How do I break away from imitating published works?

Maybe you're focusing too much on what you like, rather than what you like about it. Once you know what you like about something, it's usually not too difficult to come up with something that has those qualities, but in a different way. The deeper you go in your understanding of what you like, the further you can go in your own creations (because the core of it, what makes it work for you, can be retained).

I think this is because if you don't know what you like about the things you like, you'll always be afraid that changing things too much will make them bad.

For example, let's say you give a little thought to your taste, and realise that you really like heroic-underdog-type characters (which you may or may not, of course, but since it's something that all of the things you named have in common, I'll use it as an example). Knowing this, you can create a new character, completely from scratch, making a conscious effort to make them different in every way from the existing characters you like, except in this one aspect that you want to make sure they retain, because you like it.

So you end up with a whole new person, but you still like them, because they're still a heroic underdog.

Or perhaps you don't still like them. If that happens, great. You've now learnt that there are certain qualities you don't like in a character, or certain other qualities you like that you've missed out. Adjust your sense of your own preferences accordingly, and try again.

It takes time and concentrated attention to really understand what you like about things, but once you start thinking like this, you can really run with it. You can start thinking about qualities you like in Thing A, but that are entirely absent from Thing B, or (and this is where it starts to get really fun) things that you think you would like, but which you've never seen in anything.

This isn't to say that simply putting a load of things you like into a story will make it good, but really knowing what you like, and really understanding why you dig whatever it is that you dig, will give you the freedom to strip away those details that aren't so crucial, and replace them with details of your own.

posted over 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

TheTermiteSociety‭

65 reputation 3 8 11 0

I used to do the same thing when I was first starting out. My sense is that it's because you are excited and inspired by The Thing, and you want more of The Thing, so you make more of it by mimicking it.

I'm going to come at a solution for you from an odd angle, so hear me out before you dismiss my answer. My suggestion is that for right now, give in to your obsession, in a specific way: Write fanfic.

Fanfic allows you to do a number of things. First, you can make more of The Thing, unabashedly, without trying to put your own characters in the same plot. If you dig Katniss in the Games, go ahead and write seventeen different drabbles about Katniss in the Games. Then write a character study about Katniss in the city the night before a battle. Then extend it to a day in the life just before the series starts, when they're all in their own districts trying to get through existing. And so on. Write the parts you love and don't apologize for it.

Second, fanfic allows you to practice writing. Particularly if you find a like-minded community and can share your works for constructive feedback, you can practice creating and keeping someone "in character." This is important practice. You can learn how to research backstory (canon) to determine why Katniss/Peeta/Cinna acts in a particular way so that your version behaves "correctly."

This also allows you to practice being edited, receiving feedback, and editing your own work. (And editing the work of others if you get that far.) Editing what you've written is a crucial skill. You need to learn how to accept feedback without getting defensive and how to judge what is a useful comment and what you can disagree with.

Third: After a while of writing fanfic which hews closely to the canon, you will start to come up with your own plots. You may start to come up with your own characters to inhabit those plots. You may start to cross The Thing with other universes. And that way lies... original fiction.

When you've gotten more comfortable with the tools and skills of writing by using them to create derivative works, it will be much easier to use those skills to create original works.

And that is one way to break away from existing works: by going right through them.

posted over 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Lauren Ipsum‭

2098 reputation 13 1143 397 1

There is a fundamental difference between the desire to imitate and the desire to create. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the desire to imitate. Indeed, it is the foundation of our social order. Imitation is how we learn to get along with each other. It is why originals tend to be outcasts. We are imitating animals.

The idea of being a creator is very appealing. Society encourages it in word as much as it discourages it in deed. Imitating the creative work of others that is already socially acceptable, whether it is through pastiche or through fan fiction, is a safe way to play at being a creator without taking any real risks.

Lauren is right that you can learn a lot of the mechanics of writing from writing pastiche, and most of us started out that way to one extent or another. But I disagree with her suggestion to keep on doing it. You have come to the point of realizing that you want to be more than an imitator. You are standing at the deep end of the pool and staring down at the water, knowing that if you jump in, your feet will not touch the bottom and you will have to swim.

It is time to jump.

It is never going to get less scary. No matter how many times you go back to the kiddy pool, there is nothing more for you to learn in the kiddy pool once you have looked into the deep end with envy and desire. From this point on, further pastiche is simply cowardice.

It is time to jump.

Art is the imitation of life. Pastiche is the imitation of art. The way you make the jump is simply this: start observing life, start speculating about life. Watch people on the bus. Where are they going. What are they thinking. What horrors are about to befall them? What horrors are they about to commit? Fully observe a person or a scene, then have some horror, some​ unexpected disaster, intervene. How do these people react -- these particular real people that you have so carefully observed and whose inner lives you have imagined -- how do they react. Write that.

It is time to jump.

posted over 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Mark Baker‭

4371 reputation 12 1104 744 58