The first book is from your heart. Imitate what works for your book writing success, and implement

I have published two books in the last two years and two more are coming this year. What is my secret? By Aubrey Mavhuli There is a saying I often parrot, “The first book is from your heart the second one is from your head.” Rod Stewart put it in a sexier way: “The first cut is the deepest.” Whether this is true or not may not really matter. This has no impact on a tin of beans. I hope you catch my drift. Is copying always bad? But let me tell you a story. After all is not this what we writers are. We are storytellers. My teachers told me copying was bad and they terribly punished those who were caught copying. It was derogatorily called cheating. Many of us grew up with this fear of copying. Frankly, we abhorred it. We learn through imitation. But copying is not always a terrible thing. I later on learnt. The teachers I am sure meant to tell us so as well at the end of our graduation.