When It May Be Important to Let Go and Quit Embracing Our Writing Roots

Writers have their influences. In most cases, if not all, that’s how we decide we want to become writers. But during the writing or editing process I’ve found it’s generally a good idea to avoid those influences to ensure the work is your own.

It’s important for writers to form their own literary footprint, and in order to do this, their style must be their own. I am not in any way suggesting that we abandon our storybook muses, but that we provide ourselves enough slack so that we have enough breathing room to grow on our own as authors without completely cutting the tethers or losing the safety net. After all, the works of novelists who have inspired us are among the best sources of constructive criticism for an author or aspiring writer, especially if they lack the luxury of another writer to review their work. So many writers have no one to rely on when it comes to critiquing their work, and having a source of evaluation is invaluable and very nearly a must-have as we meander along the twists and turns that is the writing journey; making sure our prose makes sense and flows correctly and that we get our point across. In this sense, it’s important to have the necessary guidance nearby, and so reviewing the works of those we admire should not be entirely ruled out as we create.

Writers are notorious for borrowing or paying homage to their favorite authors. That famous line in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind? "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" Taken from William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, specifically when the husband of self-interested, social-climbing protagonist Becky Sharpe has had enough and abandons her, declaring, “Then that has been your misfortune,” just before he walks out the door after Becky pleads with him to stay. The entire scene was the inspiration for Rhett Butler's leaving his self-absorbed, vain wife Scarlett. In fact, that famous scene in GWTW is a reproduction of the scene in Vanity Fair. And Scarlett O’Hara? Modeled after self-serving Becky Sharpe. I shouldn’t need to point out that Gone With the Wind is one of America’s greatest literary classics. But those examples aside, standing on our own as writers is imperative if we’re to leave our mark on our readers, and even more so, our hopeful careers.

In supplying my own example: As the author of Bandita, a semi character driven, character study of Billy the Kid, I refused to read books about William H. Bonney outside of the books I have already read and use to check my facts, and I especially refuse to read the works of other women who’ve written of him as I do not want to risk having another female's perspective and voice penetrate my own.

It is absolutely essential to my objective that I protect my views and sentiments regarding Billy and his story. The writing/editing process is a critical time when it comes to penning our stories. While we are dreaming up and planning the outline, whether mentally or literally, it’s crucial to read as much as we can so we know which direction we’re going, but the actual writing? That should be all our own.