Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation—Mason Cooley
Many artists and that includes writers worry about imitating others in their work. My suggestion is to imitate other writers every chance you get. I am not promoting plagiarism but in the early stages of any art form, imitation is sometimes the only way to learn. I have personally found imitation as a tool for discovering my own style and voice, to learn the methods and techniques of more experienced writers and to be inspired to hone my craft in new ways.
Here are four reasons I have discovered to imitate other writers:
- To be inspired
Early on in my own path to becoming a writer I read A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I was inspired by her construction of the story and how she was able to execute it on the page. Her writing was new to me. I particularly liked the way she trusted her readers to understand things she hadn’t previously explained. She dropped them into the handmaid’s world and trusted the reader to find their way around that world. I had never considered that this was a method of writing and it freed my mind in places where I had been stuck. I wrote several drafts of chapters of my own book, using her book as a source of inspiration.
- To find out you have a different voice
When I first read the author Cormac McCarthy, I had the sinking feeling that I would never really be a good writer. It was pointless to continue my own writing when there were such greats as McCarthy. I was equally awed and discouraged. A writer friend of mine suggested this exercise as a challenge. Think of scene I wanted to write about. Fix that in my mind, when I was clear I set it aside. Take a favorite passage or two from my favorite McCarthy title. Find a quiet spot and with a pen and pad, write out the passage slowly and methodically. Almost like a meditation, forming letters and words and sentences while in a deeply calm state. I wrote out three passages very slowly, getting lost in the sounds and rhythm of his words. This took about an hour. When I was done, I quickly shifted my pen to a new page and began writing my own scene, almost channeling the voice and style of McCarthy himself. Still writing slowly I completed a short scene that I had been struggling to depict. I read through the new piece, and while it was not nearly as elegant or well-crafted as McCarthy’s work, I was surprised to find that there was a pattern, a style of writing that seemed to be consistent in his work. The voice was so different from my own and yet I had managed to make a sloppy reproduction of his style. I realized that I had a style. I didn’t want to write like Cormac McCarthy anymore. I wanted to write like me.
- To feel your own unique creative desires
Someone once had me perform an exercise of copying word for word the opening lines of my favorite novel as I was writing it myself. The exercise was to notice how long it took before my own creativity wanted to impose itself on the work. At what point did I want to change the sentence, the dialogue and the story itself. I chose The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I was sure that I would be copying the entire book verbatim because it was perfect, and I could never want to change a thing about it. I was surprised to discover that by the third page I was wanting to change words and take things in a different direction. My own ideas and artistic sense insisted on having a say. I found out that my own instincts were much stronger than I had believed prior to the exercise. It gave me confidence and helped me to trust myself in the writing process.
- To learn a skill set
Every single book I read, teaches me something about becoming a better writer. Sometimes I am able to spot ways in which the book could be improved, other times I see a mastery of craft that I want to emulate. I practice in my own writing what I learn from reading others work. Sometimes I copy their methods very closely, just to get a sense of what it feels like to write in particular way. I will write out passage from a Dickens novel, for example and then try to recreate the passage so that it reads as a modern scene, keeping as much of Dickens original wording as possible. In this way I learn some of the hidden art of Dickens’ skills. Deconstructing novels and memoirs have been hugely instructive for me to learn more about the many ways to tell a good story.
While it can feel fraudulent in the beginning to “borrow” so much from the work and writing from others, imitation is an excellent way to learn when you don’t have a teacher or writing coach to guide you. Let the greats from the past teach you all you need to know about discovering your own voice and maybe someday your work will inspire a young budding writer looking for inspiration.
