BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Life Coaching Do You Emulate Others in Your Field?

Much of my time online is spent googling other writers who also focus on lifestyle, health, parenting and romance--all of the genres I also have a professional interest in.

I go to their site, read their bios etc. I think that's how I found out about bellonline years ago. A writer I had googled was writing for the site. I came here and thought�hey cool I�d like to write for bellaonline. Then a year or so later I applied.

How about you, do you peruse the resumes/bios of those in your field looking for ideas you can use?

I'm notorious for reading about the work done by others and trying to adapt the things I like into whatever it is I am involved with at the time. Sometimes there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

I've read that this is how jazz musician work. They learn first by emulating others, then develop their own unique sound/style over time.

Most painters seem to learn by imitating the styles of painters they admire, and then begin to develop their own. You have to learn the techniques from the masters before you can adapt them to your own vision. I guess that works in most fields.

And I believe that it was Henry Louis Gates, Jr who said that writing traditions come about because writers read other writers.

That's a fascinating idea. I tend to take the opposite approach - I try to stay far away from other content-related sites so that I am not accused of stealing their ideas. The same with wine related sites. I never go to other wine content sites to see how they lay out information or what information they have.

I know some people do this sort of "corporate espionage" and that it's often legitimate market research. I guess I get cranky when someone steals my ideas so I don't want to be in a position of even accidentally doing that to someone else.

For example I have my sangria pages laid out a certain way. One time in Google I accidentally clicked on a competitor's link and discovered they had stolen my layout for their own sangria pages! Down to the photo of a certain Sangria pitcher! It really annoyed me. There wasn't anything I could do about it, so the knowledge just upset me.

Maybe this is an emotional hurdle I need to get over

That is interesting Lisa, about how you don't like your ideas being stolen, so you bend over backwards to not be in a position to make others feel like it's been done to them. That says nice things about you.

I think we all kinda do that in our own ways. For example, I try to tell Dan when I don't like something in my environment, or if - and this is a big one - I find a topic boring to discuss. I HATE feeling like I am boring other people and feel embarrassed if I find out later someone was just letting me talk away and bore them.

So i think it's doing someone a favor to tell them a topic bores me. Whereas Dan just finds it rude when I do this. I try to tell him, over and over, that in my mind, I am doing what I see as a kindness.

Anyway, that is related to what you were saying, Lisa. I just find it neat how different people try to do things right by our own versions of what we don't like in others. Is that too convoluted, or did that make any sense?

Back to emulating. With something like painting, it really is a great idea to start out by doing what one likes in the works of the masters. Then we all start going from that, and developing our own style. It's not like we are copying per se - we have to pick and choose what we like from the many styles out there, and then develop from there. Look at the tons of ways to do landscapes alone, or do make abstract art, or surreal art. What we pick to emulate says a lot about us.

I think that can be applicable in many fields, whether it's setting up a website, blogging, building a home, or breeding dogs. You know?

I like to visit pages just to see what others are doing. That doesn't mean that I take their format or use their content.