Let us attack our problem from a common-sense point of view. How have
greater writers learned to write? How do plumbers learn plumbing?
The process by which plumbers learn is simple. They watch the
master-plumber, and then try to do likewise, and they keep at this for
two or three years. At the end they are themselves master-plumbers,
or at least masters of plumbing.
The method by which great writers, especially great writers who didn't
start with a peculiar genius, have learned to write is much the same.
Take Stevenson, for instance: he says he "played the sedulous ape."
He studied the masterpieces of literature, and tried to imitate them.
He kept at this for several years. At the end he was a master himself.
We have reason to believe that the same was true of Thackeray, of Dumas,
of Cooper, of Balzac, of Lowell. All these men owe their skill very
largely to practice in imitation of other great writers, and often of
writers not as great as they themselves. Moreover, no one will accuse
any of these writers of not being original in the highest degree.
To imitate a dozen or fifty great writers never makes imitators; the
imitator, so called, is the person who imitates one.
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