Author Inspiration

Stephen King was a huge influence for me. I know there's a lot of debate about him, but few can argue that he entertains the heck out of people. And he was the first author I respected who admitted he was okay with writing "fast food fiction"--all he wants is to entertain people, and what's so bad about that?

J.R.R. Tolkien, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Madeleine L'Engle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H.P. Lovecraft were also strong influences. Plus the always irreverent Douglas Adams. I just loved the way their stories completely sucked me into a different world. And in some cases (like Adams), the humor and wit in the writing was nothing short of brilliant.

GFanthome said:

Robertson Davies: His ability to create rich, multi-layered stories and characters.

Click to expand...

I read him before I was really mature enough to appreciate.

I got most of my impetus to write from Steinbeck, Hemingway, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Lawrence Block. Which is why the statistical device tells me I write at a Grade 7 level, I guess.

I'd have to say James Ellroy was the first, but more recently it's been George R.R. Martin. Vince Flynn is also a big one. I guess it's their ability to write rich action scenes and create fully-developed characters that evolve more and more over their respective series'.

Derrick Brown. My favorite poet and source of early inspiration.

Brian Jacques and his Redwall series. Particularly Taggerung.

Garth Nix
Robin McKinley
Neil Gaiman
Tamora Pierce
J.K. Rowling

They all wrote novels that were so much fun to read, and they convinced me that writing my own would be even better!

Let's see.

Well, first, Richard Adams inspired me to write. If I hadn't gotten hopelessly hooked on Watership Down, I would never have started writing fanfiction, wouldn't have gotten into online roleplaying, and probably wouldn't have figured out just how much I love telling stories.

For fantasy, I have to tip my hat mostly to Mercedes Lackey and J. R. R. Tolkien. Lackey for her fast-paced plots and compelling characters (plus being amazing enough to be the first author I ever encountered who depicted loving homosexual relationships in her fiction. Go Misty!), and Tolkien for the sheer magnitude of his worldbuilding. J.K Rowling, because I feel her work really taught me a lot about conflict and structure. Also R.A. Salvatore for writing some really cool stuff in the (yes, okay, cliché) world of Forgotten Realms. Oh, and Terry Pratchett, for taking all the tropes and turning them on their heads in hilarious fashion.

For science fiction: George Orwell and Robert A. Heinlein showed me the potential for science fiction to reveal important things about the human condition. David Drake gave me some unabashed space opera to enjoy.

For middle grade fantasy: The women who write as "Erin Hunter" to produce the Warriors series are a source of inspiration for my current WIP, as well as Kenneth Oppel for his Silverwing series, and Tad Williams for Tailchaser's Song. And of course Richard Adams again. Oh! And I can't forget Brian Jacques, whose Redwall series I gobbled up long after I'd grown too old for it to be considered appropriate reading for my age. (Can you tell that my focus in MG is on animals?)

J.K. Rowling is definitely the queen of story-telling in my opinion, so as far as telling my story(ies), I definitely got inspiration from her.

One of my friends who read my book said that my style reminded him a bit of Suzanne Collins in the way I don't linger on too much with one thing - I give the right amount of detail for things and move on, so I guess she definitely has inspired me to not drag things on and keep my story at a good pace but also intelligent enough to be considered good writing.

But the first time I ever thought I wanted to write a book was in second grade after reading Shel Silverstein's poems, and what I realize now is I love how witty he is, which I try my best to make my writing witty with a good sense of humor.

It's sort of hard for me to narrow down more authors because literally I was that loser who read as much as I could--especially during summers, but I guess it paid off because now I can entertain myself with writing out my own stories.

I was definitely inspired by J.K. Rowling. Before Harry Potter, I wasn't all that interested in reading or writing, but then I saw how much fun a story could be, and I wanted to do the same myself. More recently, I've felt inspired by Terry Brooks's quest fantasy and Jim Butcher's action fantasy, especially his Codex Alera series, which I love.

Actually I read so widely that I can't think of any single author that inspired me but I was greatly inspired by Ralph Daigh's 1979 book "Maybe You Should Write a Book". Whenever I started to fade I'd read it and be inspired all over again. It's old so a lot of publishing industry information is out of date but it still got the old juices going!

The first book I remember reading that really got in my head and made me want to do "that" would be Tad Williams' debut, Tailchaser's Song. (Though I have to disagree about classifying it as "middle grade.") I wrote some really, really cruddy cat stories after reading that...

I'd also have to say Bruce Coville (for reminding me that YA titles can still interest adults) and K. A. Applegate.

More recently, Brandon Sanderson's made my list for "people I would target if offered the chance to steal someone's skills in exchange for my soul." He can do world-building, he can do characters, and he can even do silly humor (his Alcatraz books.) Jonathan Stroud's also in the top-five of that list; haven't enjoyed a trilogy like the Bartimaeus books in ages.

I know there are others, but those are the ones that spring to mind.

I can't say any particular book or author inspired me to start writing. I think I was born making up stories and characters. While still in grade school I would make up tales off the top of my head to entertain my friends as we rode our ponies all over the countryside. I told my mom that as soon as I could afford a typewriter, I was going to write a book. She found me a used one at a garage sale and that winter I pounded out a 500 pager- cursing stuck keys and publishers that wouldn't accept a ms with whiteout. I was still in high school.
Now, for inspiration, it was the horrible writing, grammar, and punctuation I ran across that made me say, "I can do better than this! Geeze, how did they ever get published?" Maybe instead of being born a writer, I was born with a fetish for editing. LOL

I've been thinking about this question the last couple of days, since the thread went up, and I think I finally have an answer.

The only novelist whose style I really think influences me is Jane Urquhart, who is my favourite writer from a stylistic point of view.

The other writers currently influencing me are Christopher and Jonathan Nolan as well as Steven Moffat. Which is a bit interesting since I am writing prose and they write screenplays/scripts. But I think there's a lot to learn. I've been on a big Nolan kick for awhile (just saw The Dark Knight Rises in theatres and I watched The Prestige for the first time today).

I also will say that Stephen King is an influence but through On Writing and not so much his own fiction.