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This week: Ghost Writing Edited by: fyn  
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"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
NOTICE: Due to issues resulting from Hurricane Sandy, the Writing.Com Anthology will not ship until 9 November. I do apologize, but it cannot be helped.
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
― Ernest Hemingway
"Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters."
― Neil Gaiman |
| ASIN: B07K6Z2ZBF |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 4.99
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Ghost writing is writing you do for which you receive no credit (unless you are lucky enough to get a 'written with' or somesuch.) The author gets the credit, the accolades and the (hopefully) rave reviews. You do, however, get paid to do it.
It is a bit like crawling inside the author, up into their brain and rummaging around enough so that when you come back out into the real world, you can take their ideas, their nuances and their perspectives and translate them into your writing and yet still sound like them. It is similar to acting in that you have to make their world real. You are telling their story, their way. They have the story. You have the words.
It can be a freeing experience. You, in effect, become them. It can be an interesting side trip outside yourself. It helps if you can feel their story, empathize with it and be willing to take that road-trip though their soul. It is called ghost writing for a reason...you become the ghost wafting through their ideas and you, yourself, become translucent.
There are pitfalls one needs to avoid. In putting their story into your words and maintaining the illusion that it completely came from them, one must not let their own ego surface and interject their own opinions, ideas and emotions into it. It can be difficult to separate the writer from the author.
There are varying reasons one might want someone to ghost write for them. Two main ones are lack of time and lack of skill. There is often massive amounts of research involved to either substantiate their material or to verify it. Research is often necessary to give the writer a feel for the subject. It is fine to take the author's stance on their journey through the darkest Amazon, but if you nothing about the Amazon river basin, you wont know for sure whether that 'big black and red snake' is an adder or a viper. They may not know either because all they care about is that they killed it and rescued the lost child of some unpronounceable village. Which you'd also have to research so that you know for sure that it exists, how to spell it and where it is.
One of the best parts of ghost writing is learning new things and occasionally more about said things than you ever thought you would want to know. It does come in handy when you watch Jeopardy though! One of the worst parts is that you may end up knowing the author as well as you know your best friend. This can be hard when the time comes and you have to be the strong one while explaining that people may not need to know all the gory details or that months of crying will bore anyone to tears. You have to be writer, psychologist, friend, traffic cop, editor, research whiz and have a shell that is bulletproof! |
These offerings all have something is common...
|  | The Wager. (E)
short flash fiction piece - December 2008.
#1508365 by Dan  |
| |  | Invalid Item
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#1754711 by Not Available. |
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1698860 by Not Available. |
| | Empty Vessel (E)
Will you apply the potter's message to your life today?
#1689792 by Amay  |
| | BLAVATSKY'S BUS (E)
Inspired by Carl Sagan, a personal journey that had stimulated the core of my psyche
#1676003 by DRSmith |
| | | The Red Band (13+)
"Write a short love story about cannibalistic fairies. And it needs to have a duck."
#1874985 by Kelly |
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1439486 by Not Available. |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Don't forget to support our sponsor!
| ASIN: B01IEVJVAG |
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LJPC - the tortoise says: Hi Fyn! Thanks for the great NL about what you learned on your Anthology adventure. It sounds like a lot of work, but very worthwhile. I LOVED the Rod Serling quote at the beginning. It was so true.
Jaeff | KBtW of the Free Folk  writes: Thanks for all the hard work you and the others are putting into the WdC Anthology! Sounds like it's been an amazing (and challenging) process! 
It has been an amazing journey!!!
Angus  asks: Hi Fyn. I think you hinted that there will be a future anthology, right? If so, have you any idea when? I'm still banging my head against the wall for not submitting anything to this one!
If all goes well and the powers that be allow it...I truly hope to do more!
NOTICE: Due to my being asked numerous times: There will be a hard cover version of the anthology. It will bring in a wonderful additional amount of GPs for Random Acts of Kindness!! We are only ordering a limited number of copies in hard cover. The price for the hard cover will be $30.00 dollars with a $6.95 s/h. (in the US) Outside the US; s/h is 16.95
If this is something you might be interested in, please send me an email ASAP. I will be putting a one time only print order in for the hard cover anthology on November 16th. For those of you who have asked, additional soft cover versions will be available in the future.
NOTICE: Due to issues resulting from Hurricane Sandy, the Writing.Com Anthology will not ship until 9 November. I do apologize, but it cannot be helped. |
| ASIN: B01MQP5740 |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 4.99
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For Authors: October 31, 2012 Issue [#5343]
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