Just time for a quick progress report on the ghost-writing project. This morning I passed 15,000 words on this latest fantasy novel. The outline I'm working from is terrific - I hope I'm doing it justice.
These projects are a balancing act between maintaining first-draft speed but keeping the prose reasonably polished. The tight deadline means I'll only have a week or so to review and edit before submission. I will get to do a second draft, but keeping it shiny now will pay off in spades later.
And, even though I'm working to an outline, there's always room for a little riffing. Opportunities to invent new scenes. Fresh insights into the characters. Moments, I hope, of poetry. Perhaps most importantly on a plot-driven piece like this, really digging into the characters' motivation so everything the whole show runs smooth and natural, not like there's some old hack turning the plot wheels behind the scenes.
Is there any way we can ever know what books you're ghost writing? I'd really love to read more of your work but I have no idea which books out there are yours! Are you even legally allowed to disclose it, now or at any point in the future?
ReplyDeleteHi Tom
ReplyDeleteI've written a couple of crime novels under the pseudonym Nick Curtis, though only one has been published to date. It's called Runaway Minister and you'll find details about it on my website. As for the other books I've ghost-written, there's usually a non-disclosure agreement that requires me to remain anonymous. So I'm not being evasive, just discrete!