change, but still. I finished it. For the first time ever, I got to type “The End” for fiction way longer than a 7,500 short story.

But wait. There’s a catch, Mister Kapre!

I wrote it under a pen name. My first novella, and it’s “authored” by an imaginary person I invented. I can’t announce it on Facebook, I can’t promote it the way I do my other stories. All I can say is that I finished something, but I can’t tell them what. It kinda sucks, but hey, it was for my own good.

See, the novella isn’t kid-friendly. It’s for adults only, in fact. So, for the benefit of our below-18 friends, I’ve decided to just get a pen name.

Besides, I realized I found it easier to write either genre without restrictions. I could use a mature voice in this adult genre without worrying about my children’s stories. The same goes for the other way around. The pen name gave me writing freedom I haven’t had in years.

If the novella tanked, it’s okay. No one would know it was me who wrote it. But if it becomes successful, no one will know I wrote it either, except maybe for my family and close friends.

Well, can’t have it both ways. *shrugs*