There are times in every author’s writing journey where they hit a creative writing block, or they just are not able to express the words to help their story concept come to life. Part of what I do here at PHP includes a process to help authors through this block. This process is called ghostwriting.
Ghostwriting is where an author has the concepts of what material should be covered in their work but may have a creative block when it comes to finding the right words to express those ideas. The author hires or obtains the assistance of a ghostwriter to draft content to flesh out their ideas, but still maintains credit for creating the work as the author. All ghostwriting work is done behind the scenes and is not usually credited publicly.
As a ghostwriter, I would work closely with the author to obtain a clear understanding of their vision for the work, then taking those ideas I would create a draft of a more fully fleshed out story/write-up
and present this to the author for their review and further discussion. We continue the draft, review, edit process until the author is satisfied and comfortable to continue their own with the work.
Ghostwriting can be difficult and/or frustrating at times when the author does not have a clear vision of where the story should be going, as this leads to much more extensive re-writes of the work. Generally though, I enjoy ghostwriting because it allows me to not only help the author see their vision come to life, but it also allows me to explore and work with concepts that are not my own. It is a mental playground conceived by the author!