Writing the Book: Excerpt From My Book: A Friendly Guide to Writing and Ghostwriting

Collaboration, it turns out, is not a gift from the gods but a skill that requires effort and practice.

- - - Douglas B. Reeves

I’ve done my research, gathered my material, conducted interviews and transcribed the tapes. I’m ready to face the blank page. To start writing. At this point, I have a clear desk and computer screen, free from all extraneous papers or files besides what I’m about to use. Pages of hard copy tape transcriptions organized by topic and color codes sit in a pile to the right of my computer. The room is silent, my attention is focused, and if I’m lucky, my cat is sitting on my lap, snoozing and keeping an eye on me.

The basics of all kinds of book writing are pretty much the same: You tame your inner critic, organize your thoughts, engage your hard earned stamina, and encourage the muse to grace you with a visit. Whether she does or doesn’t, you still need to write, When you’re writing for yourself, you have the freedom to work at your own pace and to skip around as much as you want. When you ghostwrite for someone else, there are some different and necessary guidelines to follow, especially when a deal is already in place. You have to think on your feet while you’re sitting down as you evaluate how much to write each day so you can meet your deadline which often is a sprint to the finish.

Ghostwriting is all about setting your voice aside and writing in your client’s voice which you studied and established during the interview and transcription phase. Whether it’s a memoir or a self-help book, it’s part art, part business, as you are solidly bound by unswerving facts, timelines and a working Table of Contents.

Besides the payment structure and page count, your contract stipulates firm submission dates and deadlines, and you need to abide by them so the marketing and sales schedules run smoothly. The publisher’s upcoming lists of new books and pub dates are announced in time to go out for review in Publisher’s Weekly, a popular Trade News magazine, as well as a variety of other book distributors that announce the upcoming launch. If the book is promised on a certain date and it doesn't show up, the credibility of the publishing house and the writer (this is you) are compromised.

For me, the trickiest part is working with the publisher. I once got hired to ghostwrite a book for a woman whose son had OD’d three years prior and she was finally finding some peace. She wanted to share her difficult story in a hopeful way, describing her tragedy, her grief, and her healing in as much detail as possible. I liked the way we started it. So did she. But in an effort to fill an opening in their upcoming roster of new books, the publisher directed us to frame the book about illnesses and cures. His vision clashed with that of my client but I had no say in the matter. This was hardly the first time I had to rise above my frustration and do someone else’s bidding that I thought was skewed. When this happens, I think of myself as a work for hire and focus on the paycheck to stay calm and collected. I don’t like working solely for money, but sometimes that’s all you get.

The rules of ghostwriting in general aren’t all bad. It’s nice to have the heft and marketing capabilities of a giant publishing house behind you and it’s comforting to work within well established boundaries. It takes out the guesswork of where to go next and how fast or slow to travel. For example, if it’s a self-help book with lessons and exercises, one chapter will automatically build on the previous one. That’s a no brainer. The challenge is to find a way to make it interesting and bring it to a satisfying ending. I like to use personal stories or case histories to humanize this kind of book so the reader will find a connection with the subject and keep on reading.

If it’s a memoir, the story follows the natural trajectory of someone’s life. In this case, the most important decision you have to make is whether you want to write chronologically, from childhood to the present moment or if you’d rather begin in the middle somewhere and use flashbacks to guide the reader from the past to the present? I find that starting a memoir from someone’s childhood with lists of uncles or cousins is boring. It feels like a lot of superfluous information that means nothing to the reader. In order to combat this, I sometimes start with a short introductory chapter that describes a stunning moment that changed the client’s life forever. Once the reader’s interest is piqued, then I go backwards to reveal how they got to that point.

As I work, I drop into a familiar rhythm. I write a chapter, I send it to the client, I get back the edits, include them in the text (if they make sense) and send the chapter back for approval once again. After I get the nod on my initial pages, then I might send a few chapters at a time. I make this decision according to the deadline. If it’s a tight one, when I submit a chapter, I start working on the next one. After the client sends it back to me with edits and considerations, I have the next chapter ready to go through the same process. It's like a production line in a factory that keeps moving and you have to keep up with it.

Some writers like to get several chapters under their belts before they show any of them to the client, but in my opinion, that’s risky. If you write a few chapters and he or she isn't happy, you’ll have wasted precious time as you have to chuck all of them and start over. Redoing one chapter is not so daunting. The challenge here is to stay within the prescribed boundaries, the agreed upon timelines, and still make it sound beautiful. It’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together with a timer. You turn the hourglass upside down and keep the big picture in mind as you fit each piece into the whole while the sand drops. When there’s no more sand left, you send it out for review. If the client is not satisfied with what you’ve done, you can explain your thinking about it, but don’t argue. That’s called “being a professional.” You have to be like Teflon and get back to work until the client gives it the okay.

When you get to the last chapter and the closing line, remember that the book is over when there’s nothing left to say. A self help book will usually end with encouragement from the writer and a description of how much better someone might feel when they have put the suggested lessons into practice. A memoir will end with the client in the present moment and what it took to get there.

During the course of the writing, there will be times when you feel inspired and filled with ideas. There will also be times when you feel exhausted and uninspired. These states of mind will come and go so don't expect them to be permanent. Not the bad ones or the good ones. Everything changes, you do, too, so I suggest you do your best to remain neutral, allow your personal feelings to float in the ethers, and keep on writing. Always