This is exactly how beginning jazz musicians learn how to play improvised solos - listen to other, better musicians, copy them, then use the inspiration to develop your own style and technique.
Honestly the more I learn from you the more I see that art and writing honestly aren't all the different. Imitation with writing seems to be something similar to making copies of artworks from the old masters. It's all about learning other people's problem solving processes and how to implement them into your own style
@@kaputmortuum oh hi Kaput! I didn’t think a disembodied head would be able to create a RU-vid account but I suppose I should never underestimate your otherworldly abilities
This is the video I need, one of my favorite writers is John Milton and his masterpiece paradise lost, and will try this technique for practice. Thank you so much
So happy I've found your channel! Your videos are great. I really have no clue what 'det', 'neg' or 'mod' are in your examples of imitation, though... Do you have a video on these sorts of things? :) Thanks!
Yeah, just some grammatical abbreviations (determiner, negative, modifier). Check out the grammar playlist (it's pretty old, but it goes over some of the basics)
Marvellous video! Just what I needed to kick me into motion after a slack spell. Every time I have tried any imitation exercise it has been beneficial. One of the doubts I used to have - as so many have - is that by imitation you risk becoming servile to the style of another. I am, however, reminded of what one of the Beatles said of learning their craft. They said that they were trying to imitate the style of their American influences but that no matter how hard they tried it was actually impossible to imitate them perfectly. What resulted was always original content in an original style which became more and more original.
Did music exist before the Beatles? I was under the impression that the Beatles invented it! I suppose there's a huge difference between imitating and copying. You can try and copy the Beatles sound and you will always come across as the inferior, supermarket brand cola. There are lots of bands that tried to imitate them and they just sounded terrible - the chances of a band having 4 musical geniuses in it is slim to nonexistent lol. Instead of imitating, the best way is to write a love letter to the thing that inspires you! Oasis were clearly heavily inspired by the Beatles, but instead of slavishly copying the Beatles, they wore their love of the Beatles on their sleeve. Echos of the Beatles appear on each one of their songs but they took what they learned from the Beatles and created their own unique sound. Copying never sounds good because it will always lack originality. When you proudly show your appreciation though, when you don't hide your inspiration but instead allow it to combine with your own voice, it just shines through on the work. The Beatles are by far my favorite band and Oasis are probably second on my list. Imitation done right in my book.
Good points, Mike! But yes (and to my surprise) apparently there were some traces of music present before the Beatles but, for clarification, as George himself remarked: "Before Elvis there was nothing".@@mikesmithz
@@ElliotBrownJingles haha! The story of the Beatles meeting Elvis and becoming starstruck is funny...I can't imagine a situation where the Beatles would walk in and feel starstruck! I've lost count of the amount of times I've listened to the Beatles hoping to learn some secrets from them...and each time I listen to their music, I find something new. What I'd give to have John's voice...or Paul's ear for melody! As far as I'm concerned, music began with "I want to hold your hand". It really is amazing to look through the music charts through the years and see the number 1 songs - everything sounded dated until the Beatles came along, every song changed after they arrived. I suppose we'll never see another band like them.
Ahh, yes, the old up-stroke starting strum in the intro to I Wanna Hold Your Hand still gets me every time. As far as I can tell 'No Reply' is a contender for the greatest thing ever to be recorded. (That sounds like hyperbole but I genuinely believe it.).@@mikesmithz
That's really cool--so we all just need to imitate like the Beatles 😆 There's something to that, though: at least for me, the value of imitation is really in the way that it puts me in contact with language in a different way and forces me to think through sentences without being on autopilot. Even when we're done with "copying," I think that new sensibility of language can make a meaningful difference.
Great video prof, this looks like another fun activity that might help me find my voice. After deconstructing my favorite author, I discovered lots of repeating patterns - heavy use of alliteration, lots of rhyme through assonance, deliberate use of meter, paragraphs based around plosives, fricatives and nasals. I suppose the main take away I learned from imitation was that my favorite author didn't leave anything to chance, none of the words he used were random. Every word, every phoneme, was deliberate chosen because of the sound it made. I then saw these patterns everywhere in "good" writing - I can see these techniques used in good poetry, good lyrics, and even in good advertising copy! While I'm happy I can see them, it does make me a little sad because if I can see these patterns, then so can a computer. If "good" writing is based on patterns, then it's only a matter of time before AI can replicate and reproduce these patterns. Through imitation, I learned that so much of this good writing is dependent on the sound of the words, not just the meaning of the words. I suppose this is obvious to most people as even if they read a book silently, they are still speaking the words out loud in their heads...still, it took me a long time to learn about the importance of the sound of words, something I would never have realized without imitating my favorite author. On a side note, I recently had an epiphany about "discovering my voice". What if it's more a case of uncovering your voice instead of discovering it? What if my voice is covered in a 4 inch layer of dust and dirt - so much so that it can't be seen? I'm still reeling from the wake up call you gave me with your video on cliches and generic love poems. I was always looking for tips and tricks to add to my writing so I could "find my voice" - I never even considered that I might have to remove something to uncover it. I'm thinking my unique voice is there somewhere, it's just caked with mud and cliches, a Ferrari covered in four inches of filth! Instead of adding things to my writing, I going to spend the next week or 2 removing things to see if that helps.
I had a teacher once who said that good style is a balance of repetition and variation--building the pattern and then breaking it artfully to keep readers surprised and engaged. At least for now, we still have the edge over computers when it comes to artful pattern breaking! (And, of course, the fact that we're real people with real, meaningful experiences 😜). But, honestly, I think paying attention to sound is often overlooked. I'm in the camp that it matters much more than we often realize--even in silent reading. So follow your ear for sure! And that's a really cool epiphany. I think there's something to that, finding what is uniquely you underneath the layers of accumulated habits and patterns. Maybe something like Orwell's injunction to avoid repeating what you're used to seeing in print. I'm going to ponder that for a while--thanks!
@@WritingwithAndrew Yeah, your video on cliches and generic love poems really did rock me. I always thought I had a talent for writing little, thoughtful poems in birthday cards and things like that, only for your video to show me how awful my writing really is haha. This is what lead me to the epiphany, all the pieces are there in my writing, all the boxes checked, but the spark is missing...I now think it's not missing, it's just covered up in cliches. So instead of adding to my writing I'm going to try removing things instead to see what that does. Hmm, I counted 3 cliches in this paragraph alone, seems like I have an uphill battle in front of me. Four now... "Rage, rage against the dying of the light". This is the one line that lives rent free in my head. I've gone over and over it, deconstructing and pulling it apart phoneme by phoneme to see why it works so well. Everything rhymes - all its power comes from the repetition of sounds. Sure the words paint a vivid picture, but it's the repetition of sound that gives it its magic. The long "a" sound repeated 3 times in "rage" and "against". The repeated "i" sound in "dying" and "light". The repetition of alveolar consonants in the "d" and "l" sound. The hard "t" sound at the end of "against" and "light". Nothing in that line is there by accident, every single word has been picked because of the sound it makes and all of it is happening at a subliminal level. When read at surface level, it just seems an ordinary line - it's only when you really look at it can you see all the power comes from the sound it makes when its read out loud. All "good" writing seems to have this subliminal network of repeating sounds. Not only does it taste nice when spoken out loud, the ear seems to love repetition of similar sounds. I suppose if you strip away the meaning of words, then all spoken language is music - and language, just like music, has notes, scales and keys. It is bizarre that more people don't place enough emphasis on it.
Great video. I think this would be not only a learning experience, but a lot of fun. In fact, I know exactly where I’ll start: L’avalée des avalés. I’ve said to friends before, if I write even a single sentence in my lifetime that’s half as good as Réjean Ducharme’s worst sentence, I’ll die with a smile on my face. Myself, when stuck while writing, I’ve done a similar thing with my own writing. That is, rewrite it word for word. Rewriting a page or two is a great ice breaker for the beginning of a writing session. Although, I’m an old fart who writes with pen and paper, retyping something on a computer may not have the same effect.
"Ancient technique" you say, yet it's the most universally advised against method. Even for ordinary learners (not writers). But this is not a criticism of mine, just an interesting point.
A sketchbooks is a no-stakes, judgment-free zone. It's not about writing a series of well-behaved narratives with broad appeal. Instead, it's a place to experiment wildly, find the limits for your own taste, and go from there. There's value in learning you're capable of writing in a particular style even if you don't adopt it for everyday use.
That's a pretty tiresome thing to say. Writing's not an arcane mystery, and it's often the least impressive practices that can make the biggest difference--especially for new writers.
