McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Fantasy Pallet

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SlimMason:
Whenever I read or see anything awesome, like the Dresden Files, I cannot help but immitate it. (immatating in things I think about writing, not actual work.) Being so similar to somone elses work is bad.

Is there an easy way to cleanse your pallet?

meg_evonne:
Shecky's brain bleach from Corrupt a Wish... Enter at your own peril... ;D

Roaram:
Read something from a different Genre. something totally different maybe, or something kind of different. like for fantasy buffs, try historical fiction/non-fiction. it my not cleanse the pallette so to speak, but history doesn't sue for plagerism. or if you like try a new genre, that way your style does a mix and match with a new genre, making something new rather than rehash other peoples work. Like combine some tom clancey stop-the-terrorist-with-nuke with a fantasy with a fantasy story. some guy peicing together some clues to stop  some rogue group of shadowy figures from piecing together some super spell or something. or cross cousin genres, like watch some horror flick and then write about how  some darkages black smith dealing with his town having some kind of zombie infestation. I mean, if you can,t get the taste of french fries out of your mouth, might as well eat some ketchup

OZ:
Analyze it. Take it apart and see how and why it works. Read Jim's blog on writing. Once you understand what makes it attractive to you it should be easier to incorporate the techniques while keeping the story uniquely your own. To use your own analogy, the problem is not when you use the same pallet, it's when you paint the same (or far too similar) picture.

THETA:
Get it out of your system and just allow yourself to keep writing in that style until you exhaust it.  Normally, one of three things will occur.
1) You get cleansed.
2) After awhile you look back on what you've wrote and feel disgusted, erase it and then actively try for your creativity
3) After writing for a while in someone else's style you begin to develop you own

Either way, it's a win/win situation.  Anyways, don't be ashamed, there's plenty of proclaimed authors who were heavily influenced by their contemporaries or authors that expired them in the first place.  You know those discreet little references to Shakespeare, the Bible, Thoreau, Poe, Plato, ect?  They're like an author's way to tip their hats to those who've inspired them or even their text.

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