Stop, writer! Your syndrome of the blank page Sucks. Want To Know How To Fix It? If you read the two next paragraphs it will be impossible for you not to learn two ways to use this book to definitely overcome writer's block. Impossible. It's a deal.
˃˃˃ Way 1: Copywork. Open the book and you will see that the even pages, those on the left, have text, while the odd pages, those on the right, are blank. Copy all the text by hand, literally, word for word and punctuation mark for punctuation mark, in the blank pages.
˃˃˃ Way 2: Adapt. Update, modernize, the text. Read the page on the left, and on the blank page on the right begin writing the draft of your own version focusing on the elements you want to explore. Change the setting, plot events, and characterization, but always with the guidance of the text.
Deal fulfilled!
*** You will ask yourself...
If I follow the first way, is not something too simple, literally copy what is already written?
Answer...
Many of history's greatest writers achieved that status not from harkening to the muses, but by laboriously copying the work of others:
Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, Billy Collins, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen King, Hunter S. Thompson, Steven Pressfield...
Copywork has the following advantages
- Improves your writing style
- Improves memory and focus
- Improves handwriting
And above all:
- Establish a regular writing habit
"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work."
Stephen King
*** You will ask yourself...
If I follow the second way, where is the originality? Will not be this plagiarism?
Answer...
To begin with, the text is in the public domain and anyone can copy it, distribute it, re-write it. On the other hand, culture is recreation, variation. Georges Polti says that there are only Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations or basic plots. No masterpiece is completely original.
"The ugly fact is books are made out of books."
Cormac McCarthy
As Nina Paley says, copying art is an act of love:
"People copy stuff they like. They do not like stuff they do not like. The more a work is copied, the more valuable it becomes. Value is not taken away by fans, it is added by them, every time they copy."
And remember the following...
STARTING TO WRITE IS THE #1 THING YOU NEED TO MAKE IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A WRITER! This EK Pubishing edition merges a book and a notebook, so it's perfect for comfortably make copywork or a new work adaptation. It can also be used to take notes to study the text or adapt it to another medium (cinema, comics, music ...), write a journal of the reflections while reading or illustrating it.
If you prefer do copywork or adaptation of other classic title, we are going to publish many other books of classic authors in public domain with the same type of edition. You can see them in the following series:
"Adapter's Classic Books".
Scroll up an search this series to select another book or grab a copy of this great classic of literature right now and you will be able to break the curse of the blank page and become a (better) writer.
