What’s There to Say?

For the first time in a very long time, I’m not writing (I type, belying my own words).

It’s not that I’ve run out of things to say; it’s more that anything I post during these pivotal weeks can be naught but content. Digital noise. Yet another inconsequential posting to assuage the algorithms and provoke a “Good work! You’ve posted xx weeks in a row. That’s more than xx% of all Substack contributors.”

It’s a Chutes and Ladders existence, an absurd game in which writing is rated by word count, frequency, consistency. Not by actual communication or meaningful consideration.

None of us can be meaningful on deadline—not even the publish-or-perish crowd, which ends up reviewing, rehashing, and reprinting in the name of reiterating the message, spreading the word. Keeping the ball in the air (and their brand at the forefront) until the next fresh-news cycle.

Ergo, allow me to state categorically that I endorse and support Kamala Harris for President of the United States. Me and tens (hopefully hundreds) of millions of other people. I will vote as soon as legally able. I’ve checked and rechecked my registration status. I’ve donated. I’ve ordered Harris / Waltz lawn signs.

Despite corporate media’s invectives, I get that her policies are not actually part of the landscape… hey, she’s had less than three months to generate a full platform… but that her character and vision for America are.

And I agree, as JD Vance refreshingly admitted, that this election cycle is the same as American politics has been since the country’s beginnings: Southern white male inherent supremacy versus Northern demand for unified equity.

American history is a constant war between Northern Yankees and Southern Bourbons, where whichever side the hillbillies are on, wins. And that’s kind of how I think about American politics today, is like, the Northern Yankees are now the hyper-woke, coastal elites. The Southern Bourbons are sort of the same old-school Southern folks that have been around and influential in this country for 200 years. And it’s like the hillbillies have really started to migrate towards the Southern Bourbons instead of the Northern woke people. That’s just a fundamental thing that’s happening in American politics.

Or, as Peter Stone had Edward Rutledge say in the stage play and film 1776:

Now, gentlemen, you refuse to understand us. We desire independence, yes. For South Carolina. That is our country.

I don’t agree with Vance’s conclusion, steeped as it is in South Bourbonism, but hell, I’ve been preaching his exact perspective for decades. It’s always seemed so obvious—every decade of American history seems to demonstrate the South’s ongoing toil to anoint its self-serving immorality with godly righteousness.

And so I also grok Donald Trump’s appeal to his cult-ish followers. He’s given explicit permission to people accidentally birthed at the tail-end of the current evolutionary wave to blame their fears and sorrows on outsiders (defined as anyone not of their particular ilk) rather than even consider their own limitations and choices. In a citizenry that defaults to the carrot-stick whims of a deity created in its own image, doth not Trump’s blanket absolution lend them the most satisfying, cuddly teddy bear they could ever hope for?

And it comes with a hat!

All that said, I’m not fool enough to believe the musings herein can or will  contribute in any significant way to the greater social discourse. For as a ghostwriter, I know these truths to be wholly non-self-evident but all the same undeniably true:

• Pleonasm dilutes impact.

• A stone dropped in a small pond will only send ripples to its banks. Even if the water slops over and wets the surrounding dirt, the field beyond remains unimpressed.

In other words, little that I post to my miniscule readership will ever get shared far enough to change hearts and minds. Which is fine, being they’re naught but ephemeral natterings. But that brings me back to not writing, which by now stands as an outrageous lie.

I guess what I mean to say is that I have not the heart to keep writing/posting simply for the sake of writing/posting. My psyche, so recently vacated from its barnacled shell, is not yet up to such bruising ignobility.

Now that I’ve vented my spleen about that in which I have so much stake but so little authority, I’m gonna go ahead and dangle my own carrot. After years of threatening myself, my students, and my personal circle of influence, I have not only outlined but am actually embarking on writing the trade-narrative series Secrets of a Ghostwriter, 2^nd Edition (or is it the 3^rd?)

In any event, the series will launch with the 6^th Edition of my signature title (which earned me a minor award, a satisfying amount of acclaim, and made me a classroom name around the world): This Business of Books: a complete overview of the industry from concept through sales.

Next, I’ll tackle either Stuff Every Writer Needs to Know: book-biz basics to avoid shooting yourself in the foot or Successful Second Drafts: the single most effective technique to simplify and amplify developmental edits. Not sure which first. Maybe I’ll ask Publishers Marketplace to do a poll.

Either way, there’ll be Creative Analysis: deliberate thinking for writers, editors, ghostwriters, and other assorted humans and Musical Line Editing: the ghostwriter’s secret sauce. Two of my most treasured innovations.

That’s already a lot of writing, but fret not; I’ll eventually put together Insider Secrets: writing, editing, and fixing almost any nonfiction and its companion Insider Secrets volume for fiction. What’s the point of creating all these processes if I don’t tell other people about them?

“What about A&Rs and Ghostwriting itself, and all those forms and professional templates?” I pretend to hear you ask. I’ve got plenty of time to decide if’n I’m gonna divulge those creations and methodologies. It’s mostly for ghostwriters, after all, as is all the stuff about setting up an ethical solopreneurship. I’ll have to think about it.    

But the real question (inquiring minds, like mine, want to know) is, will I finally knuckle down and write Ghostwriting Psych: the leadership insights that let you fix (almost) any project disruption? Do you really need a nonbinary perspective to appreciate and apply that confidential process?

To quote the immortal Damon Runyon, “I shall leave you know.”