Young and upcoming writers often mirror the writing style of famous authors in their work. This method helps them improve and develop theirs in the future. Some of these writing attributes young creators emulate include critical themes, language, and delivery. Having a source of inspiration to build your work is the foundation for developing your writing skills, but many students interpret this practice wrongly. Here, this write-up provides you with how you can correctly use an inspirational source in your work as a young writer.
The Risk of Emulating Other Writers
Falling Prey to Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a critical pitfall you should try to avoid when emulating other’s work. Many writers, especially college students, fall prey to unoriginality while writing essays, thesis, and other literary pieces. The educational sector and society frown upon such acts, which is why university students always check essay for plagiarism after writing. Most literary pieces are voluminous, so it’s possible to inadvertently plagiarise from your source of inspiration. So, you must review your work after writing.
Becoming an Unknown Clone
There’s a chance that you can get lost among the numerous other writers who copy a master’s style. Readers can’t tell the difference and might feel it’s just another run-of-the-mill follower. To avoid such a scenario, it’s helpful to be creative and not just adopt the themes or manner of delivery. Switching up perspective from your inspiration is an excellent way to add creativity and ingenuity to your write-up.
Stay Out of Touch with Current Trends
Taking inspiration or trying to adopt the writing skills of famous writers, especially those from a previous generation can lead to you staying out of touch with the current art trends. Find a way to balance both sides, developing a style that keeps with the current and popular approach while doing justice to your inspirational source.
How to Correctly Use Source of Inspiration
Understanding the difference between following, plagiarism, and interpretation is critical to correctly using your source of inspiration. Excellent writers always strive to achieve the latter, as here you don’t copy your mentor’s concept, text, or plots but emulate their style and approach. In regards to following someone’s art expression, writers imitate their source’s perspective and ideas.
Plagiarism is unethical; you should avoid it and practice proper citation during any projects such as a college paper, research pieces, and more. It’s okay to start with following an art expression, as many writers begin with imitation before moving on to emulation. The latter is the basis for content creators looking to find and build their style.
It’s best to identify the writing attributes that fascinate you from your sources. You can emulate various literary aspects of your mentor’s work, such as how they connect their paragraphs, describe events, their language, and more. Here’s a list of these attributes.
Vocabulary
What vocabulary does your mentor use in their work? Do they use complex or simple words?
Sentences
What’s the length of their sentences and how rich are their descriptions?
Use of Figurative Language
Using figurative language in literature helps bring your text to life. You can emulate the delivery of various figures of speech in their work.
Transitions
How does your mentor connect plots, paragraphs, and sentences?
How Young Creators can Protect Their Work from Plagiarism
You can unintentionally fall prey to plagiarism, and subsequently, lose credibility on your write-ups. It’s critical to practice the following to avoid such scenarios.
- Note all sources during research.
- Practice proper citation and referencing.
- Exercise caution if imitating rather than emulating other’s work.
- Scan your written pieces for plagiarism after completion.
Final Thoughts
It’s critical to keep your work free from plagiarism. Failing to maintain originality can undermine your efforts as a creator and lower your credibility. You can correctly reflect an inspirational source in your art by practicing emulation and interpretation.