Borrow from the best

Creative writing 101: Don’t plagiarize!

Copying someone else’s work is stealing.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t borrow their skill to jumpstart your own writing.

Find a writer you’d like to emulate. Don’t pick Hemingway or Austen unless that’s truly the kind of book you’re trying to write. Find a book in your genre with a similar tone to the book you want to write. Or choose a book that demonstrates skill in an area you’d like to improve.

Choose a paragraph or two from the book and copy it, word for word. Feel the rhythm of the language and the length of the sentences. Notice how the writer creates tension and pulls you into the work.

Now, take the characters and setting from your own book and write a similar paragraph but with the details of your own story. Emulate the rhythm and the tools your mentor author employs.

Don’t insert this paragraph into your own book! Set it aside and write a new paragraph, unique to your story, but in the vein of what you’ve written.

How does it feel?