Writing Practice-Imitation

A few years ago I read Spellbinding Sentences by Barbara Baig. I took my time and worked through the writing exercises. One of the exercises I enjoyed and have done more than once is imitation. The author says…

We can learn even more effectively when we actively apprentice ourselves to a favorite writer, by copying out, word-for-word, passages from her work, or by giving some of our practice time to writing imitations of her sentences.

Copy out a passage from a work by your chosen writer, and then, as best you can, imitate those sentences.

One of my favorite books is The Dying Animal by Philip Roth. I saw the movie first, Elegy, with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz. The movie wasn’t great but I felt like the story was stong so at the end of the movie I noted who wrote it and found the book. I was delighted by the cover, a lovely piece of art, Le Grand Nu (The Great Nude) by Modigliani. If you read my post yesterday you’ll know what struck me about the art.

The cover isn’t all that I like. The writing, the story, the girl, Roth. It was my first Roth book and I’ve since read all of his novels based on how much I liked The Dying Animal.

For the exercise today I chose this passage…

She began coming to my place in a very casual manner after that bite. It was no longer a matter of evening dates and then the fucking once she realized the little it took for her to control things. She phoned and said, “Could I come for a few hours?” and she knew I would never say no, knew that every time, to get to hear me say, “Look at you” as though she were herself a Picasso, she had merely to undress and stand there. I, her teacher in Practical Criticism, the Sunday morning PBS aesthetician, New York television’s reigning authority on what is the current best to see, hear, and read–I had pronounced her a great work of art, with all the magical influence of a great work of art. Not the artist, but the art itself.

I enjoyed this passage the first time I read it. I’ve always felt it was the nucleus of the story.

Imitating Philip Roth isn’t easy. He uses big words and long sentences broken up with commas. The first time I did this exercise in imitation I also used a passage from this book but today it was on my mind so I wrote this passage out, thought about it for a few hours and then wrote this…

Just before the end was when their pleasure reached a new plateau. She found that she liked Bo’s eyes on her, liked to move her body before him. She would call, and then arrive in a long jacket. The first time surprised Bo. The dancing, a glass of red wine in her hand. Bo was mesmerized by her movements. It didn’t help that he had fallen hopelessly in love with her. That for months she seemed unreachable, untouchable. Yet, here she was, moving her hips slowly to the music playing from her phone. She liked the control. Bo, helpless with her dancing before him. Her body moved like a satin sheet blowing in a gentle summer breeze. The movements were graceful, inviting, and when she lowered her underwear, erotic.

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