Well, the closest thing I did to imitative work was to create a screenplay from a chosen short story. I did a Wodehouse story, but that was more trying to translate to a visual medium rather than creating words.

BA in English, here, with a few courses in Creative Writing. I don't think I've ever been assigned to imitate someone's style as such, but I did write one fic with the goal of producing something that Terry Pratchett might have written if he were writing for that series. Oddly enough, even though there are some parts of the story that scream Pratchett (the footnotes in particular), I do feel that in the end, the style was pretty much my own.

I go to fanfic, both as a reader and a writer, to get something I'm not getting from canon for whatever reason. Sometimes that's just a more leisurely, detailed exploration of interpersonal relationships than an action-oriented TV format typically allows. Sometimes it's a futurefic or an AU, for the sheer joy of the what-if.

Susan speaks for me. In addition, another big motive for me when it comes to writing fic is that of wanting to fill in the blanks of canon, in terms of backstory, and so on. I'm also addicted to writing (and reading) crossovers. I love to look for organic but not-obvious connections between different series, and see what kinds of stories those connections might suggest.

Many many years of grad school, not to mention 5 years of teaching writing (comp, not creative).

I've done an imitation exercise; it was tougher than I expected and it felt strange, but it was really good for making me think consciously about my style in a way that I don't normally tend to do. I also assigned imitation assignments a bunch of times in my teaching years, with varied results. I know one teacher who does an upper-level writing class based entirely on stylistic imitation.

Anne, sister in crossover love.(that sounds kinky, huh?)

Do you think (and I hate to make a generalization, so that's SO not what I'm trying to do here) one of the draws to fan fiction is that there is a structure to follow? Or am I talking out of my ass here, not being a fan fiction writer and all?

Hmm. Not to my knowledge, but then all I know about ficwriting is my own experience, and I know better than to speak for others. I think what I like is there is no mandated structure. You have the pieces -- characters, plot, universe -- but you can put them together in any way you like. Epic AUs, episode-adventures, farces, haiku, character vignettes -- the options are endless. Anything I want to do, that I have the ability to pull off, I can try.

What's more, I can challenge myself with tone, structure, plot, characterization, voice, and get a built-in readership to tell me if I succeeded.

As for your other question, I have a JD. My undergraduate degree was in the social sciences, with only one creative writing class, where we did no imitative writing of any sort.

I don't imitate much. I have what I find to be a defined style of my own, and unless I'm writing in first person (which is rare), I stay with that. Dialog I try to channel the character, and voice, to a certain extent, but the narrative voice is mine, not Chris Carter's or David Kemper's.

Anne, sister in crossover love.(that sounds kinky, huh?)

Kinky can be good... BTW, erika, would you be willing to look at a couple of sections of my eternal WIP at some point? I want to know if someone familiar w/ H:LOTS finds my Meldrick voice believable.

Studying A-levels, and hoping to go on to university. Over the years, I've done quite a number of 'imitation' exercises-- ranging from the 'write the first page of the next book by your favourite author' (I did Tolkein, and was surprised by how hard it was) to (what I'm doing currently) being encouraged to make sure that I can quote a 'model' or two for the poems I've written-- so that I can point out the similar/different ways I'm using language etc.

Anne, OK. Ooh, Meldrick. Quite the challenge. I've never felt able, myself. But I can write Pembleton. I guess because he speaks like my little-used but still powerful "Of course, I belong here," voice.

Cool! I'll email you later this evening (I'm being unproductive at work, and I have no access to my fics, darn the luck).

Oddly enough, I find Meldrick easy to write, but cannot for the life of me write a convincing Pembleton.

Part of me must have the same speechifying instinct. And the same need to prove myself, not only as good, but superior. In my life, though, I don't get to act it out that often. And my voice is not as nice.