Technology
David Brewster
My book ghostwriting tools in 2021

Every now and then I’m asked about the various resources I use when I’m working on ghostwriting a book. These things change occasionally, so I thought it would be a good idea to share what I am using as my main book writing tools in 2021. So here they are: from recording interviews to organising to drafting to (almost) collaborating.

My book ghostwriting tools in 2021
Work Life
David Brewster
When to avoid showing your vulnerable side

Being willing to reveal a bit of yourself, especially through a bit of self-effacing humour, will lighten your text and give your readers something to connect to.

But this blog post is not about that sort of vulnerability.

No, this time I want to remind you of two of the less inspiring but just-as-important vulnerabilities every writer faces. Those vulnerabilities are backup and data security.

I was reminded recently about this by a rare computer crash that led to me losing a small amount of work. It wasn’t important and was easily recovered, but it could have been so much worse. Imagine losing a whole book to a hard drive crash!

When to avoid showing your vulnerable side
Write a book
David Brewster
No time, money or skill? You can still get your ...

If there’s one thing you learn from spending a chunk of your career in the world of books and writing, it’s that there are a lot of great stories out there. Personal stories of remarkable success against the odds. Business stories of risk taking and growth. Political stories of intrigue and persistence.

It would be great if all these stories could be told. As Spanish philosopher George Santayana famously wrote, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. Ideally, the stories would be recorded in books because books last. They go onto shelves and into libraries. They won’t disappear or become unreadable with new technologies.

Unfortunately, many terrific stories are never written down. Sometimes that’s because their owners don’t want to share them. Often

No time, money or skill? You can still get your book written
Reviews
David Brewster
The ghostwriter's nightmare scenario

Ghostwriter characters don't make it into fiction very often, but when they do they always seem to find themselves in jeopardy. 

In the 2010 Roman Polanski film The Ghost Writer, Ewan McGregor plays a ghostwriter working for a former British prime minister. In the end he knows too much and ... it doesn't end well. 

In the Netflix series House of Cards, Paul Sparks plays ghostwriter Thomas Yates who, after struggling to extract a decent memoir out of the president, fails to keep his professional distance, you might say. It takes a while – three seasons in fact – but it doesn't end well for him either.

And now we have Australian writer Richard Flanagan's latest novel, First Person, in which the narrator is a ghostwriter hired to author the memoir of a notorious conman. The story was inspired by Flanagan's own experience, very early in his career, of ghostwriting the autobiography of fraudster John Friedrich in 1991.

The ghostwriter's nightmare scenario
Writing
David Brewster
The joy of a good yarn

I love that my work as a ghostwriter gives me the opportunity to help people get their stories told. What I love even more is the fact that working on other people's stories gives me a front-row seat to those yarns.

Take Around the Grounds, for instance – a book that will be released by Finch Publishing on August 1. 

For this book I've been working with former ABC radio broadcaster Peter Newlinds. Peter's story is a celebration of sport, but from the spectator's side of the fence. This perspective gives the story a level of accessibility that most sporting memoirs, written as they are by former players, can't have. Few of us have the ability to play elite sport, but all of us are more than capable of joining in from the relative safety of the stands.

Of course we don't all have access to the commentary box as Peter did…

The joy of a good yarn

There may be no new ideas, but there are always new perspectives

There may be no new ideas, but there are always new perspectives

Recently we took an international guest to Sydney for the weekend. Melbourne is a great place with heaps to do and eat, but I always feel a visit to Australia isn’t complete until it has included the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Seeing them is as essential as seeing Big Ben in England or the Eiffel Tower in France.

In any case, I just love any excuse to go to Sydney myself. And when I’m there, what do I love doing most? Seeing the harbour bridge and, especially, the Sydney Opera House. I simply cannot spend long enough looking at that wonderful building. Or photographing it.

I must have taken thousands of pictures of the Opera House over the years. Me and millions of others. But that doesn’t stop be taking more. The thing is, the building is so spectacular and in such a great location that there is always another way of seeing it.

The point is that even one of the most iconic, over-photographed buildings in the world can always be looked at, and photographed, in a different way.

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How to avoid writing words that won't be read

How to avoid writing words that won't be read

How much do you read? I don’t mean look at, flick through or scan – I mean actually read. From start to finish, one word at a time, absorbing every sentence and even pausing once in a while to check your understanding or to ponder what you’ve just read. My guess is: not much. And almost certainly less than you used to.

We don’t hear the term ‘information overload’ as much as we used to, but that’s not because the problem has gone away. It’s because it is now a way of life. We’ve just become conditioned to it. Between email, blogs, news websites, print media and social media, there is simply not enough time to drink everything that is coming at us from the never-ending all-you-can-eat buffet of today’s information sources.

As a result, to avoid indigestion, most of us have become picky. When faced with a new document (either paper or electronic), we make a quick assessment of its worth. Some are tossed without a second glance. Some are scanned … and then tossed. Some are scanned and kept … and then tossed. And a small amount is lucky enough to be read.

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Increase impact by making eye contact in your writing

Increase impact by making eye contact in your writing

On a recent episode of television news-comedy The Weekly, contributor Kitty Flanagan put together a funny but telling story about road rage. She asked the question: Why is it that we are so ready to lose our cool in the car, while we almost never do so as pedestrians?

I’ve thought about this before and I believe a major contributor to road rage is a lack of eye contact. When someone cuts in front of us on the road, we don’t see another person. We see a hunk of metal with an invisible driver. There is no emotional connection between us and the other driver. That connection exists on the footpath and guess what? Little or no ‘path rage’. 

Our eyes are an incredibly powerful tool for making emotional connections. But what does that have to do with writing, where clearly eye contact is not possible?

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The four stages of editing

The four stages of editing

My colleague Ann Bolch, one of our editors, recently wrote a post on her own blog about a common misunderstanding of what ‘editing’ means. Unless you’ve suffered under the point of an editor’s red pen, you may not realise that editing ain’t editing – that there are various stages of editing between a draft and its final form. Ann is here to explain in this very lightly edited version of her original.

Many people come to me asking to have their work edited.

Fair enough. I’m an editor. But the first question, ‘What sort of editing are you after?’ often stumps them.

Simple requests like, ‘Can you edit my 82,000-word novel?’ or ‘I have a website that needs updating – is this something you would do?’ soon become complicated because, actually, there are four stages of editing. And we need to know which stage the project is at before we can write a proposal outlining timeframe, costs and approach.

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I've stopped reading the news and feel better for it. Which is not good.

I've stopped reading the news and feel better for it. Which is not good.

I’ve always been a politics junkie. As a teenager I avidly read the papers and watched the news, providing a running commentary on the politics of the day to whoever would listen (even if that was just the dog). I can’t imagine not subscribing to a daily newspaper. For someone like me the greatest godsend of the internet has been the gift of access to more online news than I could ever read. 

At least that was the case. Not any more. 

A couple of weeks ago I declared that I will no longer read about politics, listen to political interviews or watch the television news. I’m unsubscribing from Crikey, turning off Q&A and listening to more music.

Why? Because it has got to the point that tuning into politics makes me physically tense. At times it makes me so angry I feel like … like … Damn it!

Today’s political leaders are treating their audience – we voters – with complete contempt. Being true to your values no longer matters. Nor does saying what you really think. Don’t be authentic – it’s too risky.

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Can you still make a buck out of a book?

Can you still make a buck out of a book?

The recent launch of Apple Music, overnight a gorilla-sized player in the streaming music industry, has again raised debate about, essentially, reward for effort when it comes to creativity. I came across an excellent blog post by Hugh Hancock on this topic the other day that does a great job of pulling apart what is happening in the creative world. 

All this, and other recent discussions, has got me rethinking the value of the non-fiction business book to its author.

Production is getting easier

Hancock’s article is a fairly deep analysis of what is happening in film and television making, computer game production and various other formats. The gist of his conclusion is this: in all these areas, production has become vastly cheaper and easier than it used to be. In film making, for instance, it is now entirely possible to make a high-quality production with handheld cameras and a crew of two, including the director. Needless to say that’s a lot less people than you’ll see on the credits of the average Hollywood flick.

The same can be said of music, where home studios are now commonplace and results of very high standard can be produced on relatively inexpensive equipment. The ‘barrier to entry’ for a new and completely unknown musician is lower than ever. 

Writing, of course, became ‘easy’...

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How Pixar's 'Inside Out' delivers an important lesson for writers

How Pixar's 'Inside Out' delivers an important lesson for writers

I’m a huge fan of Pixar, the animated film wizards who have given us, amongst others, the Toy Story series, Monsters Inc. and one of my top 10 favourite movies, Finding Nemo. Any filmmakers who can consistently make a grown man tear up in a cartoon must be masters of the emotions, and Toy Story 3 is probably the most heartstring-pulling film I have ever seen.

Pixar’s latest film, Inside Out, takes things in a new direction by taking us inside the head of an 11-year-old girl where we get to meet her feelings and explore her memory. Once again they’ve managed to put together a completely engaging story for both adults and kids, only this time they’ve combined their story with some pretty serious science.

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The single biggest way to get more focused and productive

The single biggest way to get more focused and productive

As I prepared my breakfast this morning it dawned on me that technology’s obsession with notifications isn’t restricted to devices like the Apple Watch. These days everything needs to tell you when it’s done. Our toaster beeps when it has finished its cycle. So does the dishwasher. And the washing machine. Even my electric toothbrush alerts me to the fact that I’ve been brushing for the optimum amount of time.

It’s only a matter of time before all these notifications get rerouted to Silicon Valley and back to my phone or (if I had one) watch.

It was this realisation that caused me to revisit the notifications on my phone.

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5 rules for writers when working with fonts

5 rules for writers when working with fonts

I was a bit misty eyed during the week after reading of the death of Hermann Zapf. Zapf was a typographer and font designer. He gave us the widely used Palatino typeface, Optima (one of my favourite fonts) and the Zapf Dingbats (you’ve probably used some of them), amongst others.

To be honest I hadn’t heard of Zapf before. What made me go all nostalgic was the thought of what this 96-year-old had seen over his life and that he will continue to make his mark, via his fonts, for many years to come.

I’ve always loved a good font. However, as a writer I’m also aware of the potential dangers of being a ‘fontoholic’. Believe me, there are a lot of fonts out there if you go looking for them.

Here are the five strategies I use in order to manage this condition.

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Writing a book? Dig deeper for a better story

Writing a book? Dig deeper for a better story

I’ve just finished watching the excellent television drama House of Cards – the US version starring Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood. If you’re into politics, it’s a must see.

During the third and final season, one of the subplots involves a writer, Thomas Yates, who is commissioned by Underwood to write a biography of him. In many ways it’s a poisoned chalice for Yates. The book is always intended as a puff piece.

Nevertheless, there are some interesting interactions between subject and writer across a number of episodes – interactions I think many ghostwriters and biographers could relate to.

A theme that ran particularly true for me was Yates’s challenge in getting any level of detail out of Underwood.

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