Friday, August 13, 2010

Shades of Gray

I was sitting at the airport this morning waiting for my plane to board and happened to notice a book sitting on top of someone’s luggage. It was called Obama’s Diaries. As the person who owned the book began to gather his belongings, I asked, “In favor of or anti?” “Definitely anti,” he replied. “There is no middle ground, is there?” I said. “There sure isn’t,” he said (smiling, at least) and walked off.

I’ve been pondering this little exchange since it took place, not because of its subject—the president—but because of what those four short sentences conveyed. My interpretation:

Question: Is the author for or against Barach Obama?

Answer: Against, for sure.

Response: This seems to be s a black and white issue. No shades of gray?

Reply: Right. You’re either pro or con.

I know the president is controversial. I can’t remember a president since Eisenhower who wasn’t. But that’s not the point. The point is that everything is controversial these days. You’re either for or against, pro or con, black or white. No matter what the topic, there is no middle ground. No balanced discussion. No exploration of issues or perspectives. For every point of view expressed on TV news or radio talk shows, there is an equal and opposite view. In the name of balanced journalism, there are always two sides of every story, and they must be given equal airtime.

But here’s a thought. What if there is only one side of the story, and nothing else merits mentioning? Example: A Holocaust, in which 12 million people were brutally murdered, was perpetrated by Nazi regime in the 1940s. It happened. There is abundant documentation to prove it happened. End of discussion. There is not another side to this story.

On the other hand, what if there are several sides to the story, multiple perspectives instead of only two? Example: the Iraq war. There were many ways of perceiving this event, including the perspectives of the US president, the secretary of state, the American people (some pro, some con), the Iraqi people, other Middle East countries (some pro, some con), and countries all over the world. It's simplistic to say there are only two ways to look at this: for or against.

Life is complicated, way too complicated to reduce it to a face-off between black and white. There are far too many shades of gray to ignore.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Savvy Ghostwriter

Ghostwriting is hard work—very hard work—for both the author and the ghostwriter. It's like an arranged marriage of strangers. The difference is only that the partners make the arrangements, themselves, based on the answers to some tough questions. For example, a potential author may ask questions like these:
  1. I want this book to sound like I wrote it? How can you do that?
  2. Where are you going to get the content?
  3. How you going to get inside my head and become me?
  4. What do you charge?
  5. How long will this take?
  6. Do you expect your name to be on the cover?
But it's the questions ghostwriters ask that reveal the most important information.
  1. What is your book about?
  2. Who is your target audience?
  3. What do you hope to achieve with this book?
  4. What kind of relationship do you envision with the ghostwriter?
  5. Where is the information to come from? How will I access it?
  6. Do you understand the differences among royalties, work for hire, and hourly rate?
There are four sets of questions ghostwriters ask:
  1. about the book
  2. about the process
  3. about the client
  4. about payment.

For ALL the questions a ghostwriter must ask, get your free copy of The Savvy Ghostwriter. The first ten people who e-mail me at bobbi@words-to-live-by.com with "The Savvy Ghostwriter" in the subject line, will receive this new eBook ... FREE.

How to Succeed: Sometimes, Very Slowly

When I decided I wanted to write, I had no reason to believe I could do it. I had not majored in journalism or English; I had never had a writing job; but I knew this was what I wanted to do. So I started setting goals. First they were small. I just wanted to get one thing in print, anything, even a paragraph. Then one day, one of my stories—a humor piece on being a handball widow—was published in a national handball magazine. I was out of my mind with joy and quite the hit at the handball courts for a few weeks.

The big question then was how to follow my act? I immediately set another goal. When I reached that one, I set another and then another and another. The most important thing about my goals was that one led to the next in a relatively logical formation. I didn't realize that while it was happening. In fact, I had no plan. Every time I reached a goal, I thought of something else I wanted to do, and that became my next target. Haphazard as my "system" was, it worked for me.

It took me four-and-a-half years to fill one little portfolio with published pieces. They are now yellow and somewhat brittle but they are testament to the power of putting one foot in front of the other. This was the lesson: Success doesn't always come in one dramatic leap. Most of the time, it is incremental, one tiny step at a time. Then, one day you look up and think, "Wow, I made it!"