A Ghost's Life by Dan DePriest

Ghostwriters have a specific function in the literary community. They combine their writing talent and experience with the inspiration and ideas of their client who hires them to write a manuscript in the client’s name.

Occasionally it is agreed that the ghostwriter will share a with-line or even a byline with the client. There is an endless supply of writer’s helps on-line but ghostwriting requires a few specialized skills to which I’ve found little attention on-line or at workshops. I decided I should share a couple of fundamentals regarding ghostwriting as a work experience.

     
A ghostwriter has one principle goal and that is to speak faithfully for his author/client. But the finished work the client wants and needs can range from substantive rewriting of their own drafts to complete original “turnkey” manuscripts based on a provided idea or theme and maybe a book title. In between those extremes in the spectrum, a ghostwriter will have clients that provide lots of rough material in the form of journals, memoirs, transcripts of speeches or sermons, or recordings out of which he is asked to create an editor-ready manuscript.

     
About once in a blue moon the material provided fills out a complete picture like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. All a ghostwriter may need to do is creatively organize the pieces and then inject good segues, illustrations, and possibly a good bit of rewriting. I could crank out a couple of those every month and retire on the coast if that’s all it involved. But my ghostwriting experience has been more challenging and unpredictable than that. I begin most projects with a fairly well established outline, but often the plan will alter course to exploit an inviting new idea or, unfortunately, to strengthen a previously unseen weakness.

     
The turnkey ghostwriting projects for which I’ve been hired sometimes required weeks of research. Not to brag but to show what can be done with the right beginning, I ghostwrote a book for a marketing company about social media that was part sociological analysis and part marketing guidebook. The finished book was subsequently used as a college marketing course text, but when I was hired I barely knew enough about social media to use Face Book.  Perceptively gathering the right material for specific readers is a major (perhaps the most critical) part of a successful turnkey ghostwriting job. Discernment about what is needed and trimming the unneeded fat, however good it may sound, takes some instinct and discipline.

     
For me the project itself isn’t the lead issue. The issue that comes first and continues to impact the flow of the project is my working relationship with the client. Sometime during the initial consultation with a client I try to establish a solid, mutual understanding of the working relationship the client and I will share. Some clients will not have the time or inclination to partner much in the creative phase. Sometimes that’s a good thing like when it’s obvious from the client’s materials that he or she will try my patience for poor grammar, clichés, and deadwood phrases. Other clients want me to work closely with them and help them chisel a work of art out of the block they’ve been sitting on for years.

Partnering, or co-writing as I like to call it, can be like playing catch in the back yard with a best friend. It isn’t always that idyllic but the more flexible, intuitive, and relational a ghostwriter is the more clients he will be able to work with successfully.

     
Another important issue is the mental discipline of the ghostwriter. I know unbelievably talented authors who nevertheless aren’t suited for the task of ghostwriting. Authors pour out their souls onto sheets of paper and, hopefully, good literature emerges that ultimately embraces readers. A great author is always mindful of the readers’ eyes. He must partner with his readers as if he is having a conversation with them in person. He writes not just to unpack his mind and satisfy his urge to write and be published. He writes imagining that his readers are there with him as he builds his text or thickens his plot. Failure to do so inevitably produces gapping holes in his text that he, unawares, has filled in his mind and left the reader behind.

     
But ghostwriting adds one complication to this dynamic. A ghostwriter must remember that he is partnering not only with the reader but also his client. He has his hands on the shoulders of two parties who, if he does his job well, will only be aware of each other and not the ghostwriter. This doesn’t mean a ghostwriter is only a proxy for his clients, merely echoing the their minds. A ghostwriter must be creative and elastic, and he must draw from his own reservoir of experience, knowledge, and feelings, where necessary, in order to fill out a project and make it a well-written work of literature.

     
However, a ghostwriter must also continually check himself as he works. He must examine his progress from a detached perspective like a second pair of eyes looking over his shoulder. He must check his impulse for going on personal tangents or taking liberties with content that more fairly represents his mind than the client’s. Creatively elongating the byline author’s reach is one thing. Adding arms and legs is another.

     
The ghostwriter’s goal must be to shine many lights on the client from different directions and in different colors than the client may have imagined alone. And though a ghostwriter may know quite well how to focus those lights, his place is aiming from behind the lights. His aim will drift if he wanders out in front of the lights to be seen. In a sense ghostwriters are the lights. Light doesn’t reveal itself. It’s what it shines on that is revealed. So ghostwriters are at their best when they practice a gift for morphing their creativity and life experience into the face of their client. They shed their own faces and become like spirit guides. Maybe that’s overcooking the ham a bit but it illustrates why they’re called ghosts.

     
Ghostwriting is a great profession that is in high demand. It begins and finishes with necessary personal skills including patience, empathy, communication, flexibility, and imagination. With the addition of writing talent, humility, and discipline the work should eventually become regular.

At least that’s the theory. Usually I’m either buried under or beating the bushes. But I do so enjoy it. Hey! I could be wrangling shopping carts!

Dan is a writer and principal at Scribe Book Company.