auto-neurotic as-fiction-ation

an essay about anonymity as it relates to Substack fiction

A pretentious sentence adorns my Substack bio:

"Attempting to forgo the modern need for mimetic veracity in storytelling."

This, of course, refers to my nom de plume, 'Clancy Steadwell', chosen tongue-in-cheek via the "porn name" method explained to me in grade school: taking one's pet's name and the street they grew up on.

What do I mean by it? And why do…