: Re: 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

@Carla500

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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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