the first time i heard the term ghost writers, was when i read a story of the whole process. It's interesting and sort of mind-blowing because I always thought celebrities wrote their own autobiographies, they're artist, they have a passion towards art and writing has always been a medium of expression. I just thought they took an alternative form of art and expressed their life long journeys towards stardom through writing. It never occurred to me that someone else might have written it for them. Someone whose name is nowhere near the front cover or credits because they carve someone else's story, not theirs, giving a voice for someone else's substance, like singing in behalf of the mute. Thus, ghost writing.
I don't know what to feel about ghost writing. On one hand I feel bad for the writer, because they work so hard on this book and invested a lot of time and effort (and let's be real here, imagination) and someone might laugh at a joke they made up but people would praise and admire the celebrity in which the autobiography is referring to. It's like praising Danial Radcliffe for coming up with Harry Potter.
"A room that only appears when you really need something? I don't know how you come up with these things." He didn't, which is why I find it ridiculous that the ghost writer's name is rubbed off the credits.
But on the other hand, if the ghost writer were to publish his own autobiography, the celebrity would still have more book prints sold regardless of the quality. The celebrity would gain so much more by doing this, by having people think they wrote their own stories. The ghost writer wouldn't gain much in comparison if he revealed that he did writer for that person. It's logic that the ghost writer should stay invisible, low-key and non-existent.
I ghost labor for people sometimes, and to be honest, it feels crap. Entering a photography contest under someone else's name, and when the photos gained recognition, that person acted as if those photos were hers. Designing a poster for an event that I am not partial of, and when people praised it, the person supposedly in charge of designing it acted as if she actually did. Becoming a part of a group for a project of a subject that I am not even registered for, and ended up coding 60% of the program.
I try not to be bothered with the feeling of being used, and at most time I'm fine. It's not that I was tricked into doing this, I knew this would happen, but I sort of hoped that I could get at least something in return. I mean I know people praised my work. Technically they're praising my abilities and as flattering as that sounds, their praises aren't directed towards me. It's directed to someone else who are not bothered to correct them. The fact that they let the misunderstanding to take place suggests that they prefer for it to be that way. It's like having your friend copying every single answer you wrote in a test, you both end up getting full marks but everyone's amazed by your friend and keeps praising her like
"omg you're so smart, how is it even humanly possible anyone could get full marks?" and they don't even notice you exist.
you know what I mean?
But logically speaking, I don't know these people, and they don't know me, so even if it is revealed that I was actually behind those work, it wouldn't do me much good as opposed to the people actually getting the credit.So I try not to be bothered by it. I'm not, but when I see people praising someone else over my work, it kind of triggers that feeling of being used and reminds me of the injustice that I'm putting myself into. Logically, I know I should just brush it off and most of the time it really doesn't bother me. But logic aside, it does actually make me feel crap.
I don't know, I just want to be able to put my work in my portfolio, or gain co-curricular points for it, or let it get paid by actual carry marks, effecting my actual cgpa. But when these thoughts come to me, I feel selfish and I feel that I'm not doing this out of sincerity. I want to be sincere though. I sincerely want to be sincere. It's just hard when I feel used at the same time.
(inserts he-man gif because i somehow feel it is strangely very appropriate)
Labels: personal, rant