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The coolest ghostwriting blog on the planet.

Screening ghostwriters: Run a simple test.

December 27, 2025December 27, 2025

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How a professor caught students cheating by writing with A.I.

November 20, 2025

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The great dinner delay of August 3, 2015.

October 2, 2025October 9, 2025

For those who follow this blog, you know I love great writing. I found this on Quora yesterday. Apparently it was posted in Read More...

Which to write first – the manuscript or screenplay?

September 3, 2025October 9, 2025

Write the manuscript first, or the screenplay? By- Michael McKown Co-founder & president, Ghostwriters Central, Inc. Book or Read More...

xAI’s Grok chatbot adds us to its list of recommended ghostwriters.

August 30, 2025October 9, 2025

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Hire a non-fiction ghostwriter

August 25, 2025October 9, 2025

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How to spot ghostwriting scams

August 23, 2025August 24, 2025

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Hire a ghostwriter for your novel

August 23, 2025August 25, 2025

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Why hire a ghostwriter for a screenplay

August 21, 2025August 25, 2025

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Using a ghostwriter for a memoir or autobiography

August 20, 2025August 25, 2025

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When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Neil Gaiman

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

It always comes down to characters, and individual stories about courage.

Steven Bochco

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G.K. Chesterton

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.

Douglas Adams

I haven’t got 10 rules that guarantee success, though I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.

J.K. Rowling

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

Quentin Tarantino

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

Truman Capote Quote

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Thomas Jefferson

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

If you start with a bang, you won’t end with a whimper.

T.S. Eliot

It’s an accepted fact that all writers are crazy; even the normal ones are weird.

William Goldman

Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.

Robert Altman

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

Robert A. Heinlein

Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.

Michael Crichton

You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.

Jodi Picoult

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.