One of the first questions authors ask me is, how do we work together, how will you discover my book or story?
The short answer is: we interview.
At the very start, your book’s idea may be strong, the theme may cohere, but we don’t yet know how to make this happen, or how to best work together. It cannot be stressed highly enough that ghost-writing a book with someone is a collaboration, a meeting of minds, a buddy movie in which you are the star. Our key tool in making your book happen is the Interview. The Interview will be at the heart of everything we do.
The thought of being interviewed can be scary. After all, we are interviewed for jobs or university places. We are interviewed by nosy journalists trying to catch us out. We are interviewed by the police, even the Gestapo or KGB. An interview can lead to a judgment or exposure.
Alternatively, the interview is essential to a journalist or academic’s process. It’s an instrument we can use to find things out, or determine what has happened, to establish the facts, assemble an argument, a thesis, a timeline, make a case. Research is the foundational bedrock of writing any story, be it a fantasy epic, your granddad’s war record or the story of your business from lightbulb moment to your speech at your industry’s annual awards ceremony. In his famous textbook, Story, Robert Mckee says that research is the crucial element in a writer’s moral purpose.
What we are doing here is not just research, though. It’s establishing a rapport between ghost and author, and it’s about finding your voice. After all, when we write your book, we want your book to not only be accurate and faithful to your vision, just it needs to sound like you, not me. It needs to sound like you, meanwhile mainlining the soul of your idea, message, story or underlying philosophy. We need to be true to you, right?
This shouldn’t be daunting, nor is it a test. Interview sessions, which we will schedule in advance and with a frequency that suits you, should be relaxed, fun and create a positive atmosphere as we embark on a voyage of discovery together.
The process should fall into two loose parts, a gathering phase and then a shaping phase that happens alongside the heavy-lifting work of composing the first draft. We might think of this more practically as Before and During.
Before, we work out via a talking cure what we want to say, the basic spine of our narrative and how we are going to do it. From these initial conversations, I will be able also to construct your voice from the recordings and start to think like you and use your tone at will (not that this won’t need honing throughout the process). All this is aimed at producing a treatment, a summary that we can use as our route map going forward. We also have the videos of the interviews not just for reference but also as a voice coach.
Any treatment will likely break the book down into chapters or sequences. What I like to do is write one of these sections, consult with you, write and consult, and so on. I won’t just re-emerge blinking in the fierce daylight six months later with a manuscript that might be off beam or off message. You will be involved every stage of the way. This also keeps us efficient with our time and budget, and it allows us to keep honing that voice.
There is no hurry to this. Within reason, the gathering phase can take as long as you need. You may find that just being allowed to speak freely in a calm and friendly environment causes you to have thoughts and memories that you wouldn’t otherwise. I often find that I discover material and ideas from just listening and allowing the author to talk at a tangent. Sometimes we find our beginning this way. I will always be asking the how and why questions and I will always want to know more. If there are gaps, we will bridge them. If we have blank spots, I will identify them. Sometimes we find the key to the whole story in some offhand comment or anecdote. I have examples I could describe but I am a ghostwriter and am thus discreet.
The interview is our main tool for finding your book, finding your voice, finding out how we best work together to realise your vision and write the best book for you. It’s not a task. It’s not a grilling. It’s a rewarding, illuminating and sometimes revelatory part of the creative process. It’s also a lot of hanging out and having fun, an important part of any collaboration.
If you have an idea, we have a book. If you think I can help you write your story, get in touch. Your story deserves to be told.
Ashley Stokes, Lead Writer for The Ghosting Company
