I Finally Understand the Whole Ghost Writing Thing

I love independent authors. There are a great many undiscovered Kings, Bradburys, and Faulkners in the world. I'm proud to be on a first name basis with several of them.

These folks will be legends if they get about five minutes of attention from a publishing house. You can find them on Facebook hocking their wares and/or selling their books on Amazon at the obligatory $0.99 or $2.99.

Take a chance - you might become a fan.

I keep an eye on the author groups on Facebook, and I've found some real gems.

Over the weekend, I stumbled across the synopsis of a book with the associated ad copy that really caught my eye. The premise was phenomenal! A little fantasy, a little horror, a little alternate history - it was a great idea, and I rushed to Amazon to get the book.

Five pages in, I understood why there is a need for ghost writers.

Five pages... of narrative. An action scene, related in narrative. The action scene was told in a single paragraph ten lines long - a single, ten line, *sentence*. I almost wept.

The characters were flat - literally identifiable only by name. We didn't see the character's point of view, only the narrator's flat relation of events.

Now, this wasn't some opportunist who thought he would throw a few lines down on the page and see how much cash he could rake in. It was obvious he had a story he desperately wanted to tell - he just had no clue how to tell it.

This is an example of someone who needed a ghost writer: someone who could take a great idea and mix it with great writing. I think we sometimes look down on ghost writers and those with great ideas but lacking in ability. Why doesn't the ghost writer come up with his own ideas? Why can't the idea person learn to write?

I think most ghost writers do have their own ideas, but maybe those ideas are not mainstream enough to be commercially viable.

And, I do think it is possible for someone to develop their skills as a writer. However, it's sometimes a long and difficult road.

I was approached to ghost write about twenty-five years ago. The idea man was a co-worker, and he had come up with a great idea: an autistic child with a gift for puzzles cracks a government cypher, and the protagonist must protect him from evil forces in the government that either want to kill the kid to protect their secrets or use him as a weapon.

I turned it down, although I thought it was a wonderful concept. At the time, I had enough ideas rattling around in my own head. I didn't want to take on someone else's project.

I encouraged him to write it himself, but he gave up in frustration.

Several years later, I saw the idea on the big screen almost to the letter in the movie "Mercury Rising." My first thought was that my former co-worker had somehow sold the idea. Unfortunately, he hadn't - someone else had come up with the same plot line.

I've seen this several times over the years. I met a guy in a writers group who slipped into a deep depression after he had written three unpublished books in a series about a boy who goes to a magic school to become a wizard. He was just beginning to look for an agent when J. K. Rowling introduced us to Harry Potter.

Ideas are great, but execution is everything. If you have an idea for the next great American novel: write it. It's not easy, and it will take time. If you don't have the skills, take a class, join a writers group, write everyday (even if it's just meandering blog posts like this).

If that doesn't work, find a ghost writer. Just make sure they can write more than narrative and can make a character step off the page.

And, please, have both your names on the book as co-authors. Unless you're a multimillionaire who's going to pay an obscene amount of money, share the credit.

If you are a multimillionaire with a great idea and an obscene amount of money for a ghost writer, call me.