Thursday, April 21, 2011

Flashback Friday: Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery & CONTEST

'Create

For this week's Flashback Friday, I'm looking back to some of my earliest writing--those Middle School and High School days when I suffered from "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery syndrome." Basically, it meant I read something and then mimicked it...sometimes with embarrassing consequences.

(1). Exhibit A: Sweet Valley Family Saga

I gotta say I was a huge Sweet Valley Twins and High fan growing up. And when the epic Sweet Valley Saga came out, the stories of the twins family heritage from the late 1800's on up to when their parents, Alice and Ted Wakefield, married, I was hooked.

It was after rereading the books in Middle School that the imitation bug hit me, and I did my own epic family saga story with five generations. As you guessed it, there were blinding similarities--probably enough to get Francine Pascal's attorney after me! :)

(2). Exhibit B: RL Stine's The Cheerleaders 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Evil

I was addicted to RL Stine's Fear Street books in 7th and 8th grade. Because of that reason, I wrote a cheerleader mystery myself. I will say that I actually branched out this time and didn't totally copy, er, imitate the Cheerleader Evil with the fact it wasn't all about an other worldly force possessing cheerleaders. It was actually a pretty decent serial killer type book with cheerleaders from different high schools being targeted and murdered while one girl tries to find the killer.

I wrote it on one of those old MS Dos computers. Remember those days before Microsoft Windows? Good times. I ended up losing the story with a computer crash, or I might totally reread and resurrect that bad boy, lol.

*************************CONTEST TIME!!!!*********************************

I want to give away some books with themes and plots I've managed NOT to imitate yet!

(1). Identical by Ellen Hopkins: I totally admire and covet Ellen's ability to write in verse. The images she weaves with her words is fabulous.







(2). Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan: I've managed not to integrate zombies, so I'll defer to Carrie Ryan's awesome ability to use the scary undead.








(3). Across the Universe by Beth Revis: I haven't been there, done that on Sci-Fi, and since Beth does it so well, along with creating a great in-space murder mystery, I'll leave it to her.







So, how do you win? All you gotta do is (1). Be a Follower & (2). Leave a Comment with one of your Imitation stories, ideas, novels....or a comment will suffice! lOL

Easey Peasy, right?

The Contest will run until next Thursday, and Contest Winners will be announced on Friday!!!

12 comments:

Sierra Gardner said...

I've read Across the Universe but not the other two (adding to goodreads now!). Nothing particular comes to mind when I think of my current WIP's but I'm positive if I started looking for it I would see ways that I've imitated bits from my favorite authors and books =)

Melody said...

Oooh, good book in this contest! :)
Let's see...I totally copied, er, imitated: NIGHTMARE ACADEMY (Frank Peretti), FLIPPER (the movie, with Elijah Wood), LORD OF THE RINGS (Tolkien), and ERAGON (Paolini). Yep, yep. And I still have most of them. :)

Gina Ciocca said...

I can't even tell you how many Christopher Pike novels I tried to rewrite as a kid. I failed miserably, probably because I didn't know then that romance is my thing, not horror!

Meredith McCardle said...

I don't know if I can put into words how much I LOOOOOVED the Sweet Valley High saga, even if it did require a pretty major suspension of disbelief. Twins named Jessamyn and Elisabeth? What are the odds?? (I can't believe I still even remember that!)

The first story I ever wrote was called 'The Hungry Hungry Hippos.' No trademark infringement there or anything. ;)

Sarah Nicolas said...

I based my Paladin Gadriel (in my YA book) on Jocelyn from Kushiel's Dart. They're two different kinds of worlds and atmospheres, but the characters are similar - except Gadriel doesn't seem to irritate people the way Jocelyn did.

Angie said...

I don't think that I ever imitated any books just because I didn't write that much in high school. I did LOVE the Sweet Valley High gang though, and I was sooo jealous of my friend who had every single book. I'd love to see your stories - too bad the RL Stine copy got damaged!!

Becca said...

When I was in 3rd grade, for a class project we had to write stories and use paper we painted/made in art class to cut out all the illustrations....

anyway, my story was remarkably similar to a Babysitters Club Little Sister book in which Karen went to horse camp.

Kathy Bradey said...

I wrote a rip-off of "The Baby-Sitters Club" called "The Horse-Riding Co." (I was ten at the time.) Years later, "The Saddle Club" came out!!! I should have run with my horse-riding co. idea! LOL.

ashley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ashley said...

HA I really loved reading R.L Stine Goosebumps & Fearstreet as a kid but one time I read a story about a babysister named Christie and she really scared the hell out of me so I gave up R.L stine after that!!!

But didn't Goosebumps have the best covers right now they are a little cheesy but they really drew you in!!!


thanks for this giveaway I really want to read Across the Universe by Beth Revis!!!

GFC follower-ashley


ashtreygonesmokeya@yahoo.com

Meredith said...

I used to try to rewrite Nancy Drew stories, and lately have thought about it more with today's technology like cell phones!

meredithfl at gmail dot com

Debra D. said...

The first book I tried to write was a Harlequin Romance...I'm too scared to go back and see how dreadful it really was! =D