The method
How a book gets written
Professional ghostwriters rarely start by writing. They start by listening, over many conversations, keeping careful notes and a bible of everything the book establishes. Sondeas Ghostwriter follows the same process, adapted to the kind of book you are writing.
1. Discovery
Before the first chapter, a professional asks about the project: what the book is, who will read it, why now, the tone you want, what must be in it and what stays out. A novel starts from its spark and its main character; a book on what you know starts from its reader and its promise; a life story starts from why you want to tell it.
2. A plan built for your book
The plan names the through-line, chooses a structure that fits the kind of book, and lists chapters sized to the length you chose, each with a guiding question and the topics it must cover. You can rename, reorder, add or remove anything.
- Memoir or life story. Chronological · Thematic · Braided · Vignettes
- A book on what you know. Problem to solution · Step by step · Principles · Story-led
- A true story. Chronological · Braided · Several lives · Investigation
- A novel. One point of view · Several points of view · Two timelines · Frame story
- Short stories. A single story · Linked stories · Themed collection · Open collection
- A children's book. Pattern and refrain · There and back · Adventures · One big adventure
3. Interviews that listen
- One open question at a time. Short questions, long answers.
- The concrete before the abstract: a scene before its meaning, a real case before the principle, what a character says before what they feel.
- Following your energy, then gently returning to what is still untold.
- When you are stuck, a way in — an example, a cue, at most two possibilities — never a decision made for you.
- No judging, advising or correcting your taste. Distress is met with a pause, never with pressure.
4. The codex
Everything you say updates the book's memory. Its categories are designed for your book — characters, factions and the rules of your world; or frameworks, client stories and key terms; or people, places and sources — and each entry keeps the facts you have settled. Topics covered and pending, loose threads and your most characteristic phrases are kept too.
5. Continuity
Every answer and every draft is checked against the codex and the chapters already written. When something does not fit — a character's age, the order of events, a rule your world breaks, a step of your method counted differently — it becomes a short question for you, never a silent correction. You can also ask for a check of the whole book at any time.
6. Research
When a subject needs it, a researcher reads up on the field, the period or the place before the interview, cites its sources, and suggests sharper questions. It only ever searches general topics, never your name, the people in your book or anything private you told.
7. Drafts in your voice
When a chapter has enough material, it is drafted from your own words, keeping your best phrases verbatim and agreeing with everything the book has established. Non-fiction invents nothing. Fiction never decides your plot or your characters; the small details it fills in are recorded so later chapters respect them. Each draft lists the questions that would most improve it, and you edit and approve every chapter.
8. Sessions with an ending
Professionals close each sitting with a short recap: what was covered, what is waiting, and something small to think about before next time. Press “Wrap up this session” whenever you stop.