: 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

@Pierce369

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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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