Ethics of ghostwriting ?

Question

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

Usenet · Accepted 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. 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 ghostwriting deliberately mis-assigns credit.

Before I go any farther, I have to 'fess up - I've done a little ghost writing.Is it moral to write something for someone else, and let them sign their name to it? Probably not. If this were school, it'd be cheating to write someone else's term paper for them. But it's not school and this isn't about short-changing someone out of the education they should be getting - it's all about the money. A friend of mine made his first 'big' sale with a script that had two names on it, even though the second name didn't really do any writing.

Name #2 had some contacts, without which there would have been no sale, and the price was slapping his name on it (along with) and giving him a chunk of the money. Had Name #2 asked for his name to be the sole credit? That would have been ghostwriting, and it would have made the deal impossible in a practical sense. Tough to have a meeting about script changes when you're not the writer and you're not the one who'll be making the changes.
I think, in this business, the typical case of ghostwriting is the uncredited rewrite or polish, where the producer hands off the script to someone who works with the understanding that it's not ever going to go to arbitration or result in a credit. Immoral? I suppose you could look at it that way. Happens all the time, though.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Answer

[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, there would only be two reasons why someone would use a ghostwriter: either they're so busy they don't have time for the "tedium" of committing their thoughts to the written word, or they have the social standing that would allow a book to sell with their name attached, but they don't have the talent to write it.
In either case, people have used both credited and uncredited ghost writers, and in all the cases I know of, the ghost writer is very well compensated, at least in part because anyone who fits into one of the categories of people having a legitimate need for a ghostwriter are, frankly, rich.

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...).
The writer is, by definition, a better writer than the person who needs the writer. Most good writers have their own ideas they want to execute. Few really good writers are just lounging around waiting for ideas; usually they're busily reciting today's specials or patiently explaining why you can only take 4 items into the dressing room, all the while wondering if they're going to have the energy after work to get a few pages written. Anyone who wants to use a good writer's time to execute their ideas is going to have to pay for it.
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? If it's someone else's idea and your execution, you're still a co-writer. If you, because, I suppose, you're a saint, want to write something and let another person take all the credit for it, then I guess that's your gift to give. But I suspect you wouldn't do it more than once.
Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Ghost in the Sell
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Usenet · Answer

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 story, kept his pants on, and skedaddled.

Usenet · Answer

[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 would you do it?[/nq]
See above. If - hypothetically speaking, so as not to violate any hypothetical nondisclosure agreements - someone fancied themselves not merely a wannabe film school grad but an actual producer/director/ screenwriter, and that someone had a boyfriend rich enough to support such a fantasy but not the actual talent to make such a fantasy into a reality, he or she might hire someone to turn a vague idea and a few notes into a screenplay - with the explicit understanding that the only name on the finished version would be hers.
And a humble scribe wanting to write more in the way of fiction than the monthly rent cheque might well take such a gig, in an effort to make said rent cheque somewhat less fictional.
Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Karen

Usenet · Answer

[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 over and over would I mind ddoing it under a nom-de-plume? Not at all, says I. So long as the check is made out to me and not to that damned impostor!

"Hydrodynamic resistance is a low order priority when you're painting a front porch." - Neal Marshall Stevens

Usenet · Answer

[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

Usenet · Answer

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 need writerly talent to go anywhere else with their career and, with luck, they won't forget who it was that won them that Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay.

If they do choose to forget who actually wrote the script, at least they'll still need to hire some other writer to keep them going, so SOME writer is going to benefit. And the original hypothetical writer always has the jolly option of exposing their early drafts and dated material (the version they copyrighted under a different title, &tc.) which could be very very embarrassing to the presumptive producer/directory/writer.
The writer benefits by not being evicted from his (or her! Could have been a her, in your hypothetical example, couldn't it?!) efficiency apartment for another couple months or having to hock the Macbook. The writer got ripped off at least a little. The producer took credit for things they didn't do. The producer got to stretch his/her soul by giving money to a writer (which is the only tool they have for becoming a better person). *** is in his orbit. All is ordered and well in the realm beneath.

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
And the evening and
the morning were the
eighth day...
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Ethics of ghostwriting ?

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