Reflections on Copying Novels by Great Authors (+ News of an Award)

Hello!
Thank you for always clicking the 'Like' button.

Today, I would like to write about my creative activities for the first time.
That said, I won't be talking mainly about my creative history. That's because I don't have anything I can claim as such.

It was just last month that I wrote a novel on note for the first time.
Until then, I had almost no writing experience. I only occasionally won awards for book reports in elementary school. I was once in a literature club, but I was passive, only writing novels on occasions like school festivals, and I always lacked awareness or confidence as a writer. Naturally, the things I produced were unreadable. Even after I started working, my longing to be a novelist lingered, but I spent seven years busy with work and didn't write anything.

In 2025, I finally started posting short-shorts on another site, and in May, I began my writing activities on note. Thanks to everyone, I receive 'Likes' on one of my works (articles) almost every day.

Before I, with such little experience, started writing novels on note, there was a task I was doing. That was 'shakyo' (the act of copying someone else's writing).

I would like to summarize the results I gained from copying and my thoughts on trying it out.
If there is anyone who thinks, 'I want to start copying, but I'm not sure which work to choose,' I hope this will serve as a basis for your decision.

Could this be the result of copying...?

If asked, 'Was practicing copying effective?',
I would answer now, 'Yes'.

The reason I thought so was the 'Literary Award Starting from a Title' held recently. Of the two works I submitted, one was selected for an honorable mention.
The winning work comes with a brief review from the organizer, Mr. Kaoru Hanazawa, and regarding my humble work,

That is what was said.

Upon checking the review, I was honestly surprised.
I had no awareness that my writing stood out among the submissions, and I personally think there were many people who were much, much better.
As for the dialogue and the ending, those were not parts I spent extra time on. The submission time was also right at the last minute, 15 minutes before the deadline, and I started finishing it in a desperate situation. I myself had half-given up, thinking, 'Ah. It's a total mess.'

As mentioned above, I have almost no creative history.
I have zero experience applying to literary awards or writing contests. This is also my first time winning an award.

Why was the novel I wrote evaluated so highly?
(Perhaps there was some leniency included because it was my first time participating...)

If there is a factor, I realized it might be the 'copying' I had been practicing over the past few months.

So this time, I would like to summarize the copying I practiced below.

About the method of copying

I will enter the main topic.
I will describe the method of copying I took below, so please use it as a reference if you are interested.

Subject of copying

It is Yukio Mishima's "The Sea of Fertility" (Shinchosha Bunko).
The reason I chose this work is because an acquaintance who loves literature recommended it to me.

By the time I applied for the literary award, I had finished copying Volume 1 "Spring Snow", Volume 2 "Runaway Horses", and Volume 3 "The Temple of Dawn" (up to the beginning).
I haven't even read the content of the final volume, "The Decay of the Angel".

Tools

I used vertical writing in Word. I did not set it up as manuscript paper.

Practice period and amount of text copied per day

I continued every day for about three months from December 2024 to February 2025.
The amount of text I copied varied from day to day.
When I had a lot, I would do one or two sections at once.
When I had little, I would do about a quarter of a section.
I thought it would be good to just copy every day, even if it was only three lines a day.
The pace was roughly one volume per month.

Methods and Techniques

・The Method I Used
I place the book open on a book stand and repeat the process of reading and copying, breaking the text down by punctuation marks. That is all.
I read online that it is more effective to fully absorb a sentence before copying it, but I did not go that far.

・My Own Techniques
Since "The Sea of Fertility" is a four-volume series, I came up with the idea of changing my approach between the first and second halves.
Specifically, I would copy the first half, "Spring Snow" and "Runaway Horses," without reading them first, and copy the second half, "The Temple of Dawn" and "The Decay of the Angel," after reading them.

It was just a whim. I wondered what would happen if I tried copying from both the "reader's perspective" and the "author's perspective."

How Faithfully I Copied

The work frequently used historical kana orthography, but I copied that faithfully. If there were kanji that did not appear in the conversion, I looked them up online and copied and pasted them.
Basically, I copied from the beginning to the end of the work.
The only exception where I omitted copying was one part of "Runaway Horses." There is a "story within a story" called "Kamigami-ren Shiwa." The writing style is quite unique, and after wondering if there was any point in copying it, I decided to omit that part only.
I intend to properly copy the difficult parts in "The Temple of Dawn," which I am currently copying, where the protagonist continues to engage in philosophical questions and answers.

Thoughts on Trying Copying

Since the material I used was Yukio Mishima's writing, I had a hard time at first. It was unfamiliar historical kana orthography, and it was full of words I didn't know, so I thought, "Am I taking a kanji proficiency test?" However, when I found witty insults or convincing expressions, I was moved by the literary master's prowess.

By the time I finished copying the first volume, "Spring Snow" (which had a shocking ending), I had become quite accustomed to Mishima's writing. I immediately started on the next volume, "Runaway Horses," and combined with the protagonist's straightforwardness, the copying went smoothly and was fun.
I fell ill while copying the beginning of the third volume, "The Temple of Dawn," so I interrupted the copying there. After recuperating for a month and reaching a stable condition, I started writing short-shorts, which brings me to the present.

Consistency Takes Root

Recently, I have been working on the continuation of "The Temple of Dawn" in small amounts, but because of the break, it is not going as smoothly as it did with "Runaway Horses." I thought that my efforts over the past few months had gone to waste.
However, the fact that I received an honorable mention and was praised for my writing with almost zero creative experience is, in a way, proof that I have acquired a certain level of writing ability. Moreover, since I did not put any effort into this work with the intention of "writing incredibly good prose" (I only thought about whether my idea of a "landscape of sadness" would be conveyed properly), I might have been writing at a level that people could read unconsciously.

The Dangers of Getting Absorbed in Copying and the Magic of Excellent Writing

One disadvantage of copying is that "the author's writing style can rub off on you."
I am also aware that my metaphorical expressions have been influenced, especially recently. Mishima's expressions are convincing and interesting, so I often wish I could come up with such metaphors on the spot.

However, when I was writing about Yukio Mishima in this article, I noticed something and got scared.

The end of my "Landscape of Sadness 2"... it looks like "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion"...

I have only read part of "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" (the description of the protagonist's father's death at the beginning was shocking, so I stopped there).
I knew as a matter of fact that the protagonist sets fire to the Golden Pavilion, but I was not conscious of it at all while writing "Landscape of Sadness 2." It was an ending I thought of vaguely, tried writing, and adopted as is.
Perhaps it is not just the writing style that is transferred through copying. Thinking about that is very scary.
Whether this is a coincidence or not, unless you have an author you are aiming for as an ideal, I think it is better to avoid intensively copying the writing of a specific person. I think it is better to copy the writing of as many different types of authors as possible.

Works and Authors I Want to Copy in the Future

・Yasunari Kawabata's "The Dancing Girl" and "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories"
・Kobo Abe's "The Face of Another"
・Kuniko Mukoda's "A Memory of Playing Cards"
・Short stories by Yoko Ogawa in general
・Akumi Agitogi's "My Happy Marriage"
・Lyrics by cosMo@BousouP
And so on. I would like to try copying various things.
If there is any work you think has good writing, please let me know.

My "Favorite" Works

Finally, I would like to take the liberty of introducing some works that caught my attention in the "Writing Awards from Titles" contest.

Masuda Niku Udon, who gave me the opportunity to participate in this literary award. It is a work that makes you think about "reality" and "what makes an excellent photograph." Personally, it was the most memorable ending among the entries!
I am curious about how the photograph the protagonist took at the end of the work was evaluated.

deko (Niwa Asano), who won the Excellence Award this time.
Personally, I like this one the best out of the three works submitted by this author. It is a story about the youth and present life of a couple connected by avocados. I think the motifs are used skillfully! Reading this writing made me re-examine my own work, thinking, "This won't do."

You can check the list of all works here.

My work is here. The one at the top is the one that received an honorable mention.

Thank you for reading until the end!
I would like to take on a challenge like this again if there is another opportunity.