Lichtenbergian Precepts: Steal from the Best, redux

On Monday I took advantage of the first Public Domain Day in the U.S. in 20 years to glance at Precept No. 7, STEAL FROM THE BEST. Today, let’s take a look at the Precept itself.

When we say STEAL FROM THE BEST, we’re talking about using what we learn from the past and other artists to help us Make the Thing That Is Not ourselves.

You can use the formal structures developed in the past — the sonnet, the Golden Ratio, the sonata — either by adhering to their “rules” or by bending them into your own usable shape. (In the book I give an extended example of how I modified the sonata allegro form to create “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way” in William Blake’s Inn.)

Steal from your culture. Use that Southern small town for your novel. Turn that family legend into fiction.

Steal from the world at large. Look at how Picasso used African masks to inform his Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Steal from nature. Use those flowers to explore patterns and structures. Georgia O’Keeffe did.

Steal from other artists. Reverse engineer their work: figure out how they did it, and then use their strategy to create your work. As Austin Kleon says in Steal Like an Artist, the great masters have left you their lesson plans — use them.