Ghostwriting is the art of taking someone else’s story and
writing it up so that it reads like they are talking and engaging with the
reader. And though it may seem most often that a ghostwritten book is nonfiction,
as in a business book detailing a CEO’s inspirational way of taking a company
from zero to fortune 500, or a biography of someone who has had a fascinatingly
unique life, would it surprise you to learn there are also a fair number of
fiction books that have been written with the help of a ghostwriter?
Much of my current day job requires me to ghostwrite articles
for others, often on technical solutions to real-world problems industries face.
I always learn something new and get to indulge my inner geek as I do extra
research into the theories and the history of the technologies I write about.
Recently, it got me thinking about the nature of ghostwriting
and why I enjoy it.
11. I love hearing other people’s stories
I’ve written about this in the past.
For some reason people want to tell me their stories. Their experiences, their
secrets, their hopes and dreams they don’t normally tell others, they are
comfortable telling me. For me, it highlights that interconnectedness of us all
because I see so many similarities in the histories of individual people as
well as their dreams for the future, no matter where on my travels I find these
stories. Such as the time I took a train from Northern Italy to Strasbourg,
France, and I shared a compartment with an elderly Italian gentleman who was
traveling outside of Italy for the first time in his life to visit his banker son
in England. They were going to see a soccer match, he told me with great
enthusiasm. Though my Italian was very limited and his English was almost non-existent,
we spent hours talking. He showed me pictures of his family and using simple
words we were able to share stories.
22. I get to share those stories with others
By writing the stories I collect into
fiction or articles or a non-fiction book, I get to share what I’ve learned with
others. It may sound a tad simple and maybe sentimental even, but sharing
stories is in our DNA. And so many of these stories resonate with readers. Not
just the biographies of war survivors, or people who’ve overcome tremendous
odds to succeed, though those matter, don’t misunderstand, but I’m talking
about the smaller stories of every day heroics or struggles. The, at the same
time, unique yet ordinary lives. Or a simple technology solution for an
industry that ordinarily wouldn’t consider using that.
33. I get paid to write
That might seem trivial, but I assure you it
isn’t. Getting paid for doing something I love validates the work I do and
encourages me to do more. It encourages me to continue to hone my craft, but
also allows me to share my skills and help others grow as they pursue their
dreams of writing. Whether it’s guiding an intern to write blogs, or helping a
new writer figure out how best to structure his book on architecture, guiding a
coworker on the most impactful way to arrange information for a presentation,
or writing a speech for a CEO using his notes and ideas.
The one thing I’m less fond of in ghostwriting is that
sometimes you don’t get to tell the story that would appeal to readers; the one
you really want to tell. Like the time a wily octogenarian hired me to write “a
book, no a screenplay, no maybe it should be a book, oh let’s make it a screenplay
it’ll be a thrill for the kids and grandkids to see my name in lights.”
His story idea was decent enough, if a bit old Hollywood of the
Cary Grant – Rosalind Russell era, but he tried to stuff it with too many
subplots that he insisted should be in there because he was paying for me to
put them in there and he felt Hollywood had gotten away from good stories. It
was a losing battle. All the while, though, he was also telling me about his
life which would have made for a real page-turner … I tried very hard to
convince him to let me write that story, but he refused. He didn’t want his
kids to know all that about him. So, I filed it under “secrets”. Between you
and me, it would have saved his kids hours of therapy had they known, but sometimes
you just have to let it be. Chalk it up to learning.
