User blog comment:Noothgrush/Exercise -- You Don't Have to Post Everything//Advice/@comment-4715955-20140425050214

We tried a form of copywork in one college class, where we first copied a passage from a famous work, then wrote an imitation: structurally the passage was identical to the original, but the setting and characters and everything else was different. For example, I took Nag's introduction from Rikki Tikki Tavi and turned it into a human gangster's introduction in the 1930's, changing the metaphors and imagery to suit the new setting. I dunno if that makes sense without posting the passage, itself, but I feel like it's better than merely copying: giving you a chance to experiment with the passage in addition to feeling it out.