Hind sight truly is 20/20

Seriously. As I embark on my journey into the desolate lifestyle of a writer, many questions come to mind. Like, how will I represent myself as a 'real' writer? What should my pen name be or should I even use a pen name? Have I behaved myself online enough to not need to disassociate from my real name?

All valid questions that every writer (should) probably ask themselves. And the way you answer that last one may have an impact of how you must answer the first ones. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. But I have to tell you, in the age of the internet you cannot hide anything. If you have a FaceBook profile that you post to, everything is privy. Remember to think before you strike those keys to post overtly revealing information about yourself. Later on down the line when you've worked extremely hard to make your place in the writing world, anyone can find a plethora of info about you in about 2 minutes of searching the web.

As I Googled myself I panicked, the way you do when you think you may have painted yourself into a corner. My mind raced to remember every covert slam or registration to a weird-o website (I am a Trekker/lover of Goth and Occult/Nerd after all). The more I ran down that mental check list, the more I wondered if I'd forgotten something really embarrassing that had the potential to crop up and bite me later. After my little bout of paranoia induced searching, I realized that I worried for nothing. I mean, if the worst I've ever done is created a dating profile on Trek Passions or Googled magic rain chants I should be fine.

Building a reputation as a dignified and prosperous writer seems potentially like a house of cards. You just don't think about stuff like that at midnight when your web searches turn towards an obscure subject of interest. But you should. Thankfully my interests seem to be blissfully benign. In the world of information in an instant I have remained stalwartly uninteresting. Which is a lucky turn since I see now that it is really important, and a lot of hard work to boot, to build a name for yourself as a serious writer. Not something you want to jeopardize just because you're bored online one day.