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Usenet Posted 18 years ago
Screenwriting

Ethics of ghostwriting ?

I am curious what you all think about the ethics of ghostwriting, being a ghost writer, or having part or all of a screenplay ghostwritten? I was talking with a friend today about this, a very heated issue. There are ghost writers, and those that have material ghost written. Which is ethical, or not? Where is the line between e.g. a concept then ghostwritten into a first draft screenplay, or to a final draft, or a consultant who gives many piecemeal suggestions for a narrative or first draft is there a difference between extensive piecemeal suggestions/help from a consultant over many months compared to say a 20 page outline written by someone that is then ghostwritten into a first draft screenplay.

Is it all unethical, ethical, and why or why not, or are there gray areas? A controversial topic I am sure, I hope nobody slaps me around with a dead carp fish for raising the issue here.
~Randall
  

Top answer

[nq:1]I am curious what you all think about the ethics of ghostwriting, being a ghost writer, or having part or ... very heated issue. There are ghost writers, and those that have material ghost written.

  • [nq:1]I am curious what you all think about the ethics of ghostwriting, being a ghost writer, or having part or ...
  • very heated issue.
  • There are ghost writers, and those that have material ghost written.
  • Which is ethical, or not?
  • [/nq] This is a collaborative business and artform; no script ends up with only one writer/creator.
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7 Answers
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[nq:1]I am curious what you all think about the ethics of ghostwriting, being a ghost writer, or having part or ... very heated issue. There are ghost writers, and those that have material ghost written. Which is ethical, or not? [/nq]
This is a collaborative business and artform; no script ends up with only one writer/creator. The difference between all of that and ghostwriting is that ghostw
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[nq:1]I am curious what you all think about the ethics of ghostwriting, being a ghost writer, or having part or ... topic I am sure, I hope nobody slaps me around with a dead carp fish for raising the issue here.[/nq]
Ethical issues of ghostwriting are largely self-correcting and not worth worrying about.
Setting aside the obvious ethical issues with writing term papers for other people, t
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A ghost writer is someone who gets paid for telling a story. I have a magazine writer friend who writes as-told-to- stories - same thing. "Pinned under a girder - the Blue Angel who saved me."

One of my fave stories is: A famous actress hired my bud to write her life story. He was way married, and she was a total flirt. Her: "But what if we fall in love?" Him: "Um, er..." He wrote her sto
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[nq:1]Furthermore, taken from the ghost writer's side, there are only two reasons to ghost-write: money and more money (I was going to say money and *** but, like energy and mass, they're really just two expressions of the same thing...).[/nq]
(snip)
[nq:1]But this is a screenwriters' group, and I can't think of a case where anyone would ghost-write a screenplay for someone else.  Why woul
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[nq:1]A ghost writer is someone who gets paid for telling a story. I have a magazine writer friend who writes ... "But what if we fall in love?" Him: "Um, er..." He wrote her story, kept his pants on, and skedaddled.[/nq]
I was hired to ghost write for myself. Magazine had hired me several times and the publisher wanted to use me again, but said the owners didn't like to use the same writers o
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[nq:1]But this is a screenwriters' group, and I can't think of a case where anyone would ghost-write a screenplay for someone else. Why would you do it? If you did it, why not take credit for it?[/nq]
It's actually explicitly against the WGA rules to put someone's name on a script that they didn't write. I'm not saying it never happens - but it's considered a major no-no.
-Ron
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Dear Hypothetical in Hawaii,I think this was covered by my "money and more money" reference. But more importantly, I think this sort of thing is self-correcting (if it needs "correcting" at all...) All parties enter into the pact willingly, money changes hands, flowing down the well-established gradient from wealth to talent. If the wealthy person gains from having a writing credit, they'll still

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