Should A Writer Be Invisible?

I think nowadays, it’s quite impossible for a writer to be invisible. Years ago it was easy to be invisible, especially for anonymous writers or writers under different names. For example, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published anonymously and the Brontë sisters wrote Jayne Eyre and Wuthering Heights under the names Ellis Bell and Currer Bell. This was mainly because females couldn't be taken seriously as writers and were discriminated. In the case of writers like Mary Shelley and the Brontë sisters, it was probably a good thing to be invisible because if they were not, their work may not have been published.

These days, it’s rare for writers to stay out of the media and public eye. It’s very easy for people to find out all sorts about their favourite authors and they will often read multiple books by the same author. J.K Rowling is a great example of this, after her huge success with the Harry Potter series, her next book The Casual Vacancy was published. Readers of the Harry Potter series would most likely have read this book without considering its contents, just because J.K Rowling wrote it.

Some writers choose to be invisible as they want their work to remain personal. Emily Dickinson felt strongly against having her work published, believing it was for her eyes only and wanted them kept out of the public. When her poems were published however, she became very well-known and successful and she carried on to be over a century after her death.

A piece of work can be very personal and something like this should not be shared with others unless the writer desires to. A piece of work can also be life changing for some writers; their work can impact the lives of their readers and they can find great fame and success. In summary, I think a writer should write for who they like whether it be themselves or others and it should be their own decision whether or not to be invisible.