"Good artists steal." I can tell you a list of all the things I've stolen from and it's not just one book or one show I like either. It comes down to personal skill level. A writer starting off would do well to steal a lot because if your first book is guaranteed to be bad no matter what like people claim, I don't see it as a problem so long as the end result is uniquely yours. Stealing the structure from something for example like an episodic format found in Tokusatsu shows and then ripping that up and making it yours is how good books are written. Your job as a writer is not to reinvent the wheel but to write a good story that will keep me entertained for the duration of the ten to fifteen hours or whatever I take reading it.
Great video! Thank you. Subscribed and upvoted. I'm not planning in copying another novel. Rather, I'm in the throes of writing one. But your unicorn-zebra-horse analogy is, I think, useful in evaluating my own work. Structurally, my novel is obviously a zebra. Which makes me nervous. As a newbie writer I should probably be going for a horse, right? My novel started out as a straight-forward but humorous mass-abduction-by-aliens story. Twelve years of revisions later, a very minor character has INSISTED on becoming one of the major ones, and the structure is now Framing/Framed (cf: Princess Bride). The stories alternate in separate parts throughout the novel, with occasional wall-breaks from the framing characters, into the framed story. The novel is bookended by a short prologue and short epilogue. The prologue sets the scene for both storylines (the recent past for the framing story; years in the future for the framed story). The epilogue ties both timelines together and sets up the sequel from the cliffhanger ending. Oh yeah, and I'm old fashioned and the book has both a Dramatis Personae and a ToC with chapter titles. Just the way I like to see in old SF novels I read. I reluctantly took out the illustrations. Sucks, right? I'd like your thoughts.
Sounds perfect. Where can I read it? I must say - as someone with not much writing experience or experience in the writing business - it doesn’t sound too far off. I have no idea how it is in praxis obviously, but in theory, as described with you comment it sounds in the realm of a extravagant horse or a manageable zebra.
@@pavel228 >>>"Where can I read it?" I'm 80% done and trying to get the "final first draft" finished by year end, then do a final edit. Maybe by March 2025. Would you be interested in being a beta reader?
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Your example of the zebra reminded me of Flowers for Algernon!
Was thinking of that example as well.
I really like this classification technique and the way you explained it, thank you for adding your value!
"Good artists steal."
I can tell you a list of all the things I've stolen from and it's not just one book or one show I like either.
It comes down to personal skill level. A writer starting off would do well to steal a lot because if your first book is guaranteed to be bad no matter what like people claim, I don't see it as a problem so long as the end result is uniquely yours. Stealing the structure from something for example like an episodic format found in Tokusatsu shows and then ripping that up and making it yours is how good books are written. Your job as a writer is not to reinvent the wheel but to write a good story that will keep me entertained for the duration of the ten to fifteen hours or whatever I take reading it.
So corporate Carl even has his own corporate mug to accompany his corporate shirt along with corporate sh*t coming out of his mouth ;)
Great video! Thank you. Subscribed and upvoted.
I'm not planning in copying another novel. Rather, I'm in the throes of writing one. But your unicorn-zebra-horse analogy is, I think, useful in evaluating my own work. Structurally, my novel is obviously a zebra. Which makes me nervous. As a newbie writer I should probably be going for a horse, right?
My novel started out as a straight-forward but humorous mass-abduction-by-aliens story. Twelve years of revisions later, a very minor character has INSISTED on becoming one of the major ones, and the structure is now Framing/Framed (cf: Princess Bride). The stories alternate in separate parts throughout the novel, with occasional wall-breaks from the framing characters, into the framed story.
The novel is bookended by a short prologue and short epilogue. The prologue sets the scene for both storylines (the recent past for the framing story; years in the future for the framed story). The epilogue ties both timelines together and sets up the sequel from the cliffhanger ending.
Oh yeah, and I'm old fashioned and the book has both a Dramatis Personae and a ToC with chapter titles. Just the way I like to see in old SF novels I read. I reluctantly took out the illustrations.
Sucks, right? I'd like your thoughts.
Sounds perfect. Where can I read it?
I must say - as someone with not much writing experience or experience in the writing business - it doesn’t sound too far off.
I have no idea how it is in praxis obviously, but in theory, as described with you comment it sounds in the realm of a extravagant horse or a manageable zebra.
@@pavel228 >>>"Where can I read it?" I'm 80% done and trying to get the "final first draft" finished by year end, then do a final edit. Maybe by March 2025. Would you be interested in being a beta reader?
Okay. Got it. When I first saw the title I thought the video was about old fashion plagiarism.
Oh. The Whale is a zebra.
Where does Michael Crichton fit in those? A horse?
You look like Chris Stuckmanns long lost twin.
Steal from video games instead!
First commenter lol