Americans spend almost $8 billion a year on greeting cards.

(Wow, the lengths we go to avoid saying how we feel with our own words.)

I was surprised to learn so much money could be made by writing sentiments for others.

So, I put my strong emotions to marketable use, and started writing for a division of Hallmark Greeting Cards. That was 16 years ago, and I've been getting paid to write ever since.

I experimented with markets, and my ability to apply empathy to it in useful ways. Eventually, I grew from greeting cards to other things like guys' dating profiles (sorry guys, don't do those anymore), grad school statements of purpose and artist's statements. It was a side thing that I always enjoyed. When I wanted to go full time with it, I had to open my client-base wider, and found a lot of need for web content, like:

• researched articles
• conversational blog posts
• About Me pages
• video scripts
• sales letters
• email campaigns
• whitepapers
• product descriptions
• essays and ebooks

You get the idea. And while I am very grateful to earn income from writing, ultimately...

Ghostwriters Breast-Feed Someone Else's Baby.

We have no byline, no name or face.

We are invisible, anonymous talent.

Like a ventriloquist, we throw our voice across the room.

Our ego gets humbled, and learns to be at peace without "getting credit."

And the work isn't easy. If it was, billion$ would not be spent to outsource content creation and surrogate sentiments.

The Surprise Gift I Got From Ghostwriting. (Or, "How EmpathicWriter Came To Be.")

To write on behalf of someone, or their company, product or service, I need a strong, visceral sense of that person's/thing's core. You can grok a lot from social media and digital footprints, but that's indirect and lifeless.

The juiciest things come straight from a person. Ideally, in a conversation. There is an art to probing hopes and fears. Desires and obstacles. Various fields refer to this initial step as an Intake Process or Initial Assessment.

I fell in love with this stage of work. Exploring. Discovering. Imagining. These questions are the foundation I typically start with. I then adapt them to be relevant for each client. In our exchange, between my questions and the other person's answers, something important and human always happened.

Two people focused on a single thing can change it. But HOW they focus is everything.

Most conversations stay low to the ground, and they are weighted by fear and unimaginativeness.

Catalytic conversations leave the ground, and give aerial perspectives and previously unseen information.

Consider how differently the area you live in appears when you are walking or driving, compared to when you are flying. In-flight, you can see grids, patterns and topography you cannot detect from the ground. You sometimes need to RISE ABOVE muck, mire and mundane methods. Get lifted. Go higher.

Over time, I noticed more and more intakes drifted toward the client's personal life. While I was supposed to be gathering facts about target audiences and brand voice, I was also learning about custody battles and cancer diagnoses.

Why would someone share those kinds of things with their ghostwriter?

1. Because hard stuff happens. And life says, "Keep it movin'!"

2. Because GREAT stuff happens and, still, life says, "Keep it movin'!"

3. Because people are so thirsty for a listening ear, and the sense that somebody else gives a damn, they may regularly confide in their bartender, stylist... or, ghostwriter.

My intake calls have become chances for people to stop racing. We will still meet our objectives, WHILE having a slow, deep breath during a breathless day. I choose to create a lil' oasis for those I work with... because I know the value, and shortage, of oases. Learn more about a listening oasis here.