Steal Like an Artist

I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich. It’s not Tony Hillerman’s world of the southwestern reservations. North Dakota isn’t all that far from Iowa so the descriptions of the landscape didn’t feel foreign, yet they didn’t feel really familiar either. The POV is from a 13-year-old-boy and his take on the tragedy that befalls his mother, his father, and the friends and family who gather around him for support. After reading a few chapters I just hadn’t begun to connect, to care too much.

It took awhile for me to realize the key to the style of writing—first person, past tense, but without quotation marks for dialog. This is the way of a journalist reporting on a story, someone standing back in time and space, and perhaps trying to maintain a neutral opinion. I got that, but still I wasn’t too engaged as a reader. I just had to get through it before my February book club meeting.

For me, the hook came in chapter 5. The nicely detailed description of the priest: …blah, blah, blah … fox-red hair. That was electric. I never would’ve thought of that phrase. There it was—perfect in every sense. For me anyway. For right now.

I so want to use that. Fit it into one of my stories.

Would that be right? Would it be fair?

Yes, if done correctly.

I read a small book that explained how to Steal Like an Artist (a real book by Austin Kleon). You take a bit here and a little something there, some more stuff from other places—lots of other places—mix them all together to get something that you can call your own. That’s OK. That’s not out-and-out plagiarism. That’s using your education.

So, yeah, I’m so going to use fox-red somewhere, somehow. And now you’ll know where that little bit came from.

Oh, I forgot to mention the lip pointing—what a cool visual.

And … who knows what else.

Louise Erdrich deserves her awards for this one.