I said ghost *writing* not ghost riding.
Over the last year I’ve had a lot of people ask me the same question.
“Scott, how’d you get into our house?”
Wait, no, that’s not it.
“Written anything lately?”
That’s it.
It’s a question I usually love getting because I can promote some of the fun work I’ve been doing. It's great to be able to say I wrote something for Texas Highways. But last year that question got very complicated because the things I was writing were not things I would be able to promote for a long, long time.
For one, the most fun story I got to do last year was for Cowboys & Indians. I got to go to a Cleburne Railroaders game, take batting practice on the field, shag fly balls, dress as the mascot, and partake in the broadcast. It was so much fun. But it wasn’t slated to be in the magazine until the summer of 2023 (and even that’s been delayed).
But the other thing I spent all of my writing time on last year was an even bigger, and more important, project. I was connected with a really inspiring woman named Amy Moreland to ghostwrite her memoir. Amy’s story is incredible and I won’t even begin to get into it here, you’ll have to read the book, Too Fat to be Fit (and other Stupid Things I’ve Been Told), for that.
She’s a fitness entrepreneur who created the internationally-known fitness program AMPD, but she isn’t the person you’d expect to be a fitness influencer. In fact, she’s been told many times in her fitness career that she’s “too fat to be fit.” This despite the fact that she’s physically fit and strong, she just doesn’t fit the very narrow description of who gets to be a prominent voice in the world of fitness. Her message of both body positivity and self-belief is sure to help so many people struggling with the same things.
How not to ghostwrite a book
I made so many mistakes when writing this book. My processes were terrible. My time management was nonexistent. I still have trouble looking back and being happy about the work because it was so hard and I felt that I was doing such a bad job at it. My first interview with Amy was in March 2022 and the book was turned in at the end of September. In that time I had countless interviews with Amy going through her entire life story, endless nighttime sessions full of writing, editing, rewriting, staring off into space, procrastination, thinking I’d never finish, falling asleep, and snacks. So many snacks.
But it was all worth it when Amy told me that the ending brought her to tears. To be able to capture her words and thoughts and put it down in the way that she wanted was so satisfying.
I also know all the things I did wrong so that I can be significantly better for the next time.
Things I did wrong this time:
Waiting until I had most of the interviews done to start writing chapters
Thinking I could just consistently bang out 500-1000 words a night for two months straight to get to the ultimate goal of 40,000
Forcing myself to write on nights where my head wasn’t in the right place, resulting in completely wasted nights
How I’ll fix it next time:
Write as much as I can based on each interview session while it’s fresh in my mind
Block out a calendar for the entire time period of the book with specific word count goals to hit
Have enough time built in to take a night off if I’m not in the right place
This is my second book and both of them took a lot out of me in different ways, but both were extremely satisfying projects that I’m very proud of. I’ve written a lot of things for websites, I’ve had my articles published in national magazines, but there’s something very special about writing a book.
I saw a chart one time that described the stages of a creative process. I can’t find it online but it said something like this:
This is going to change the world as we know it
Oh, man, this is more work than I thought but it’s still awesome
Shoot this is really, really hard
I’m the worst person ever, this was a dumb idea, I hate this, I’m going to quit
Eh, I might as well just finish this thing
I guess it’s ok
Not exactly what I thought it’d be but it’s pretty good
You spend a vast majority of your time between 3-5 on a big project. How you get through those stages determines the success of something. And the result is rarely the grandiose thing you envisioned, but that’s the thing: You’re the only one who knows what a great vision you had for this project.
Once it’s done and released to the world, they only see it for what it is, not what you thought it was going to be at the start. It’s one of the most difficult parts about being a creative person, whether it’s my visions for an article, a stand-up comedy show, or a book. It’s never as amazing as I think it’s going to be at the start and it’s never as bad as I think it’s going to be in the difficult, muddy middle. The most important thing is that I didn’t quit when it got hard.
I hope you guys buy Amy’s book and read her incredible story. Thank you to everyone who supports my writing and comedy, it really means so much.
For anyone interested in how my show at the Comedy Arena went last week, you can check out the entire set here. I think it went well, even if the crowd did bail on my Black Rifle Coffee joke.