We've all done it – finished reading a book by an author we admire and said, 'I want to write a book like that.' Whether it's because you admire the way they pulled you into the story, the style in which they wrote it, or perhaps one of the themes – such as vampires, for instance, a thriller, or romance – you want to be like them.
And there's nothing wrong with that. Inspiration comes from everywhere, and who knows – one day they may be the name below the quote on the cover of your new bestseller. But it's all too easy to find yourself WUI – Writing Under the Influence, or, to explain myself, writing a book that is almost the same as the book you want to emulate.
Let me give you an example. A friend of mine is a very dedicated writer, and has bundles of talent – but whenever you look at what she's written you can nearly always guess exactly what's on her bedside table right that minute. The style and theme gives her away at once. 'Ornate, archaic language? You've been at the Tolkien again, haven't you?' You don't want to be an author whom readers can identify as definitely having read this book or that book – that isn't originality. And publishers will know that. As a second example, I have a great and abiding love for a novel I read online by an unpublished writer. When I first read it, it totally wowed me. It was only later, when I started reading Laurell K. Hamilton's 'Anita Blake' series, that I realised the online novel was very definitely overinfluenced. It was all too obvious that that the writer had read that series first and been affected by it in her own writing. While it still had a great plot and great characters, a lot of the themes and ideas in it were ones that had been published years before. Which lost it some of its appeal.
So how do you know? Have another look at your project (yes, I know it's your precious baby, but it's necessary.) Then compare it to the books you have been reading recently, those by your favourite authors, etc. How many things are the same, and how many different? Could you read their book, then your book, and feel like you'd been reading the same book, just in two different covers under two different names?
If you do find yourself WUI, it's time to sit back and look at your project again. To what extent has your story been affected by this influence? And what can you do about it? If the plot is almost identical (no two plots will ever be perfectly identical, but look at the parallels), then you need to seriously think about how to overhaul it. If it's only that the main character in both the published novel and yours is a blacksmith, for instance, or both of you like to use short, sharp sentences, you don't need to worry overly much. It's all a matter of degrees.
(Do remember that it is possible for two writers to come up with the same idea totally separately. One of the more bizarre examples is that in both England and America, two cartoonists simultaneously created a comic about a mischievous young boy known as Dennis the Menace. Neither even knew the other man existed. It's hard when this occurs, because you don't want to be accused of copying the other person, but it happens. Go on with your story, since it's genuinely your own.)
There is a good way to go about emulating your favourite authors. Sit down and look at the novel you enjoyed, and work out the aspect of it that really caught your imagination. Perhaps it's a theme, or the feel of the relationship between two main characters. Maybe you like the perspective given (reading the online novelist started me on first-person writing, which worked better for me than I'd ever expected, and I never would have given it a go myself if not for that book.) Once you've found what it is that grabbed you, think about why it did. Did it appeal to your sense of fun, keep you hanging on the edge of the seat in suspense, make you longingly wait until the times when it reared its head again in the novel? When you understand why you liked it so much, you can then start to think about how to use it in your own work. And you can be safe in the knowledge that you are writing your own thing, as original as you are.
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