EP02: Good Borrowing

I will kick off this article with a classic callback to the show I grew up watching with my brother, Mythbusters. Just like the two nerdy guys on the show, we'll be testing widely accepted myths about writing and publishing! And, like on the show, we'll find that many of these myths are not as true as we once thought! Woohoo. Someone get me a fedora.

Myth One: Your novel is unlike anything that's ever been done before. There's absolutely nothing on Earth to compare it to.

It's easy to fall into the ego-feeding trap of assuming that your precious novel, the one you've poured all your blood, sweat, and tears into, is the first of its kind. It's never been done before. It's all you. No influence at all. Pablo Picasso even claims that the best art is stolen (his words, not mine) and remade into something new. And that's a good thing.

??An excerpt from Austin Kelon's Steal Like an Artist: "The writer Jonathan Lethem has said that when people call something “original,” nine out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved. What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original. It’s right there in the Bible: “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)"

So, let's save ourselves some time and agree on two things:

1. Your book is unique to you. It's like a little curio shop of all your personal experiences, favorite stories, and most impressionable moments woven into one single plot.
2. Your book relies heavily on the elements and influence of the outside world. Other artists and stories have a direct impact on you, and thus, your novel

Thrift stores will never go out of style. Our human nature craves repurposing. We love the idea of making an old thing new. It's a simple fact that keeps storytelling alive and well. Accepting it as such will help you improve your novel greatly.

Action Item: Make a running list of the influences that greatly impact the lens of your novel.

If you can't think of any, it's your responsibility as a writer to read and reflect more. But, trust me, you have some. Here's an example list of what my list for my sophomore novel (an interactive mystery) looked like:

• Hunt a Killer Games: I have an obsession with these board games and couldn't help but notice how much reading material they have & how the design of the clues was often a unique vehicle to further their story.
• Stuart Turton Novels: I love weird mysteries with tons of unreliable and semi-unlikable characters. I was definitely influenced by some of Stu's work when writing mine.
• Agatha Christie Novels: Agatha Christie is extremely plot driven. The cause and effect is often coming up as a clue being uncovered. The clue will drive the next plot point rather than the character. So on.
• Nancy Drew Games: My fiance and I occasionally replay the old point-and-click Nancy Drew video games that I grew up on. They are still next-level difficult, but there's always some sort of hidden passage or puzzle in the setting that the characters are in, which really tickles my fancy.
• Humphrey Bogart Movies: While I was writing YBS, I was also in a phase of watching movies from the 1940s. The whole "aesthetic" of the era felt very influential to me. I really felt like I needed to bring some of it into my book.

If you put an element from all of these together, you'll have my novel. And whether you liked it or hated it doesn't matter. It was specifically geared at a niche target market that loves the weave of all of these elements. And your book is going to have its own unique texture of influence.

Myth Two: I know I am influenced by things. In order to have a truly creative novel, I need to fast from all other reading material.

Matt Bell, writer of Appleseed, says that keeping a "creative borrowing shelf" is one of the best things he does for his own work. When he's in a creative rut, he goes back to his borrowing shelf and thumbs through the stories, games, or influences there to see what pulls him in. This, my friends, is a good strategy. Starving yourself for the chance to gain outside creative influence is not.

Good creative influence is meant to be studied. And that's exactly what we need to be doing. So, now that you've identified your list of creative influences (which can still be in flux) let's get into the dissection method.

1?? Step One: Decide what your influences mean.

Each of your influences means something. We want to drill them down into a single element of your story and decide which ones impact plot the most. Using my example from above even further:

• Hunt a Killer Games: Inspired the novel formatting (in a big way, but nevertheless, no matter how unique, this was not a plot driver)
• Stu Turton Novels: Inspired the unreliable characters.
• *Agatha Christie Novels: Inspired the unfolding flow of the plot (clue > plot turn > clue > plot turn)
• *Nancy Drew Games: Inspired by the setting-reliant plot twists
• Humphrey Bogart Movies: Inspired the setting in general

2?? Step Two: Pick out your plot drivers.

We have now identified two influences that greatly impact my novel's plot. (The two examples with asterisks.) While the other elements are important, we're going to focus on the main plot driver first. As a rule of thumb, since you are writing a novel, your main plot-impact influence should also be a novel.

3?? Step Three: Study sessions! Homework! Yeah!

If you thought you finished homework when you got a diploma, you were very wrong. You decided to be a writer! We're going to take the influences that you selected as plot-driven influences and study them at their core. If a writer's body of work influenced you, select the novel that you felt the most impact from overall.

When I started doing this, I felt like I was cheating. But really, what I was doing was studying the greats. A master NBA player rewatches the games of the legends that came before them. They study their playbooks. Remember, this is what you're intended to be doing here.

I'll use the example of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. And in any respectable study session, you must invite your best friend from college: Sparknotes! (Pro-tip: Sparknotes is your BFF as an aspiring professional writer)

??

Before you dive into the Sparknotes, make a list of the things that stuck with you as a reader. What made the story so impactful for you?

For me, the answer to the above question is that the twist was SO good, and it was always in front of my nose (A nursery rhyme that foretold everything). With that in mind, I'm going to go through the Sparknotes summaries (If your inspo book doesn't have Sparknotes, you can go analog mode and physically re-read and summarize each chapter yourself, which, while tedious, can often be more beneficial. I won't lie, I've only attempted that once!)

Take Chapter 5 of ATTWN for example:

4?? Step Four: Summarize what each section did for the plot in a few sentences.

Here's what we're not going to do. We're not going to say: "Omg. A character needs to get poisoned in Chapter 5." No. That is actually stealing. We're studying.

We're going to summarize what each section did to drive the story in a few sentences.

? KEY NOTE: We are NOT going to explain the cause and effect that happened in the actual plot (Exp: Poison led to locked door), but rather how that cause and effect drives the story (Exp: Discovery led to Suspicion). ?

• ?? (Cause) A clue is uncovered, which leads to two things:
• ?? Effect #1: Character suspicion is setting in. Things are no longer able to be seen as coincidence. There is a standout character we're going to focus on next.(Taken from the locked doors and note about Rogers)
• ?? Effect #2: The rose-colored glasses about the situation are coming off.(Taken from the statement about the house)

This was a preview of an article on Publishing Hypothesis by ex42. ex42 is focused on commercial success in indie publishing that rivals books published traditionally.

Read the rest of the article on Publishing Hypothesis.