Last week, I had the privilege of visiting the Louvre and Orsay art museums in Paris. One of the sights I most enjoyed was the art students sitting in front of sculptures with their sketch pads on their laps. This feels like a sensible way to learn as an artist, doesn’t it? I’ve never been good at drawing, but I can understand how valuable it would be to sit in front of great art and try to copy it on your own page.

But applying the idea of this feels more complicated when it comes to the art of writing novels. Especially when we have a yucky word like plagiarism in our vocabulary. Of course we don’t want to plagiarize, but we do want to learn from great writers. So what’s the writing equivalent of sitting in front of a masterpiece with our sketch pad?

Define who you want to learn from

You don’t have to choose to learn from Austen, Dickens, or Shakespeare, though of course there’s value in studying classics. You might choose to learn from Marissa Meyer, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Stephen King. Or you could pick individual books rather than the collective work of a writer and choose to study The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Choose the work of whoever you like, regardless of if they’re critically acclaimed or on those lists of “50 Books Everyone Should Read.”

I love how Austin Kleon talks about this in Steal Like An Artist (which you should 100% read if you haven’t yet). “Nobody is born with style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.”

Identify what you admire about those writers or books

Is it how the novel is paced? Or the author’s unique descriptive phrases? How they somehow write romantic scenes that don’t make you cringe? How they have a huge cast but you never get lost?

Once you’ve identified one or two things about the book that you admire, then you can get to work.

Annotate

Get yourself a copy of the book that you can underline and make notes on. Now read through the novel paying attention to whatever trait you identified. 

Maybe you love how the author develops their characters. Read the book paying attention to the characters and how the author is revealing them to you. Underline dialogue that feels unique or bits of inner monologue that unveil more about who they are. Put sticky notes on the pages where new information about the character is shared and then observe how far apart (or how close together!) those sticky notes are. 

As you study, keep asking yourself, “Why is the author doing this?” Why is the information being revealed now? What’s the author’s purpose?

Or maybe you love how the author writes beautifully. Take a look at their paragraphs. Are the sentences mostly long or short? How much white space do you see on the page? What does the author choose to focus on in each paragraph and why do you think they chose that? Do their paragraphs look different depending on where we are in the story? If so, why do you think that is?

Purposefully let their work influence your own.

Have you experienced the phenomenon where you unintentionally start to sound like the people you hang out with? Maybe you have a friend who always says, “Good grief,” when she’s frustrated, and you notice yourself doing the same thing. Or your slight southern accent starts to pop more after you’ve visited family in Atlanta.

You can use this natural tendency to your advantage by reading a chapter from your selected book before you start your writing session for the day. This is a great way to get that author’s pacing and rhythm not just into your head but onto your page as well. I also know of authors who read poetry before they start writing for the day, which can be a great option if that fits the style you’re going for.

Above all, put aside your worries that your work won’t be “original” if you learn from other writers! To quote from Steal Like An Artist once more, “A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we’re incapable of making perfect copies. Our failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own thing lives. That is how we evolve.”

What three books or writers are on your list to study?

Stephanie Morrill writes books about girls who are on an adventure to discover their unique place in the world. She is the author of several historical young adult novels, including the Piper Sail Mysteries and Within These Lines, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, as well as a YALSA 2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick. Stephanie also encourages the next generation of writers at her website, GoTeenWriters.com, which has been on the Writer’s Digest Best Websites for Writers list since 2017. She lives in the Kansas City area, where she loves plotting big and small adventures to enjoy with her husband and three children. You can connect with Stephanie and learn more about her books at StephanieMorrill.com.