Before ghostwriting, I was a sportswriter, and one lesson I quickly learned was hurry up and wait. When I covered any college or professional game, there was a mandatory cooling-off period afterwards when the press had to wait before gaining access to the teams. This often extended to before the game, too. I remember covering…
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I’ve previously written about why journalists make great ghostwriters: They are skilled at getting into somebody’s head and bringing out their thoughts, emotions, feelings, and words. They also know how to research, interview, write, and accept feedback and criticism. Recently, I’ve come across another reason why a journalist can be so valuable to a client…
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Ghostwriters don’t automatically deal with a lot of death, but I’ve been lately. Three friends lost their mothers in a matter of weeks. My wife and I have been attending memorials and making condolence calls. Also, a friend died at just 67, sending shockwaves through our social circle. And now, a ghostwriting relationship is at…
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Seventh in an occasional series about stories and ideas worth telling. When I visit bookstores, in Palm Springs and elsewhere, I often seek the history sections and look for guidebooks and tour books that show old photos of the area compared to what it looks like today. Then I start reading the text, looking for…
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As I’ve previously written, the outline is the most important part of the ghostwriting process. It provides a plan, a blueprint, a direction, a pathway—call it what you want—to help you write the book. There is no way to ghostwrite a tightly focused book without first having an outline to determine what’s going in, where…
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Sixth and final (for now) of an occasional series about stories and ideas worth telling. A heart defect is not inherently compelling. As a ghostwriter, if someone pitched me to ghostwrite a story about a guy who overcame a heart defect, I’d first ask, “What else is there to the story?” and if there was…
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Fifth in an occasional series about stories and ideas worth telling. One criterion ghostwriters should look for when deciding what story to help tell is how mouth-droppingly amazing the story is. If when hearing the whole story, I find my mouth agape and my vocalizing the sentences, “Oh my God. I can’t believe that!” or…
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Fourth in an occasional series about stories and ideas that are worth telling. Would you be interested in reading about that time a guy crashed an awards show and then was politely asked to guard the bathroom door so Elizabeth Taylor could have privacy? How about the time that same guy walked onto the Universal…
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Third in an occasional series about ideas and stories that are worth telling. I get pitched story ideas all the time. Many come from people who have overcome some great adversity in their lives and feel a desire to share it with the world. Sometimes, the story doesn’t interest me, and since I don’t want…
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This is the second of an occasional series of stories I worked on that are worth telling. According to study.com, there have been more than 20,000 books written about the Holocaust. It is a sensitive topic from personal and historic standpoints, and a ghostwriter has to make sure that if he or she is going…
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