Hey guys. So, I’m on vacation at the moment but I love writing these posts. Its kind of hard to write when your busy all the time and have a whole lot of other things to do all the time. (Curse you university!) But despite that I’m going to put up another post and right on time too! So without further ado:
Getting Started: Imitating Other Writers
Despite what other people will tell you, imitating other writers is not bad. However, there is a fine line between plagiarism and imitating other writers. Plagiarism is never a good idea when you’re trying to write an original work. It kind of defeats the purpose. Its not original anymore if it isn’t yours. Plagiarism is easier but its also less fun to read when it follows another story to closely. Its easy to predict and so isn’t a good idea creatively as well as legally. I’ll spell it out in a simple equation as my 10th grade English teacher did.
Plagiarism = Bad
Imitating other writers = Good
Plagiarism ≠ Imitating other writers
Easy to remember when it’s written like that huh?
All in all imitating other writers isn’t a bad thing. Besides, if you ever asked any of the other writers that I know, published or not, they would tell you the same thing I am about to tell you. No idea is ever a truly original idea. ‘But JM!’ you yell, ‘does that mean that my book is not original? Should I stop writing it?’. That is in no way what I mean. Every story has similar elements, similar plot points and some similar plot twist. Some writers use the same page of plot twist ideas to thrown in when they hit a writers block. Every writer has some sort of favorite generator. There are similar plot lines that can form new writing genres. There is a whole genre titled court intrigue which contains books such as Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie. These books and several others all have similar plot points and similar plot twists. They might have similar characters. And yet each of these books is different and unique. But they aren’t entirely original.
Most books are a mishmash of all the things a writer likes about reading or other writer’s books. Its okay to find things in the writing of others that you enjoy and want to have in your book. Whether it’s a type of character, a plot point, or an underlying theme feel free to borrow those ideas as long as you can make them your own.
A small example for you, my book is a sci-fi novel. As a sci-fi novel it has similarities to other sci-fi novels in the fact that the planet is attacked by aliens (you can’t get more cliché than that). It also has gladiators (overused, sorry), militaries, space battles, A.I. technology, and underlying themes of revenge, and forgiveness. All of these are elements that are used in so many other kinds of stories. However, I rearranged them. I changed them. I changed their setting. I changed their meaning slightly. I changed the type of characters that I used as gladiators. I used different characters to switch plot points. I took these typical elements of so many sci-fi novels and I made my sci-fi novel my own.
Imitating other writers isn’t easy. The fine line of plagiarism and imitating is hard to get around. I’ve had several people, on several occasions, tell me that my book is just like such and such other book that they read or such and such other movie that they watched. The best way to get over those doubts is to ask them how your book was like those things when they reply you can ask them how your book is different from those other things that they saw. It makes it easier to not be discouraged when you can see that your book may be similar but its still a different story.
No matter what you do someone is going to not like what you do. There are books by authors that I just don’t like even if I like the author and know them. Sometimes you just need to love your own writing and not care if someone else loves it or not. Writing is what you do and loving what you do is what makes you a writer. Any published author can be a writer, but you don’t need to be a published author to be a writer. Writing can be unique and still be imitating others at the same time. Its how you take these similar elements and make them different that makes a story and not plagiarism.
I will tell you though that if you are still confused as to what exactly defines plagiarism you should look it up. I do it all the time. You think that after looking it up so many times I would just have the definition memorized. I don’t.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to explain that imitating other writers isn’t bad. Sometimes it helps you grow when you can develop existing ideas into your own then that means your learning to become an even more creative writer. Imitating someone else’s work isn’t wrong and I wish that as a young writer someone had told me that a little bit sooner. My dad had to be the one to tell me.
That’s all that I have for this week’s post. I hope you guys enjoyed my rambling on imitating other writers. I hope it was also informative. I strive for both in these posts. Next week I’m going to be talking about plot elements like rising action, climax and all that jazz. I hope you can click back here next Friday for some more fun. And as always,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published! See you next week!