I improved the most when I would copy a particular author's style. I had a phase where I wrote like Hemingway, a phase where I wrote like Tao Lin, a phase where

I improved the most when I would copy a particular author's style. I had a phase where I wrote like Hemingway, a phase where I wrote like Tao Lin, a phase where I wrote like the monks translating the King James Bible. If it seems derivative that's because it is, and readers will notice, but when you learn to turn it back off those authors you had a passion for will still have a mark on your style. Tao Lin for example said he thought he was done with "Taipei", but then he read a Gore Vidal novel, and felt that the style was so superior to the one he was using that he felt forced to go back and rewrite the entire book in order to incorporate it.