Author: Jennifer P. Harris

Keeping Lives Separate

Websites are amazing! One of the coolest things about having a pen name, or any type of on-line presence, is that you can build that presence to your liking! You can allow your alter ego/literary persona ‘space’ if you will, to be independent of you.

That seems kind of Frankenstein-Mary Shelley, but there is a peace for this. Especially, if there is a day job that you don’t want conflicting with this. Moreover, if you are writing about something that you don’t want family, friends or neighbors to know about. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to separate those lives. It seems crazy, but is necessary in some cases! And in some circumstances, kink-shaming is still real. Certain sexual situations or real-life retelling, are too much for people!

Having a specific place, a virtual house of sorts, to put everything allows there to be one less thing to worry about. The time and energy used to stress out about being seen, can be used to create. You are a writer, an artist, and you need that energy to put towards other things!

What I want you to know my dear writers, storytellers, oracles and dreamers, is that you should never feel bad for this. You should never feel bad, or be guilted for making space that you believe that you need. This is one of the reasons why free domains exist. Make your space. Create your worlds. Let the people in your head out. Stretch out in your talent, and enjoy the ride.

Besides, you are the captain of this ship. You have the power to create and destroy as you see fit. In choosing to have such a level of artistic autonomy, you invite your potential audience to like two genres without ever asking them to do so. You invite your readers and audiences to enjoy, to devour and keep coming back for anything that they like of your work. Even if it is in two forms. When the time is right, you can integrate those creative selves–and even then that is if you want to!

Have fun with it! Lead them towards Red rooms or Yellow Brick Roads…it’s all up to you.

Egos & And Alter Egos

I got mad at Janelle once. Like, I was honestly upset! Why you ask? Her pieces on the other blog I run were getting way more traffic than anything else I had put up on the same damn blog! I was so upset. I thought for a while to just stop writing as Janelle.

There was good friend of mine that had to remind me that this person (1) doesn’t exist and (2) wasn’t the point of writing as Janelle to experiment? To grow and explore? Being mad at a portion of me, that I created purely for exploration–and people like it!—why am I upset?

I really had no answer.

The only answer that I had was I wanted more people to look at the work that I was doing. I wanted to be seen, versus Janelle just being seen. It was a weird, pseudojealousy. And once I identified it, I couldn’t unsee it. I couldn’t help but try to reconcile it! And that took a while. The process of that reconcilation, once complete, was hard.

I created an entity, a voice to give voice to other ideas that roll around my head. Things and topics that I want to look closely at, while not admitting my head is even in that direction. In writing, in writing with an alter ego, that reconciliation must occur.

When those worlds collide, you will have to reconcile these writing realities! There may be a portion of jealousy that rises, but those accolades, posts and retweets are still for you. It is still your work. Those thoughts people gush over, are still yours! You need not be jealous…of you.

Your only competition is in a mirror. No more, no less.

Encouragement Pages-07/22/2019: Get It Off Your Head

There is a boldness that comes when you begin to write. It comes from a place of honesty, pain, imagination or escape.

Never think a word that you have put down was there by mistake. The first thing any writer has to do is get the idea off their head.

Get it off your head.

If you have an idea, don’t let it flutter. Don’t let it roll around with no end.

Be bold, dear scribe. Be bold.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages: 07/19/2019

The process of writing, of creating a work is a unique torture. You are taking something out of yourself to give to someone else. Whom may choose to or not to read your work. But take heart, dearest ones. It is not impossible.

It is not without struggle or reward. But what I want you to remember is the struggle is not in vain. Even the Bible, the Quran or the Torah was written one word at a time.

Get to it.

WIth Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages: 07/17/2019

Today, just today, work on what you love.

Today just today, work on the thing that scares you.

Today, just today, work on the work that you said you would get back to.

Today, just today, I want you to prioritize your writing.

Can you do that? Will you do that?

If you can do that for just one day, you will be amazed how quickly your life will change.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Hiding In Plain Sight

Writing as someone else is fun! I won’t lie to you (I love writing as my alter ego, Janelle!). You get to see your work in two forms: inception and reception. You get to step outside your comfort zone.

You get to explore, experiment and watch the reactions of the unsuspecting.

The gift of pen names is being able to–in the theory of imagination–is to be in two places at once. Which is intoxicating!

The one thing that I have to emphasize is that you don’t have to disclose who you write as. That’s one of those secrets that only you or your publisher need to know. But, it is a unique way to expand what you want to write, and even the persona you want to write as!

I want you to again consider hiding in plain sight. I want you to consider what it would mean for your to really explore all that your talent has to offer the world. How it will impact everything else you desire to create?

Don’t cut yourself off at the knees, beloved. Sometimes the best thing way to tell the truth, is behind a lie. Or in a voice stronger, or softer than your own.

Encouragement Pages-07/15/2019

“Take the naps.”

My adopted brother told me this, and it was a revelation! With writing, you can only think the same. This is why.

Writing, the dirty little secret about it, is hard. Good writing is harder still. Good writing keeps people engaged, guessing and mad they have to go to sleep and can’t read all night. Good writing sometimes takes you to dark places, and coming back from those places requires rest. It requires resilience. And tenacity.

Take the writer naps. They help.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris