On day six of our writers challenge the word is to steal.
He said that often times our content comes from others,
“Your genius is hiding in someone else’s idea”.
We may read a story or hear a sermon or read a blog then we create it differently to become ours.
Then he quoted Picasso: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”
That means a good writer will listen or read something then recreate it for their own purposes.
To tell you the truth this is a hard concept for me.
My intention has never been to copy others.
Whenever I sit down to write a blog generally it takes two to six hours to formulate the thoughts then preview them at minimum five to eight times before I hit the publish button.
I read it out loud.
I study and listen to the word flow.
I search out the content and try very hard to make it simple and also deep or worthy of someones time and interest.
Stealing from another is easy and it feels wrong.
In trying to understand his concept I suppose that could look like when we are at church and the pastor is doing his sermon I take notes. Then later on when I am preparing for a new blog concept I will look at my notes and then recreate what he said to tell the story.
That could be considered stealing.
Using his content or idea to create a new ‘blog’ post for the week.
If someone wasn’t at our church it could look like my own thought or ‘idea’.
I would not purposely steal from anyone.
When it is a sermon often times I will add ‘pastor said’ then continue with the writing.
The challenge is to find a quote or form of inspiration and give credit to the original author
then recreate it for our purpose or intent.
He said to give it ‘your originality’ personality or flair.
He said a good writer curates.
The meaning from dictionary.com is to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation.
When a topic comes to me or a sermon is heard I am very careful to sift the content 
and give credit to the original place it came from.
There is such a fine line for me in this topic.
It would be better for me to quit writing if stealing was the acceptable way to write.
He said professionals do it all the time. They embrace the concept.
Perhaps that is why I am not one.