Thursday, July 19, 2007
Authorship and Writing
A lot of confusion appears to afflict people about the difference between these two concepts. In the controversy about ghost blogging, one of the themes that frequently emerges is this idea that an article or blog written by a ghost is somehow not from the person whose name is on the 'byline'.
I view the two as very different. In my last blog here I talked about my writing process and that is relevant here as well. Essentially, the process starts and finishes with the author. I may write the piece but my client is, whenever their name alone goes on the byline, the sole author - that is the ideas came out of their head and what I wrote for them was checked and changed by them before publication. In other words, whilst the wordsmithing is mine, the ideas, the tone and the overall effect of the article is my client's.
Some people can write and some people can't. I know people who, when faced with a piece of paper or a blank computer screen, simply panic. Others write excellent prose and, in some cases, are just naturally good communicators. I can help those who can write but have little time to do it or who choose to spend their time on their main role, to improve their copy. For those who can't write or who struggle with grammar and structure, I can write every word. The authorship in both cases is theirs because we will have begun with a conversation, recorded for reference, which I use to construct the finished piece of work.
The following diagram shows the continuum between the client doing 100% of the writing job to a writer doing as much as 90% of the writing but using the client's ideas. The client is the author.
The work I prefer is generally in the 50/50 area of that continuum as it challenges me to understand and explain the client's theme whilst giving me enough support to be sure that I'm getting it right for them.
If I need to be more involved than that, though, I can do it. If you can talk about it, I can write about it.
I view the two as very different. In my last blog here I talked about my writing process and that is relevant here as well. Essentially, the process starts and finishes with the author. I may write the piece but my client is, whenever their name alone goes on the byline, the sole author - that is the ideas came out of their head and what I wrote for them was checked and changed by them before publication. In other words, whilst the wordsmithing is mine, the ideas, the tone and the overall effect of the article is my client's.
Some people can write and some people can't. I know people who, when faced with a piece of paper or a blank computer screen, simply panic. Others write excellent prose and, in some cases, are just naturally good communicators. I can help those who can write but have little time to do it or who choose to spend their time on their main role, to improve their copy. For those who can't write or who struggle with grammar and structure, I can write every word. The authorship in both cases is theirs because we will have begun with a conversation, recorded for reference, which I use to construct the finished piece of work.
The following diagram shows the continuum between the client doing 100% of the writing job to a writer doing as much as 90% of the writing but using the client's ideas. The client is the author.
The work I prefer is generally in the 50/50 area of that continuum as it challenges me to understand and explain the client's theme whilst giving me enough support to be sure that I'm getting it right for them.
If I need to be more involved than that, though, I can do it. If you can talk about it, I can write about it.
Labels: authorship, collaboration, Ghosrt blogging, ghost writing
