The True Meaning of Ghosting

Today, while as Sean Twist would put it, being a ‘word slut’ I had to write about the Litvinenko case. I found writing about his murder incredibly difficult. I have always refused to believe in the bullshit crutch of ‘writer’s block’, but even a hack like me has to acknowledge the emotional obstacles that can get in the way of your words and the page. Writing about the death of someone who helped provide information for one of your books and who may have been murdered for exposing conspiracy theories is like rubbing a dull bruise.

In Global Gangland I was given free reign to write what my then editor called a ‘David Southwell book’. By this, she meant that she expected me to bring some of myself to the subject I was writing about. My direct experiences and personal perspectives could flow into the bare facts and reported narratives. Where it was relevant – the Rettendon murders, the Belfast slaying of Brendan Campbell and my family’s glancing involvement with the Richardsons – my own special knowledge of the topics covered, my feelings, became part of the reporting. My editor also knew full well I could not survey organized crime without railing about poverty and prohibition, that my take on crime would be have some political DNA buried within the text. I always try to make a ‘David Southwell book’ something beyond a mere hackwork refrying of old, cold facts.

However, in my current ghosting job I have to take the exact opposite approach. I have to exorcise myself from the text. Even though I had some contact with Litvinenko and the echoes of his death have been felt in my life, I cannot let a trace of any personal knowledge of his murder make it onto the page. The esteemed crime author holidaying in Barbados I am impersonating did not know Litvinenko, therefore I write the case up in his staccato rhythm, try to include his trademark tastelessness and make myself totally invisible.

There is no informed reflection on the Litvinenko’s character. He becomes simply: ‘Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel in the KGB and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’ rather than a man who generously took time out to offer advice on the Moscow Mafiya and the ‘Tambov bastards’. My views on who murdered him and why are absent, possibly waiting for the new version of Conspiracy Files, possibly to be swallowed deep inside myself to never be published at all.

It is on jobs like this I understand the true meaning of ghosting. You have to remove your spirit from the text. You become insubstantial. Without mass. Nameless and unable to interact with the audience, you do not officially exist and no-one can notice your literary half-life. Naked to the eye, you are condemned to float through the world of words beyond the detection of the reader.