Captain Film Major recently used his extensive powers of persuasion (read: getting my mother to make her guilting face -- I can't say no to my mother) to convince me to watch The Ghost Writer. What can I say, I don't usually watch movies.
At any rate, in one scene in the movie, the MC remarks at a book launch that ghost writers are rarely invited to book launches, because they're something of a dirty secret. "Like a mistress at a wedding," he comments.
After my family and I recovered from the brilliance of that line, I started thinking about it. A large part of me wonders what it would be like to always be doing my writing for someone else. To not be able to really work on my own ideas, because I had to pursue someone else's vision. To not be able to put my own name on my work, because I wasn't supposed to exist.
I'm not sure I could do it. I've never tested this, but I think seeing my work on a bookshelf and having to pretend I didn't work on it might just kill me. (I guess that means I'll never be Lemony Snickett or Silence Dogood. Somehow, though, I'll survive that fear though.) I don't think I'd risk it on ghostwriting.
How about you? Could you ever work as a ghostwriter? How do you feel about ghostwriting?
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Nope, I wouldn't want to be a ghost writer. I want to be able to take ownership of my writing.
ReplyDeleteThere is something tempting about ghostwriting because of the challenge to be someone else. I'd love the opportunity to write as if I was a different author. But, in the end, because of that same feeling you expressed here, I don't think I could do it. I'd be willing to try once though!
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