Anyone who ghostwrites memoirs understands how involved the process is and the need to ask questions. There has to be between six months and a year’s worth of communication between the ghostwriter and the client. The ghostwriter can’t write the story without the client’s input because the ghostwriter doesn’t know the story. The client, in turn, must make the time to tell the story to the ghostwriter so the ghostwriter can tell it in the most compelling way possible.
That communication begins with a list of questions every ghostwriter in Chicago must ask every would-be client. We all have our own list; some questions will be more universal than others, but we have this list to give us an idea of whether this memoir—and this prospect—would be worth investing at least a year of our time.
Here is the first part of my list.
1. Why do you want to tell this story? Many ghostwriters start with What is the story? I don’t because I need to evaluate the person’s passion. I listen to how they answer the question as much as the words they say. Their tone of voice can inform just how serious they are about wanting to get their memoir out of their head and onto the page.
2. Who is the audience? I still don’t ask the question What is the story? because I want to get a sense of whether the person has thought about who they’re trying to reach. I don’t want someone to tell me, “everybody” because there isn’t a single book that everybody reads (I would argue the Bible comes closest, but are you talking about Old Testament, New Testament, Quran, Tripiṭaka/Tipiṭaka/Great Storage of Scriptures, Bhagavad Gita, or Tao Te Ching/Zhuangzi?).
It might seem counterintuitive, but the more narrow the prospect can define the audience, the better. Usually, a memoir has a specific audience: people who have married psychopaths, people who have been victims of police brutality, people who have been accused of some heinous crime that they did not commit, etc. The ghostwriter has to help the prospect narrow it down.
3. What is the story in two sentences or less? Now I get to the nuts and bolts. However, I have found that if I pose the question What is the story? I get a long-winded, convoluted answer that goes off in various tangents and might be hard to follow, so I’ve added the second part. Sometimes, I say, “Pretend I’m a publisher or a Hollywood studio head. Wow me in two sentences of less.”
4. What does success look like? If needed, I’ll elaborate on the question: “The project is complete and the manuscript is in your hand. What do you feel like, and what comes next?” Here, I’m looking for the prospect’s expectations and how realistic they are.
Some have told me, “I want to get it published and it becomes a bestseller and gets made into a movie.” That is about as unrealistic as it gets, and I might have to break it to them that the odds are similar to winning an Oscar or playing in the major leagues. “You might be the exception that proves the rule,” I tell them, “but you need to know the odds are one in a million. That’s not meant to discourage you. You just need to know the truth.”
Others have said, “I want to leave this as a legacy for my family.” This is about as realistic as possible. The prospect only wants to tell the story for certain people and isn’t interested in publishing to reach a wide audience.
A more common response to the question I get is, “I want to get it published, and I want it to make a difference in somebody’s life.” This also is reasonable because the person understands that there’s more to the project than making money.
Next: More questions ghostwriters should ask.
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