The GOAT

“Everybody imitates before they can innovates” - Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

To me, Jade wests books are The Greatest of All Time. I have favourite authors and then favrourite authors. When I read The Naughty List, I cannot tell you my love for her work went up 1000%. I read it like an addict, I am not ashamed to say that. And when I finished the second installement? I scoured the internet for similar books but came up at a loss.

Months later when my husband suggested I write my own books, guess what came to mind? Feeding my addiction. I knew instantly I was going to write about the Golf Club I live near to and the underground kink club world I was going to build because I’d spent time wondering about it (see my original blog here). The difference? The characters were going to sound more like me, in my world, more relatable to my life and quite honestly, the FMC was going to live out my own hidden fantasies. Is the genre similar? Yes. Do the characters have a similar job? Yes. Is the troupe similar? Well, the FMC’s are both sex workers and they enjoy experiencing kinks for the first time, so, again, yes.

When I realised that I had indeed written a full book (they started out as four novellas), then came the trauma of worrying we had the same troupes. I nearly didn’t publish.

But then I listened to Elizabeth Gilberts book on creativity and she mentioned her early work was imitations of the writers who she admired. She goes on to say, “Everyone imitates before they can innovate,” as she herself had done. You just need to start, write, find your voice and build on that. I believe I did find my own voice, I have built a confidence that was non existent before I wrote The Clarendon Playmates Kink Series. I have since written my first stand alone book and have two more books up my sleeve.

I am going to read this blog to myself every time the demon in my brain tries to tear me off course. When fear of imitation robs me of creativity. I need to remind myself that troupes are repetitive, it’s the voice, imagination and the way they are written that are unique to the author. I am unique. I just need to remember that.