Copywork

When I was a boy, I went to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What struck me the most was not the statues, paintings, or priceless artifacts from the four corners of the world, but the local art students. They sat around the ancient statues of Greek antiquity and would sketch them into their notebooks. They where learning their craft by copying the works of the ancient masters. I thought, why couldn’t I do the same for writing?

A bit of research later and I discovered that such an act was fairly common in previous years and was called copywork. Before the time of the printing press, books had to be painstakingly copied by hand. Monks had no choice but to copy their bibles and scrolls by rewriting them. One can imagine that such a tedious task would be mind-numbingly boring but that wasn’t the case for some monks. They felt that the physical act of writing the words down with pen and paper brought them closer to God. There was a form of mentation that took place, a type of written meditation in which they communed with the works in a way that reading didn’t allow.

Even though we have moved past the need for physically copying the works of authors, there is something about the process that remains scared. Take a look at some of your favorite writers. Jack London would copy Rudyard Kipling’s works in longhand, believing that he would absorb its flow. Hunter S. Thompson rewrote the novels he admired and copied “The Great Gatsby” multiple times. Nietzsche wrote down essay after essay of Ralph Waldo Emerson in his notebook and in his native German.

Through your admiration of your favorite writer you have sensed a certain cadence, flow, or fountain of idea that you wish to make your own. There is no better way to begin synthesizing then copying their works with pen and paper. Take the time to write down the words and phrases that have moved you and it won’t be long till you see hints of your favorite authors in all that you write.