Is it possible to start out sounding like you?
Picasso started out copying the old masters. The earliest Ray Charles recordings sound like a carbon copy of Nat “King” Cole. The earliest Beatles recordings are the ones that sound least like the Beatles. The earliest Sorkin scripts for The West Wing are great, but they don’t sound as much like Sorkin as they do in seasons 2&3.
There are a million examples of creators finding their own sound over time. That’s the goal – to sound like ourselves, though. So how do you get there? You get there by copying.
I don’t think it’s really possible to skip this step. I think some particularly gifted artists move through this phase very fast, or very young, but everyone begins with imitation or formal copying.
I had to write formulaic five-paragraph essays – boring, simplistic, repetitive – on the road to more creative and personal writing. The imitation process leads to insights about what we value, what works for us, what we respond to. Over time and practice, we evolve until the imitation is no longer visible.
Don’t fear copying; fear not creating at all.