When I ghostwrite, it’s a collaboration. The editor, the ‘author’ and various other parties will be involved with it from birth. Together we hammer out the plot. I go to them first with my research questions. We chat about how it’s going. Of course the majority of the work is mine, but by the time I deliver the manuscript it’s as though it’s been written in public.
Writing my own novels is not like that at all.
The first time an agent talked to me about My Memories of a Future Life, it was a surreal experience. I met her in a cafe in Covent Garden, on a freezing cold February evening. We sat outside in the penumbra of a gas heater. As people scurried past on their ordinary way home, a person I had never met before was talking to me, in great detail, about regression to the future. The tangled dynamic between four people. Music and its ghostly role in the book’s world. It wasn’t like any other book I’d written, it was more like a long and elaborate secret I’d been keeping. It was so bizarre I was struck monosyllabic. I still haven’t quite got used to it.
I’m over at Women Writers today, talking about the curious and special relationship writers and readers have with novels. Do join me.
Nail Your Novel 
#1 by Jemi Fraser on September 27, 2011 - 11:02 pm
That must be a very exciting experience!
#2 by rozmorris @dirtywhitecandy on September 28, 2011 - 8:04 am
It is, Jemi. But I didn’t guess how weird it would be…
#3 by Sally on September 28, 2011 - 10:49 am
I think a lot of people who finish their novels will be able to relate, Roz. This was the first time that your novel was literally just yours, in your own personal care, unlike your ghosted novels. Plus, you’re getting the readers feedback directly to you, instead of the author you’ve ghosted! 🙂
#4 by rozmorris @dirtywhitecandy on September 28, 2011 - 4:53 pm
Hi Sally – yes, before it was like looking in through the windows at the party. I used to look up my reviews sometimes and see feedback like ‘I loved this book’, ‘these are my favourite characters’ and so on.