Readers have expectations. When they crack open a book by an author they love, they don’t want to be blindsided by a sudden change in writing style.
When they pick up one of the five journey memoirs written by Jane Christmas, they know what to expect. I didn’t want to betray that trust when I started writing novels. I didn’t want someone opening a new book by Jane Christmas and thinking, ‘Hey, wait a minute. What’s this?’ A change was necessary.
So, meet Elizabeth Braithwaite.
Elizabeth is the pseudonym I chose when I slid from the memoir lane into the fiction lane about 10 years ago. It’s been a dream of mine to write a novel, but it was difficult to do under the name that is associated with my memoir writing. I kept slipping into my non-fiction style.
The alias isn’t much of a stretch for me to be honest: Both names are part of my real name. I’m not hiding behind a pseudonym: I’m being completely upfront about who I am. I’m simply exercising another part of my personality.
As Elizabeth Braithwaite, I approached desk and work with a more scholarly nature. Elizabeth is more methodical and trepidatious; perhaps a bit less sure of herself. She’s a bit of a misfit, but not a map-cap one. Jane Christmas, on the other hand, tends to be cheeky and free-wheeling; the sort who blunders in without giving things much thought. I’m both those personalities, but I needed to lean into one more heavily than the other in order to get into the heads and hearts of my characters and let them speak through me, through the filter of Elizabeth Braithwaite. That’s not to say there’s a bit of cheekiness and irreverence in A Flight of Saints, but it’s coming from my characters this time, not from me.
Other reasons?
I kind of liked the idea of taking on a new persona; who wouldn’t? It frees you from your own expectations as well as those of others. Conversely, if my writing doesn’t live up to literary standards, I can always blame Elizabeth! In a way, a pseudonym offers a shield for debut-novel nerves.
I could have gone to the trouble of really going to town with my alter ego, of fabricating a new Instagram identity, and sending out teasing emails, but personally I haven’t the time or the patience for being toyed with, and my sense is that my readers don’t, either.
I don’t want my novel to be judged through the lens of my previous work. As I said, being Elizabeth Braithwaite isn’t an attempt at subterfuge or trickery, but a genuine desire to be free from expectation and have new writing judged afresh.
