Ghostwriting and Other Gory Tales

Ghostwriting, and other gory tales

‘Though I prefer first-rate fiction, for the last few years my reading seems to have been concentrated on letters and journals and biographies. It doesn’t bother me to read while I am writing… I mean, I don’t suddenly find another writer’s style seeping out of my pen. Though once, during a lengthy spell of James, my own sentences did get awfully long.’                                                                                              ~Truman Capote

This quote made me laugh, because I sooooooo empathised with it.

People sometimes ask me how I get reviews like these:

“McVeigh’s prose and plotting are pitch perfect” 

 (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)

“McVeigh displays a brilliant, spot-on command of Austen’s diction and tone.”

(KIRKUS REVIEW)

“Alice McVeigh’s impeccable prose transports readers so convincingly, it is difficult to remember this work was not penned by Jane Austen herself.”

(INDIEREADER)

The answer might be because I worked for a decade as a ghostwriter. We’d just had our one-and-only daughter. And I’d just been fired by mega-publisher Hachette for never finishing my third contemporary novel (and yes, it happens, because a mega-publisher – unlike a dog – is for Christmas, and not for life!) 

Anyway, I wasn’t about to leave my one-and-only, longed-for, finally-arrived IVF baby to rush around playing cello in various British orchestras. So I decided to try my hand at ghostwriting. I just had a feeling I’d be good at it. 

Not that it was easy. Why not?

Because I was writing only for money. The money went from OK to good to pretty ace, but I hated not being recognised for what I did. This was because I was obliged to swear in blood that I wouldn’t even tell my nearest and dearest which celeb’s autobiography I was writing. (It was usually autobiography. I did write an alternate history novel for an Irish billionaire, once, and that was an experience, too!)

Ghostwriting was fascinating, because I had to enter the celeb’s – and they were mostly celeb’s – tone and style, approach and worldview. I had to abandon my own preferences, vibe with the client concerned, take on their tone, and basically make-like-a-chameleon. I also had to empathise with them for it to work, and sometimes that was toughish too. 

Once, I memorably failed. I got flown to Beijing to interview a fascinating woman with a fascinating life (born in New York, she fell for Communism and emigrated to China from the States.) We got on brilliantly for a week and celebrated my signing the contract at an extremely famous Beijing restaurant, where I was obliged to eat the eye of a fish (a delicacy – and an honour – I could have lived without). Upon flying back to London, I started writing her autobiography. This was an utter disaster… I could never please her! When I called her son to resign my portfolio he said in resigned tones, ‘Another one bites the dust!’ Turned out I was the fifth to fail! Last time I checked, she still hadn’t found the right ghost.

As far as Austen is concerned, I used to have to submerge myself in her books in order to do it. Now, however, I can just flick a switch in my head and BOING!!!! I’m in Austen-land. Now I know that every Austen writer/fan here has his or her own ideas. Many prefer modern versions or write pure romance, or simply have zero desire to even attempt to write like Austen. It’s also possible that, had I the same passionate dedication to Charlotte or Anne Brontë, I could’ve pulled off the same trick there. (Could never have ‘been’ Emily Brontë, no way…) All I know is that, for me, writing styles are as catching as Covid. 

(And yes, whenever I re-read Henry James, my sentences go loooooooooooong.) 

Like our dachshunds, in fact!

Alice’s latest two Austenesque novels were both honoured at the London Book Fairs of 2024 and 2025, in the (all-genre) Selfies Book Awards for adult fiction. Since she returned to writing her own fiction, in 2021, she has won over 50 awards. Her fifth in her standalone Austen series, Marianne, will be published in late October, 2025.

NOTE: Email astmcveigh@gmail.com if interested in an ARC, pre-publication copy of my forthcoming Marianne: A Sense and Sensibility Sequel!! It got its first editorial review yesterday, five stars from Readers Favorite: “Deeply rewarding… a breath of fresh air.”