Today is Day 6 Jeff Goins' challenge and today's lesson is to STEAL. WHAT?!?!?!
OK, so here him out. It makes sense.
Stealing 101
Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
—Picasso
Jeff explains that a good writer curates. She scoops up all the little pieces of inspiration around her, melding and mashing them, putting it all together in a hodgepodge mosaic that makes something new.
He says that sometimes, we don’t even realize we do this, but we all do it. Great artists borrow from other artists. They meld together pieces of the chaotic mess we all call life, and they end up with a whole new creation.
His challenge for today is:
Find a quote or a painting or some form of inspiration — and steal it. Make it your own. Attribute it — give credit where it’s due — but don’t be afraid to use it. Let someone else’s work springboard you into your own.
Give up on your pursuit of originality and genius and just find something that inspires you. Borrow from your friends and heroes and mash it all up into something that looks, feels, and sounds like you.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes
If you can imagine it, you can create it. if you dream it, you can become it. --William Arthur Ward
The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything. --Theodore Roosevelt
You have to have a darkness...for the dawn to come. --Harrison Ford
So where did you find your inspiration?
Stolen from a painting before! The idea for my first book sprang from Frank Frazetta's original artwork for Battlestar Galactica. The specific scene that image sparked is all that survived from the original first draft many years ago to the finished book.
ReplyDeleteSome of the best stories are stolen! Just look at fairy tale retellings and all the myths that are used in novels these days.
ReplyDeleteI think my inspiration comes from daydreaming...
ReplyDeleteGreat advice Heather. I read a good quote the other day but I forget who said it. I have access to the book if you really want to know: 'I try to leave out the parts that readers skip.' Love it. Keeps me on my toes.
ReplyDeleteI hope you come up with something for Being the Perfect EX.
The sky's the limit for this one. Anyhow you want to dish it up.
Denise
And I was taught stealing was wrong! haha. But seriously, it's so true, we are taking bits and pieces of things that influence us and recreating it as our own. I hope I can think of something truly original one day, but until then, I'll just steal from the brilliance of others. :)
ReplyDeleteOoooh, I love those quotes!! I am a total thief when it comes to inspiration. I have no shame. I love music, movies, art (deviantart.com), my own memories, and eveother books. :)
ReplyDeleteI just try to use the ideas and shape them into something new, and make them my own.
This is a great series, thanks!
Andrea