Ghost writer is a writer who provides writing service for people who need it and then the writing will be acknowledged as the property of the person who already paid for that service. In other words, ghost writer writes for someone else who usually does not have time to write or less proper writing skill.
Many people or institutions have used the ghost writer service such as celebrity, executives, politicians, musicians, and public figure. In the United States of America, even the President has a ghost writer. In Indonesia, the expertise staff in The House of Representatives and government also has a ghost writer.
Nowadays, there are many developing media and platform to write such as blog, website, and even we can contribute by creating an account in detik.com or Kompasiana, but unfortunately, many people feels incapable of their writing skill because they consider writing as a skill that does not belong to everyone and it makes them feel doubtful to become a writer.
“People can talk which means they can write as well. The most important thing of learn to write is to try. Writing is easy as long as you are willing to start. I do not even learn journalistic but I like to read until I try to write myself.” said Simon Syaefudin, ghost writer expert as the guest speaker invited by KAGAMA Writing in Bulaksumur Residence UGM, Saturday (29/12/2018).
“Indonesian writers are respectable. If you have articles published in newspaper, those articles will worth more than graduate certificate, because when you apply for a job, they will see more of your portofolio, not your certificate.” he explained.
Simon explained the requirements to be a ghost writer are how we could make clients get interested and trust our professionality in our writing. One of the successful ghost writer is the writer of President Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo biography “Jokowi Menuju Cahaya”. The launch of this book was attended by President Jokowi, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, and some ministers.
If you are interested to become a ghost writer, some kind of writing you can make are autobiography, biography, and memoir. The difference between autobiography and biography is the subject. Autobiography tells the story about someone who still lives so your writing could be corrected by the person itself, and biography is a story about someone who already passed away so your writing will be corrected by families or relatives of the person you write.
Tips to become a good ghost writer are:
- Use positive sentence. The example of positive sentence use is “Alin is loved by Rudi.” This sentence is better than “Rudi loves Alin”.
- When you make a sentence, do not use too many words. Please use no more than eight words. For example: “Jogja is hot”. This sentence looks simpler but it is already represent the atmosphere clearly.
- One alinea consists of no more than eight words.
- Realistic writing will get more attention and easy to understand by the readers. For example “Dian is beautiful like Bunga Citra Lestari.” This sentence will sound different than “Dian is beautiful like the angel of heaven” because the readers cannot imagine the realism of how angel of heaven may look like, so this sentence is not realistic.
- Keep updated. When something is happening, you have to write about it directly even though the writing may not good. Do not procrastinate and make it too perfect because it may caused the writing is outdated. [UGM Alumni Relations/Nisa&Irzha]