Steal This Copy: Finding Inspiration in the Work of Other Writers

Steal This Copy: Finding Inspiration in the Work of Other Writers

Reader Comments (21)

  1. Excellent advice Ryan. Some of the best artists I know began at a young age tracing the work of those they admired.

    Inspiration can be found everywhere. The key is being aware of it, knowing where to look, and how to adapt it to make it your own.

  2. It’s through imitating others that we learn. If we imitate enough, we start to meld the best of what we like about other’s writing into our own. This is slippery slope to having your own style!

  3. Consider this post stolen! (At the very least, linked to)

    But seriously, I find that whenever I’m a little creatively dry, or I can’t figure out how to word something, if I just flip open one of my favorite books I’ll be able to draw some inspiration and advice. Great article, Ryan.

  4. Ryan,

    Very well written post. I was just thinking about how well you were transitioning from one point to the next when you slipped right into into talking about the transitions themselves.

    I agree completely that keeping the flow from one point to the next is a crucial aspect of excellent writing. I think it is also critical for the writer to be properly inspired before these transitions will flow naturally. And that’s where looking to other excellent work comes in.

    Although I’m sure many will point out how dangerous it can be to take ideas from other people, assimilating and reapplying what is already around is one of the best ways to come up with something brilliant and new.

    Thanks for the great post,

    – Mason Hipp

  5. I’m sure many will point out how dangerous it can be to take ideas from other people…

    Everyone takes ideas from other people, either directly or indirectly, in whole or in part.

    It’s how we remix those ideas that makes us unique. 🙂

  6. Great post, and very well written. Taking inspiration from other sources is one of the best ways to get new ideas, and write great copy.

    Hell, Shakespeare “stole” most of his ideas from older works, as did Chaucer. If the great writers of the past can “steal” ideas and be heralded as geniuses, I think it can work for the rest of us, too.

    And…just to be nit-picky, Chuck Palahniuk is not a fictional writer. He is a fiction writer. Reading the work of fiction writers is a good tip. The work of fictional writers, on the other hand, is generally non-existent.

  7. I keep various files of work that I turn to periodically for inspiration. Learned this years ago from a designer I worked for. She called it a “tickler file”. Whatever you call it, it works when you’re stuck.

    I also keep lists of various types of copy I like. Has saved my butt more than once when I was on deadline!

  8. As a fiction (some say “fictional”) writer myself, I freely steal ideas from my favorite authors. Some stuff gets ripped off so many times that it becomes common place. Who hasn’t heard of “tachyon particles”? Every TV SciFi show “detects” them when someone else is lurking around. Ray guns are passe, now it’s needle guns.

    So, as one comic put it, “Plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize. But always please to be calling it ‘research’.”

  9. The work of fictional writers, on the other hand, is generally non-existent.

    That’s exactly right. The mystery is how that escaped the usually careful eye of the editor. He must be slacking. 🙂

  10. “Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal.” – T. S. Eliot

    I’ve always liked that advice. Not that I “steal” as in plagiarize, but rather try to draw inspiration from other work. Sometimes it’s general (a concept or structure), sometimes very specific (a sentence I like).

  11. Great artists start off by mimicking the work of others; then from there begin to develop their own style. It should be the same with writing. Besides, some ideas are so commonplace that it’s nigh impossible not to borrow them.

  12. We should be learning from everything around us, but especially from the media that we are exposed to. I remember my mom boasting when I was very little about me being such a good reader that I even read the back of cereal boxes (not top literature, for sure). Guess what? I still read cereal boxes, and everything else that crosses my path.

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