Copy to create something original
The one secret no artist wants you to know
Everyone seems to think artists are special snowflakes who magically create 100% original stuff every single time they sit down at their canvas.
Allow me to let you in on a secret: artists are thieves. And when I say artists, I don’t just mean the Picassos and Beethovens of the world. I’m including entrepreneurs, writers, podcasters, athletes, and basically anyone who creates something others can appreciate.
The key to creating original art starts by simply copying the art you already love.
You know that book you’ve read a dozen times that you wish you’d written? Copy it.
You know that silky smooth voice of your favorite podcaster that you wish you sounded like? Copy it.
Why? Because that’s how you create something original.
Like a pair of drunk goggles that distorts your vision, your copy attempt has no choice but to turn out wildly different from the source. Possibly even better.
When Kobe tried copying MJ’s moves, he couldn’t help but inject his own personal flare, which was never quite the same. Because of this, copying MJ’s moves was actually the best way to discover what kind of player he was.
When Tim Ferriss interviews a guest and imitates Charlie Rose’s interview style, hardly anybody will notice it. Listeners don’t pay enough attention (or care) unless he flat out tells you who he’s trying to copy.
So a writer can try to copy someone else’s writing, and still be writing words worth reading.
I used to believe that everything I wrote had to be 100% original. My typical writing routine consisted of me productively procrastinating for a while before reluctantly sitting down at my desk and suffering from a debilitating case of blank page syndrome. I knew which writers I enjoyed reading the most, but Mrs. Terry (my middle school English teacher) had taught me that plagiarism was the ultimate sin. So copying their styles was completely out of the question.
It took me twenty years to unlearn this false belief and realize that I’d be doing my readers a favor if I copied the writers that already proved to resonate with others. Now I attempt to copy them shamelessly, and have never suffered from blank page syndrome again.
So take a step back to notice the art that catches your eye. You can try your hardest to copy, but you will always inject your own flare that results in something original and valuable.
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I thought of copying your entire article and just pasting it here as my comment. Maybe you'll get a smile out of my description of the idea without having to do that to your comment space.
“And we read in order to experience different styles. You may find yourself adopting a style you find particularly exciting, and there’s nothing wrong with that. When I read Ray Bradbury as a kid, I wrote like Ray Bradbury—everything green and wondrous and seen through a lens smeared with the grease of nostalgia. When I read James M. Cain, everything I wrote came out clipped and stripped and hard-boiled. When I read Lovecraft, my prose became luxurious and Byzantine. I wrote stories in my teenage years where all these styles merged, creating a kind of hilarious stew. This sort of stylistic blending is a necessary part of developing one’s own style, but it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so.”
- Stephen King, author or something