Fantasy Pallet

[SlimMason]

Whenever I read or see anything awesome, like the Dresden Files, I cannot help but immitate it. (immatating in things I think about writing, not actual work.) Being so similar to somone elses work is bad.

Is there an easy way to cleanse your pallet?

[meg_evonne]

Shecky's brain bleach from Corrupt a Wish... Enter at your own peril...

[Roaram]

Read something from a different Genre. something totally different maybe, or something kind of different. like for fantasy buffs, try historical fiction/non-fiction. it my not cleanse the pallette so to speak, but history doesn't sue for plagerism. or if you like try a new genre, that way your style does a mix and match with a new genre, making something new rather than rehash other peoples work. Like combine some tom clancey stop-the-terrorist-with-nuke with a fantasy with a fantasy story. some guy peicing together some clues to stop  some rogue group of shadowy figures from piecing together some super spell or something. or cross cousin genres, like watch some horror flick and then write about how  some darkages black smith dealing with his town having some kind of zombie infestation. I mean, if you can,t get the taste of french fries out of your mouth, might as well eat some ketchup

[OZ]

Analyze it. Take it apart and see how and why it works. Read Jim's blog on writing. Once you understand what makes it attractive to you it should be easier to incorporate the techniques while keeping the story uniquely your own. To use your own analogy, the problem is not when you use the same pallet, it's when you paint the same (or far too similar) picture.

[THETA]

Get it out of your system and just allow yourself to keep writing in that style until you exhaust it.  Normally, one of three things will occur.
1) You get cleansed.
2) After awhile you look back on what you've wrote and feel disgusted, erase it and then actively try for your creativity
3) After writing for a while in someone else's style you begin to develop you own

Either way, it's a win/win situation.  Anyways, don't be ashamed, there's plenty of proclaimed authors who were heavily influenced by their contemporaries or authors that expired them in the first place.  You know those discreet little references to Shakespeare, the Bible, Thoreau, Poe, Plato, ect?  They're like an author's way to tip their hats to those who've inspired them or even their text.

[Franzeska]

Read more literary fiction.  Lots of sf/f authors throw in some things they've borrowed from mystery/detective novels or spy novels or whatever, so I recommend reading non-genre fiction.  The more different things you read, the more you'll be stealing from everybody instead of just one person.

[azjayp]

Solid suggestions Roar. I am going to tack on just a little to your suggestion. if you read a lot (which you really should be doing if you want to be a writer) for every book that you read, change the genre and generaly the style of writing. if you just want to read fantasy, though, you can always go from a solid jim butcher book, then switch up the writing style to Melanie Rawn, then throw in a David Gemel and poof, you have many diferent writing styles. if you want to go off to other genres, Leon Ulris has a style all his own that will help, then switch it over to Texas (i forgot the authors name). it will help to be reading such a diverse style of writers

[comprex]

Is there an easy way to cleanse your pallet?

fork lifts.

[meg_evonne]

hmmmm, I like that.  Hang on, I'm moving the little nano fork lift in my brain now.  Yeah! That works GREAT.  Look, I even have a teeny tiny wash bay to keep everything clean.  Heading for my memory storage for MSL and Bob's postings as we speak!  Oh nano nano, I'm going to need a whole fleet for that area of my mind! 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

hmmmm, I like that.  Hang on, I'm moving the little nano fork lift in my brain now.  Yeah! That works GREAT.  Look, I even have a teeny tiny wash bay to keep everything clean.  Heading for my memory storage for MSL and Bob's postings as we speak!  Oh nano nano, I'm going to need a whole fleet for that area of my mind! 

This adds a whole new level of meaning to "NaNotechnology"; microscopic fork lifts with which you write a novel in a month.