May 8, 2023

"An author might know nothing about writing, which is why he hired a ghost. But he may also have the literary self-confidence of Saul Bellow..."

"... and good luck telling Saul Bellow that he absolutely may not describe an interesting bowel movement he experienced years ago, as I once had to tell an author. So fight like crazy, I say, but always remember that if push comes to shove no one will have your back. Within the text and without, no one wants to hear from the dumb ghostwriter. I try not to sound didactic. A lot of what I’ve read about ghostwriting, much of it from accomplished ghostwriters, doesn’t square with my experience. Recording the author? Terrible idea—it makes many authors feel as if they’re being deposed. Dressing like the author? It’s a memoir, not a masquerade party. The ghostwriter for Julian Assange wrote twenty-five thousand words about his methodology, and it sounded to me like Elon Musk on mushrooms—on Mars. That same ghost, however, published a review of 'Spare' describing Harry as 'off his royal tits' and me as going 'all Sartre or Faulkner,' so what do I know? Who am I to offer rules?"

It occurs to me that another reason not to record "the author" is that you don't need verbatim quotes. You are also the author, and the whole idea is to put it in your words as if those were the author's words. So not remembering the author's words is an advantage. Those inadequate words are lost, but you have notes on the stories, and then, to write the memoir, you must reconstruct the account and you will, naturally, use your own superior form of expression.

10 comments:

rhhardin said...

The Ghost Writer (2010) dealt with a Prime Minister but was less of an author than a detective.

Dave Begley said...

Does anyone know how MM and Harry met? I’m sure that it was a well-planned campaign and that she captured him with sex.

Jamie said...

Ghost writing... I have no idea how anyone does it. I mean, on the face of it, you're just picking a voice and using it, right? Just as you would with any character you constructed yourself. But THIS voice is supposed to be someone's ACTUAL voice, and presumably a lot of people will know if it rings false, since you're writing as a celebrity who has made a lot of public appearances.

To say nothing of your responsibility to frame a real life in a way that's true to the real person whose life it is. If you're writing fiction, you can decide what events are seminal in your characters' lives. If you're a ghost, the person you're writing for already knows (or thinks s/he does) what events shaped him or her, and you'd better damn well get that tone right, even if you don't believe it.

And then - what if, in the process of getting to know the person, you grow to hate, or worse, disdain, him or her? Keeping that emotion out of your characterization - I don't think I could sustain that successfully for a whole book.

I salute the unsung, uh, maybe not heroes, but craftspeople - the ghosts!

Kate said...

The ghost spent hours with Harry on Zoom and didn't hit record? It's a computer, Harry would never know.

If someone wanted me to ghost write their fabulous morning constitutional, I would definitely want to get their voice and personality distinct from my own.

Joe Smith said...

It helps if your name is Casper...

rcocean said...

Brando's ghostwriter wrote a book about the experience. He recorded Brando talking for hours, it was the only way to get the neccessary information and know what events/stories needed to be put in the book.

Brando wasn't a writer, but he fancied himself an excellent editor and he went over the ghosts prose, and demanded changes and rewrites. At least Brando was involved in the process. i think it was some sports star, maybe Barkley, who claimed he never read his own book and refused to take responsibilty for anything in it.

Ghostwritersa are OK. The biggest frauds occur when "editors" basically write the whole book and slap a well known author on it. The best example? James Bradley's "Imperial Cruise" is a piece of left-wing trash about TR and the Philippines.

mikee said...

Harry's memoir? Yes, use a ghost writer "to overcome the inadequate words of the subject."
Is there any way to just write it as fiction to overcome the inadequacy of the subject himself?

B. said...

Interesting timing for this. Meghan is conspicuous by her absence.

rehajm said...

Off his riyal tits is how I’d describe him too and I never read the book…

…of course I can’t avoid the insufferable people what did so I cannot unlearn about Harry’s frostbit bits and history if some drug use. That drug use is interesting- he must have fibbed about that to INS. Good thing for Harry they can’t read…

narciso said...

ghost writer should have just stabbed himself with his own pen, and spare us te agony,

a long departed friend, noted all the typos and other errors in bradley's previous work, flyboys,