How can one begin writing their own book without appearing inauthentic or imitating someone else's style?

Start by making a stack of your favorite books, the ones you have reread so many times you can’t count.

Jot down notes on what intrigues you about each novel.

Compare your notes and find what those books have in common.

Then note what was wrong with each book and compare those lists to find what is missing or mishandled in your favorite books. What should have been done better?

The items on all the lists are what you will do differently to stand out from the pack.

Now take the book you have reread the most and copy-type it word for word at your best accurate typing speed. Yes copy! That is how you train your hindbrain to understand style on a nonverbal level.

The material is not yours so you must security delete the copy, but your brain will have made new synapses you will use for life.

Now review the list of fascinating and intriguing elements common to your favorite books. That list defines your target readership.

Imagine a goal of a character who wants a life with those elements. What could stand in the way?

Show your readers the moment that character first encounters that opposition. Then show the deed that the character chooses to counter that resistance.

Show the reader how and why the character’s choice makes the problem worse.

it gets worse until the halfway point when all is lost then lessons from that list of things wrong with your favorite books finally get hammered through the character’s thick skull.

At 3/4 point the worm turns! The character does things right — and that is your personal original style element shining through.

The ending turns out “right” also, making yours “the same but different” as publishing and Hollywood require for original.

Explaining to your readers why this ending is oh so right for this character’s life is the main job of a writer.

The joy in reading is walking that 320 pages in that character’s moccasins.

The way to learn how to convince readers about that rightness in the character’s life is to read huge stacks of biographies and autobiographies — read them fast to get overall impression not specific detail.

Look for the poetic justice, the humming beauty and justice in a fully lived life. Replicate that reality and readers will believe it because they have seen it.

Your unique style is encoded in your perception of that fulfilled rightness in life. What is injustice and how do you fix it?

This perception of justice will flow into your choice of words provided you have a broad and deep vocabulary. If you do the reading I have recommended, you will acquire that vocabulary without putting much effort into it.

Reading Kindle books gives you dictionary lookup without interrupting flow of ideas, and you can stack books into a folder and read your inserted notes in one place. Make your comments public and use Goodreads to build a readership for the book you have not yet written.

Yes it is a lifetime worth of work. Writers are underpaid. Consider that the next time you read a book.