The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis’s classic children’s book, opens in the country estate of the Professor, who has granted the four Pevensie children asylum from the bombings in London during the Second World War.
The historic events upon which that storyline was launched have long fascinated me and kindled my imagination. What would it have been like to strain one’s ears for the sound of enemy airplanes in the distance? What would it have felt like to awaken from a dead sleep by the jolt of a nearby explosion? I read about the Blitz in history books and visited exhibits in museums in hopes of satisfying my curiosity.
Then, LifeBook Memoirs invited me to be the ghostwriter for an author who had lived through the Blitz himself. He told of sleepy-eyed tramps staggering through darkened hallways to find shelter in the night. The next day, he shared, he was admonished by his mother to avoid touching the contorted bits of metal – shrapnel – he encountered on the pavement along the way to school. After all, those gnarled remnants of some unfortunate structure’s demise were still hot enough to burn him.
As his eyewitness account unfolded, both the historical texts and the fictional narrative I’d read were eclipsed by this memoir author’s authentic experience. As I listened, in my mind’s eye I accompanied a young boy on his perilous walk to school, watching him exchange the childish game of hopscotch for safety manoeuvres around truly dangerous obstacles.
The boy and his family’s choice to maintain normality-despite-the-danger testified to the tenacity and resilience of the human spirit, and I was deeply moved. Soon after, he was whisked away from the comforts of home, family and schoolmates for lodgings in a strange village with kind but unknown hosts.
Now, more than eighty years later, I had become the ghostwriter commissioned as the keeper of a little boy’s experience and the scribe of a gentleman’s memory. In handing his story over to us, he asked, “Will you help me preserve my life in such a way that the generations who come after can know me?” How could I refuse?
The gift of trust
To ghostwrite a memoir is to be invited into the most intimate relationships and shaping influences the authors have known, all carefully preserved in the treasure chest of memory and viewed with the clarifying lens of hindsight. What a beautiful, precious gift and tremendous honour it is to record a life and preserve a legacy.
We build upon this sacred trust by faithfully recording and revering our authors’ experiences, inviting their openness with compassion and walking alongside them with understanding and encouragement, as viewing one’s life through the rearview mirror can be a bittersweet exercise.
I have been given stories of triumph—of defeating the odds and escaping life-threatening circumstances. I have heard tributes to “the-love-of-my-life” and tear-inducing eulogies. I’ve laughed over perfectly executed practical jokes and slapstick comedic foibles. Celebrity encounters, businesses built from scratch, lives saved, brilliant inventions and investment decisions, recipes that brought whole families together, and unforgettable journeys are all shaping experiences that define us and become gifts shared as an author tells us their story.
Writing with deep purpose
At LifeBook Memoirs, we seek to get to the heart of our ghostwriting work from the author’s very first interview with us. As they share their vision for the book, the way they want their story told and who they hope will read it, the author is not just wearing their heart on their sleeves; they are placing their most treasured possession in our hands. It is from the insights that we glean at this early stage that the tone, style and trajectory of the book are set. In time, these will yield a personalised memoir that uniquely captures their voice and mirrors their own life.
The memoir itself is a bridge toward future generations of the author’s family, generations who may not have yet come into the world, generations who might have otherwise only known them through family folklore and grainy photographs. As vital members of the construction crews that build these bridges across generations, we ghostwriters keep the heart of the author and their values, priorities, character, and wisdom at the fore. It is not enough just to retell a story; we must also relay why it matters and how it helped shape not only a single life but a family culture as well.
An education unto itself
Over the years, ghostwriting private autobiographies and memoirs has led me headlong into the world of cardiologists, competitive skiers, university presidents, entrepreneurs in a variety of industries, merchant marines, estate agents, psychologists, ambassadors, fashion designers, mechanical engineers and US Department of Defense strategists. Their expertise in their respective fields has grown my understanding and respect for professions and niche interests to which I would not have been otherwise exposed. With every memoir I’ve ghostwritten, I have felt my intellectual capacity grow.
Ghostwriting other people’s stories has made me a better person
Authors tend to grow more reflective as we near the end of their narratives, and as I hear the lessons learnt in their lives, I am gifted with wise insights and perspectives ahead of my time. I have not yet finished raising my children. I have not reached retirement. I have not seen the results of certain key decisions play out over the scope of my lifetime. My clients have, and those experiences have taught them. As I commit their stories to the page, they teach me too. Sometimes, their lessons are cautionary tales; other times, they confirm that the decisions I’m making now will bear fruit in due season. Either way, a few consistent themes run through all of them:
- Relationships are the most important part of life and can only grow if we cultivate them.
- Great success requires taking risks.
- The world and its geography, people and cultures are fascinating.
- Balance is elusive for most, but if we must err, let it be on the side of what will last.
- Our shared humanity is greater than our differences. We all know joy, grief, hope, disappointment and the need for human connections.
- A positive outlook and a can-do spirit are true superpowers.
- We all wrestle with mortality and the questions, “Has my life mattered?” and “What will be my legacy?”
As my clients share these insights and grapple with what the story of a life truly means, I find myself growing introspective about my own – perhaps at a younger age than most. Am I living with purpose? Am I investing in the things and the people that matter most? Do I face each day with curiosity and a willingness to step outside my own comfort zone?
Then, just as intentionally, each author looks forwards, confronting the truth that most of their years are already behind them. They recognise that one day, their recorded sentiments will be their final conversation with the loved ones who remain long after their time has ended. It is in these solemn moments that the deepest, life-shaping wisdom is shared, and I am a privileged beneficiary of guidance and admonitions that enable me to live with ever greater purpose and intention.
Even when the recorder is turned off and I step away from my computer, the level of listening and careful observation required to faithfully tell my author’s story is difficult to turn off. Ghostwriting has made me more observant in my daily interactions with coworkers, families and friends, helping me become more empathetic, more understanding and more deeply connected to my fellow human beings, and those are traits that our world could use a lot more of right now.
An invitation to future memoir ghostwriters
If you have been considering hiring a ghostwriter to preserve your own life story, I invite you to entrust it to LifeBook Memoirs. We ghostwriters are just one part of each project’s dedicated team, which includes a professional interviewer, editor, designer, and project manager specifically assigned to each author. Together, we are committed to preserving your legacy with the utmost care and a personal, human touch, working alongside you to create a gift for your family that will transcend generations.
Written by Kelly, LifeBook Memoirs ghostwriter
