What Domain Name Should I Use?
My name is super popular throughout Latin America, so vivianaacosta.com was taken long ago. I knew I wanted a .com but what domain name should I use?
How to chose a domain name when you are multicultural and multilingual?
Two years ago, I settled on my handle (in twitter and instagram at least) to be @escritoraviv. I liked it because it’s Spanglish: “escritora” meaning “writer” and “viv” being my American nickname. I liked that non-Spanish speaking people would trip over “escritora” but not be totally scared away with the anglo-friendly “viv.”
Ah but why? My name is “Viviana” not “Viv.”
So, I registered a domain at escritoraviviana.com and escritoraviv.com
But, aren’t I more than just a writer? Writing is my passion that I never wanted to turn into “work,” but my professional experience as an engineer informs my creativity. Also, I love to doodle, paint, and draw and I dream of one day making my own illustrations for a hybrid prose and graphic novel or a picture book.
So, maybe my domain name should be vivianaacostabooks or vivengineersfiction or vivwrites or vivdoodles. But those don’t feel quite right either. I had nightmares of managing multiple social media accounts dedicated to each of the facets of me which are really, just me.
I came back to what started my artistic endeavor, where I truly believe I had some power.
It’s writing.
Writing affords me greater freedom than a paintbrush on a canvas or an Apple Pencil on an iPad. Flowing the words from my mind onto virtual paper, when I find that elusive rhythm, permits an expression of myself, of which I have only found remotely comparable to playing violin in an orchestra and having practiced a particularly difficult piece to play as one voice, one body, in sync with each other and in concert with the other voices under the Conductor’s baton. But, as an amateur player with nearly thirty years of violin experience, those blissful moments were rare and only achieved after many long hours of practice.
Ah but writing? An idea can give me whimsy and I can follow it to my heart’s and creative eye’s content. Sometimes it’s glorious and springs forth an actual story! Other times, it’s a sketch that may go nowhere but the annals of my hard drive, but it is never ever wasted effort.
My ultimate goal is to communicate to the reader a real and lived experience, safely within the confines of the page I create for them.
And someday, I hope to do that fluently in English and Spanish.
Until then, Spanglish it is.
Lo que quiero contar, lo hago escrito, solito en mi cuarto, y con mucho trabajo. Es un trabajo angustioso pero sensacional. Vencer el problema de la escritura es tan emocionante y alegra tanto que vale la pena todo el trabajo.
"Gabriel García Márquez". 7 Voces, junio de 1971.
