How to Use a Secret Identity

What do superheroes and writers have in common with some famous political figures? They have all had secret identities. Whether they wanted to protect their loved ones from retaliation or protect their careers, they found secret identities gave them a way to express parts of their personalities otherwise kept hidden.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Start writing or posting on a blog or bulletin board. You can pick virtually any name you want and start expressing your ideas under that alias.
2. Write a column, article or book. Having a pen name is an accepted practice in the literary world, especially if your name is difficult to say or very close to another, more famous author already using that name.
3. Give an alias when someone asks for your name for marketing purposes. If there is no worthwhile (to you, anyway) reason for the clerk asking personal information when all you want to do is buy something, have a secret identity ready for them to enter into their databases.
4. Introduce yourself to strangers with a different name. This works best when you are somewhere that you have never been before, like when you are on vacation or at a bar. Since other people rarely ask for identification when they first meet you, you have a good chance of getting away with it.
5. Get mail under another name. For example, you don't have to get magazine subscriptions under your own name. Finding out who they have sold "your" marketing information to can be either entertaining or horrifying if you use different names for each magazine.

Tips & Warnings

• Some secret identities are more useful than others. You could call yourself BlueGirl76 online, but would you really introduce yourself that way to a stranger?
• Your secret identity could be completely different from the real you, if you desire. This is especially easy online, where your secret identity could be your total opposite in age, race, gender and virtually any other characteristic you can imagine.
• Google or check a prospective pen name with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble before you use it. You want to be sure that someone looking for your book won't have to page through ten other writers using the name "Richard Lee."
• Having actual fake identity documents is not a great idea. This could be taken as evidence that you are part of a terrorist organization or involved in identity theft. A secret identity is meant to deflect attention away from the real you, not get the authorities interested in you as a potential suspect.
• Choose a pen name to suit your genre of writing. You might have the best romance novel of all time, but a pen name like "Killer McGuthry" would scare off more readers than "Rosalinda Mercer."