Ghostwriting, at least if we're doing it right, entails taking on someone else's identity. That's one reason so many of us Baby Boomers, after knocking around a while, wound up as ghostwriters. We treasure or maybe even need the thrill of being another person.
No surprise, there were a number of us who actually did dabble in acting. Jim Ramsay, who was working in Philip Morris' ghostwriting and speechwriting section did start out in Manhattan as an actor. Finally, reality bit and he migrated to the more secure and well paying field of executive communications.
I was Anne Frank in the senior class play in high school and wrote and directed a play in college. Twice after that I tried acting and rushed back into the safety of executive communications. Is acting more difficult than ghostwriting? Yes, in that unless you're doing a monologue the part has to mesh with others' notions of what the drama is about. What we ghostwrite is primarily a monologue. The persona is more under our own control.
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