Honorable Thieves

We are repeatedly reminded in Creative Writing class that writers are “honorable thieves”, and stealing interesting words, effective forms, and intriguing subjects is condoned and encouraged. I’ve started to do this, but it certainly feels less than honorable.

I’ve dealt with such plundering of ideas before, in the context of writing music. As a young and naive musician, I believed every piece of music should be completely new and different from every other. It was frustrating to write under such conditions, because every riff, progression, or melody I thought I’d made up myself, I later discovered to be a copy, in whole or in part, of something I’d heard before.

I also didn’t want to play cover songs. I viewed it as a cop out. What self-respecting band steals other people’s music? You’re just admitting you’re not good enough to come up with anything good on your own.

My opinion started to change when I started to hear similarities between popular songs. Sometimes I would hear a pair of riffs, melodies, or forms that were simply too blatantly identical to be written coincidentally.

My dad pointed out that its hard to write something new that sounds better than something previously done. Musicians have been trying to push artistic boundaries for decades, and to some degree, especially stylistically, they have. But by and large, popular musicians have been cranking out essentially the same songs for just as long. The recycled riffs work, simply, because they have worked for years, and will continue to work for year to come.

Nowadays, I guiltlessly and intentionally steal stuff from songs all the time. I guess I should do the same with my writing.