Great leaders are shaped by the writers that work for them. Of course being able to read those sentences with eloquence makes all the difference but the idea has to be a thoughtful one or they lose their audience.
Many writers never get recognition and are quietly tapping their keys behind the scenes building up other people’s careers and fame.
Those memoirs you have read in most cases were not written by the person pictured on the cover but by another. Sarah Palen just wrote a book. *cough* I’m sure if you google it you can find out who really wrote her novel… I mean story. Every time I hear in the news that a famous person has “written a book” I go, “Yeah right.” (Rolling my eyes.)
Presidents and celebrities are often famous for quotes that make us pause and think. Most of them didn’t write one word of it. Somewhere back in history is an anonymous author sitting in a solitary room typing away giving credence to great people while they die an unknown.
Those words we give John F. Kennedy credit for were not his own; they were the work of a man named Ted Sorensen. The shame of it is that JFK even won a Pulitzer Prize for another person’s work.
Text books and many non-fiction books only list the publishing company and the person(s) who actually wrote it are never known. I often go to conferences and meet writers and authors. Many of the people have written many things but no one has ever heard of them.
It can be a bit awkward when you tell a person you are a writer and they want to know what you have written. Some things are published under a pseudonym while others are not allowed to tell their work because it is now the property of another.
There are also cases of men writing romance under a female name because apparently women don’t want to read a syrupy story written by a male author. I would read it and have because some men can write a better sex scene than women but I know the craft and am on the inside looking out.
There are people that write erotica and don’t want their family to know so that’s kind of swept under the rug, meanwhile they are cashing the checks. Some write for True Confessions magazine and others of it’s kind. You can’t use your real name there either. Some of us have naughty minds. ;o)
So the next time someone tells you they are a writer, don’t expect to have read any of their work or if you have it probably doesn’t have their real name attached.
This song doesn’t have anything to do with writing other than the fact that someone wrote the words making Kylie famous. I can’t get this song out of my head. lol
1 comment:
While I knew most of what you narrate in this post, I am still glad you wrote it, for the benefit of nearly all of us. Speechwriters and ghostwriters are terribly important. When I was a boy, Adlai Stephenson was a major figure in American politics, and my parents respected him. The most admiring thing they said about him was "he writes his own speeches." As a 12 year old boy, I already knew that flacks.
Many/most of JFK's bon mots were penned by Ted Sorensen of Nebraska. He waited decades before admitting to this.
In recent decades, it has become the norm that the ghostwriter's name appears on the title page and is thanked in the Preface. Did Sarah Palin do that? Palin is out of her depth in national politics. I am saddened that she lacks the feminine common sense to see that.
While I have your attention, let me share some other things with you.
In downtown Stillwater, there used to be a Jewish haberdashery. I knew in college a son of that family. Where I live in New Zealand, there is a store selling fancy coffee and tea. One day, I noticed that the woman working the cash register had an American accent. When I asked for her particulars, she told me she was the daughter of the owner, a Jewish family from Tulsa. I was flored. It's since been sold.
My late father in law grew up on a homestead in Jackson Co. My late mother in law hailed from Siloam Springs in Arkansas. I come from the Ohio valley, but grew up in some other places as well.
You have repeatedly described yourself as having been attracted to gay men. As you know, this is not weird and rare. I learned about this feminine lifestyle option from reading about Bette Midler at the start of her career. (I am not a fan.) If you still have gay male friends whom you can ask very personal questions, ask them about uncut. If you don't want to do this, browse the CraigsList personals for New York, the Bay Area, and LA.
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