What A Ghostwriter Can Do For Your Biography

By Evan Bailyn

Choosing to write a biography is a noble and sometimes overwhelming task. Because a biography is the story of a person’s life, you have a great deal of time - and information generated during that period of time – to sift through. Letters, awards, journals, interviews, notes, books, pictures – not only must you be inside the person’s head, you must also be inside their experience. This means an intimate knowledge of the time period and place in which the person lived. More notes, more books, pictures, newspaper articles. It’s enough to make you want to quit.

Help Is On the Way

With the assistance of a ghostwriter, you can pull all your tidbits and rough drafts and extraneous information into a big pile, box it up, and ship it to someone else. It is the job of your ghostwriter to immerse herself in the information you’ve found and the direction you want the biography to take. For example, is this an expose designed to reveal secrets and heretofore untold drama? Is this an homage to the person in question, a brave tale of how a lifetime’s work in the world made a lasting impression? Or is this a heartwarming story of someone’s valiant efforts to overcome adversity in an effort to live a normal life like yours and mine?

These are decisions that, if necessary, your ghostwriter can help you make. She can help you find the holes in the story and figure out how to handle those period of years that aren’t covered in any research available. It is also the job of the ghostwriter to do a bit of research on her own if it is warranted. These are all details that you can work out with her as you embark upon your project together. Ultimately, the headache of writing the biography is no longer on your shoulders and yet you will walk away with a tight biographical manuscript with your name on it – your idea come to life.

The Details

Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself, the answers to which will be helpful to your ghostwriter when compiled.

• How long would you like your biography to be by the final draft?
• How in depth would you like your biography to go? In other words, is this an overview of an entire life or an intense study of a certain period in a person’s life?
• Is this person still alive? (Beware of libel!)
• Are there any other books written about this person and have you read them? (Annotations on any books you’ve read as well as notes will certainly help your ghost writer.)
• Are their friends, family, co-workers, and associates who are still alive? Have you contacted them? Is interviewing one of the tasks that you will need your ghost writer to perform?
• How do you prefer the chronology of you biography to unfold? Would you like it to begin with the person’s childhood or the beginning of the time period described? Or would you rather begin in the middle at the height of the story or perhaps at the end?
• What is your final purpose for your biography? Publication, personal achievement, gifts for family?

There is no right or wrong answer to any of these questions, as you and your ghostwriter work through your biography, certain things will fall into place. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the answers yet! That’s the beauty of writing. It changes and grows just like the person you are writing about.

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For a more in-depth explanation of the ghostwriting process, click here.

For pricing details, click here.

To inquire about our ghostwriting service, call
1-800-WRITE90 (1-800-974-8390) or e-mail ghostwriter@pegr.com.

This article is available for reproduction under the condition that it is accompanied by a link to http://www.pegr.com/ghostwriter.html directly below the title of the article with "ghost writer services" as the link text.

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