The 3rd Commandment for Writers

Everyone agrees that stealing is wrong, except for maybe those who do it and try to get away with it. Even still, deep down, they know. But then there’s Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. I’m not going to debate the philosophy of Robin Hood today though. At any rate, I digress.

We already established that if you write, you are a writer. Today, I’m sharing the third commandment for writers with you: Thou shalt not take books from the library and never return them. 

Borrowed Library Books

As writers, we love the library! We love bookstores and anything to do with books. To borrow a book - or more often than not, a stack of books - from the library means that we get to read lots of extra cool words for a few weeks. And then return them. 

We borrow library books so that we can read and not have to buy the books. Maybe we like the book so much that we end up buying it after all. The library allows us to preview potential purchases, if you will. But not returning the books and paying compounded late fees over several months is not the same thing as buying them. If you want to buy the books, then order them online or go to a bookstore. And absolutely… return the library books!

Borrowed Words

On the other hand, as writers, “stealing” is the best form of flattery, right? What I mean by this is that writers often “copy” the writers we admire and hope to emulate. Of course, we always want to develop our own voice. So definitely never plagiarize. 

You can always use the books you borrow from the library to incorporate into a writing exercise. That’s basically what I did on a very scaled-down version with the Ten Commandments. I took “thou shalt not steal” and turned it into “thou shalt not take books from the library and never return them.” Simply use a paragraph you love and substitute different nouns, verbs, adjectives in place of the current ones and you just mentored an existing writing text! 

Using another author's words as a mentor text is not the same thing as comparing yourself to other writers. Be sure you don't fall into that trap.

QUESTION: Let me know if you’re a library book thief. I promise I won’t report you to the authorities. Have you ever NOT returned a library book - and not because you lost it? Let me know in the comments! Keep on keepin' on... 

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