About Copycats

Post 837:

Envy is a strange thing. It’s mostly gross. When you see sweet little kids acting envious and fighting over some little deal, whoa. That tendency to desire the other thing or what the other person has or can do is baked hard into our beings from the gate. Even a tacit observation of human nature shows this. There will always be people that have different ideas about the reasons for our envy, fine. Argue argue argue, it ain’t going away.

Of course we have to fight it. This means stopping yourself from playing the comparison game and holding yourself to others and keeping up with the nabes. Frigging easier said than done is what I say, but the alternative is bad manners, and this we shouldn’t abide unless absolutely necessary.

Strange intro to what I want to talk about: Copying other writers’ work. Lifting their style. Purloining their bit. Jacking their groove. Doing their deal. Filching their vibe. Harshing on their gig.

That got out of control. I really wanted to make the premise clear and found myself in a feverish type-fest.

Should you copy other writers? No. But should you be influenced? Yes. That’s the whole deal, carrying on the tradition, carrying the torch on into the future. Can’t do that unless the flame’s lit. Is being influenced and inspired a form of copying? Maybe, if you get out of hand. But the main thing is to be honest with yourself. The thing I think is to want to do awesome work like the person you admire. After that weak sauce, want to do the awesome work that you and only you can do. This is writing. Anyone can do it well. It’s will more than anything. Be inspired, copy, stop copying, then will. Formulas! Cheers and see you after.