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.

What's the highest level of education you've had?

BA, Honors English.

Did you do any *formal* (and by that I mean did you have assignments in school at any level) that required you to imitate a writer?

Oh yeah. Several. I know I had some poetry workshops in college where I had to imitate the style of a poet (Sharon Olds) -- and wow, was imitating poetry more difficult than prose. At least, for me.

I'm fairly certain I had some assignments in both high school and college where I had to write fiction in the style of a well-known author (Faulkner, I think). Mostly in intro to creative writing classes, as I remember. I think some professors considered it a tool for teaching students how to write by giving them something familiar to work with, followed by assignments where I had to write in a particular genre or format, like writing a surrealist play.

The prevalence of this teaching technique is surprising me. Honestly, I never heard of this before.