by Jon Morrow
Copyright© 2010-2012
In college, an English professor said something that changed my life.
"The best writers are the best thieves," he said. "Shakespeare stole his plots from Greek
and Roman plays. Thomas Jefferson practically plagiarized the Declaration of
Independence from John Locke. Oscar Wilde stole from... well... everyone. And so
should you."
I was stunned. From kindergarten on up, we're all taught that stealing the ideas of others
is wrong, and we are threatened with everything from failing grades to expulsion from
school for doing it.
Yet, here was a college professor (with tenure, I'm sure), telling everyone that the key to
great writing is blatant and unrepentant theft. And I had to admit, he had some pretty
solid examples.
"Can it possibly be true?" I thought. "Could I really be hurting my writing by trying to be
original?"
My answer, three years later, as a professional writer and Associate Editor of one of the
most popular blogs in the world:
Yup.
The truth about being a "serious" writer
One of the worst ways you can torture yourself as a writer is to believe everything you do
has to be original. Yes, it's possible, but you'll get comparatively little done, and the
continuous pressure will give you a nervous breakdown.
It's far, far better to steal. No, you shouldn't violate copyrights or willfully claim someone
else's work as your own, but the writers who make it in this business -- and yes, writing is
a business -- are the ones who watch what's working for everyone else and then creatively
adapt it for their own.
It's not because they're lazy. It's because they're busy.
Download the entire PDS version of this.
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