: How do I break away from imitating published works? I don't know if other people wanting to be writers experience this, but I get driven by my obsession. It used to be Hunger Games, then

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What I do in my works is to "cross" my characters (mainly to disguise them). That is, I make a fictitious character half of one person and half of another, so that neither real life character is fully reflected in my fictitious one.

Say you need an artist. In your shoes, I would cross Michelangelo with an artist you actually know. That way, you can write convincingly about an artist while incorporating something of the published or famous one. In one play, I created a minor character named Jemile Walker by crossing "Jamal Wallace" (of "Finding Forrester" fame), with someone I actually knew.

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From a practical standpoint, I think the solution is much the same as the solution to idea-generation in many other contexts. I'd recommend you brainstorm like crazy, and the real issue is what prompts you use for your brainstorming.

So you like The Hunger Games, but you don't want to imitate it too blatantly? Start brainstorming key differences you could use. In The Hunger Games, the characters are forced to compete as retaliation for past rebellion. So start listing alternate motivations--e.g., scarcity of resources pits tribes against one another for access. In THG, the participants are drawn at random, and the protagonist volunteered to take her sister's place. Now list other ideas for how participants could be chosen. But wait, who says the combat has to be physical? List other possible contests. Do the losers have to die? List some alternate consequences of losing.

Once you have listed enough of these alternatives to various plot elements, start looking for ways to combine them. Perhaps you end up with a scenario in which participants work their rumps off through years of secondary school in order to be chosen to represent their families at the university. In this world resources were nearly depleted years ago, and only those students who show the most promise for scientific prowess that might save humanity will be granted privileged status. This status earns them access to the scarce medicines that let their families live beyond their thirties or forties.

This scenario was the result of brainstorming possible deviations from THG one plot element at a time. But does it sound like a THG rip-off? Not at all.

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I'm not really feeling the question. I could never write like that. I'm a fan of write your own story with your own characters. However, if this is the only way you can work try a little mix and match.

e.g. Let's say you are a fan of the original screen "Superman" but you are also a fan of "Star Trek".

So write your S/F story with Lois Lane replacing Lt Uhuru. Margot Kidder (the original screen Lois Lane) was fairly volatile, and was somewhat aggressive. The romantic undertones between Captain Kirk and Lt Uhuru are well documented but what would happen if William Shatner's character hit on Margot Kidder's character - It is likely she'll slap him and threaten to file a sexual harassment lawsuit the moment they return to Earth.

The character will prevent you from duplicating the story. Where as Uhuru will say "Ai, captain." Lois will respond "Whatever." Your story will have to cycle through themes like 'maybe she doth protest too much' and somehow put them in a position whereas they're forced to resolve their differences.

All around you'll see well-known characters placed in alternative environments.

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Maybe you're focusing too much on what you like, rather than what you like about it. Once you know what you like about something, it's usually not too difficult to come up with something that has those qualities, but in a different way. The deeper you go in your understanding of what you like, the further you can go in your own creations (because the core of it, what makes it work for you, can be retained).

I think this is because if you don't know what you like about the things you like, you'll always be afraid that changing things too much will make them bad.

For example, let's say you give a little thought to your taste, and realise that you really like heroic-underdog-type characters (which you may or may not, of course, but since it's something that all of the things you named have in common, I'll use it as an example). Knowing this, you can create a new character, completely from scratch, making a conscious effort to make them different in every way from the existing characters you like, except in this one aspect that you want to make sure they retain, because you like it.

So you end up with a whole new person, but you still like them, because they're still a heroic underdog.

Or perhaps you don't still like them. If that happens, great. You've now learnt that there are certain qualities you don't like in a character, or certain other qualities you like that you've missed out. Adjust your sense of your own preferences accordingly, and try again.

It takes time and concentrated attention to really understand what you like about things, but once you start thinking like this, you can really run with it. You can start thinking about qualities you like in Thing A, but that are entirely absent from Thing B, or (and this is where it starts to get really fun) things that you think you would like, but which you've never seen in anything.

This isn't to say that simply putting a load of things you like into a story will make it good, but really knowing what you like, and really understanding why you dig whatever it is that you dig, will give you the freedom to strip away those details that aren't so crucial, and replace them with details of your own.

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I used to do the same thing when I was first starting out. My sense is that it's because you are excited and inspired by The Thing, and you want more of The Thing, so you make more of it by mimicking it.

I'm going to come at a solution for you from an odd angle, so hear me out before you dismiss my answer. My suggestion is that for right now, give in to your obsession, in a specific way: Write fanfic.

Fanfic allows you to do a number of things. First, you can make more of The Thing, unabashedly, without trying to put your own characters in the same plot. If you dig Katniss in the Games, go ahead and write seventeen different drabbles about Katniss in the Games. Then write a character study about Katniss in the city the night before a battle. Then extend it to a day in the life just before the series starts, when they're all in their own districts trying to get through existing. And so on. Write the parts you love and don't apologize for it.

Second, fanfic allows you to practice writing. Particularly if you find a like-minded community and can share your works for constructive feedback, you can practice creating and keeping someone "in character." This is important practice. You can learn how to research backstory (canon) to determine why Katniss/Peeta/Cinna acts in a particular way so that your version behaves "correctly."

This also allows you to practice being edited, receiving feedback, and editing your own work. (And editing the work of others if you get that far.) Editing what you've written is a crucial skill. You need to learn how to accept feedback without getting defensive and how to judge what is a useful comment and what you can disagree with.

Third: After a while of writing fanfic which hews closely to the canon, you will start to come up with your own plots. You may start to come up with your own characters to inhabit those plots. You may start to cross The Thing with other universes. And that way lies... original fiction.

When you've gotten more comfortable with the tools and skills of writing by using them to create derivative works, it will be much easier to use those skills to create original works.

And that is one way to break away from existing works: by going right through them.

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If you don't want to look like you're following a fad, then read lots of stuff that's been around so long that it's in the public domain.

I also recommend reading stuff outside of the genre in which you intend to work.

Added:

Specifically, books like Les Miserables, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, anything by Shakespeare, and so forth. You may remember some of it as "the stuff they made us read in school." There's a reason they picked those particular works; in spite of your teacher telling you it's good, it actually is good.

If you have a mobile device, download a free books app (there are a few of them), and then use it to read all of the free novels you can scare up.

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