Which authors inspire you?

[Aynmair]

Many/most writers started writing because they were inspired by authors they read. As you are starting/trying/continuing to write, what authors inspire you in a "I wish I wrote as well as..." way. Who are your models? I don't mean that you try to write like them - I assume that everyone either has or is trying to establish their own style.

For my part, I would include Graham Greene, John Le Carre (the Cold War novels more so than his contemporary ones), Grace Paley (short story writer) and the earlier books of William Gibson, for his very unique style and cyberpunk subject matter. There are others, but these are definitely among my top author heroes.

 

[sr71plt]

Thomas Costain, Frank Yerby, Allen Drury, C.P. Snow, Mary Stewart, Helen MacInnes, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Barbara Tuchman, Mary Renault, Lawrence Durrell, Graham Greene, John LeCarre, P.D. James

 

[SamScribble]

Well, yes, Lawrence Durrell, Graham Greene, and John LeCarre would have to be right up there. And I do tend to admire the essays of Joseph Epstein.

 

[MSTarot]

Lets see... Tolkien of course. Michael Moorcock for his Elric series.

Jim Butcher, R.A. Salvatora, and the "noir prophet" William Gibson, certainly are in that list.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's, Dark Hunter series is a favorite.

The insanity that is Hunter S. Thompson's, Fear and Loathing. Love of the movie led to enjoyment of that book in that case.

Tons of Science Fiction writers from the sixties and seventies should be mentioned here. Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Gordon R. Dickson, and many more.

Dan Sisson, one most wont have heard of, was a writer who did wonderful short stories for magazines back in the seventies and early eighties. I grew up reading his work, feeling like I was there living his stories.

Far too many more.

MST

 

[slyc_willie]

This isn't an easy one to answer, but here goes:

Elmore Leonard
Dean Koontz
Stephen King
Dennis L. McKiernan
J.R.R. Tolkein
John Byrne
Geoffrey Chaucer
William Shakespeare
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Piers Anthony
Philip K. Dick
Isaac Asimov
Jack Vance
Harry Turtledove
Nick Pollota
Alan Dean Foster
Clive Barker
John Saul

. . . it occurs to me that this is mainly a list of fiction authors I enjoyed reading in the past, but I've no doubt that each of them subtly influenced me in some way.

 

[DonnaBeck]

Authors that kill me...in a good way

Thomas Savage
Annie Proulx
Jonathan Safran Foer
Yann Martel
Cormac McCarthy

 

[SamScribble]

And further to my earlier post: I have also been influenced by the clarity of Winston Churchill's pose, the irreverence and playfulness of J P Donleavy, the 'new journalism' of Tom Wolfe, and the poetry of Roger McGough. And I am sure there will be more to come.

 

[Handley_Page]

Terry Pratchett, PG Wodehouse, Steven Saylor, Geofry Jenkins, Gavin Lyle
to name but a few.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

John O'Hara
John LeCarre
George V.Higgins
Chester Himes
William Manchester
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Leo Tolstoy
Mark Twain
Charles Dickens
Raymond Chandler
Talmage Powell
Elmore Leonard
Kenneth Roberts
Hemingway
Faulkner
David Goodis
Cormac McCarthy

 

[DeYaKen]

Yes Graham Greene definitely, John le Carre, Ian McKewen (not Atonement) Iain Banks because every book is different, Well written and humourous.

There are lots of others that I like but these are the ones that make me say `I wish I could write like that.' There is another but I doubt that you folk in the US would have heard of her.
Rachel Joyce wrote `The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry', a wonderful book which takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions and left me saying WOW!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If you wanna write like your favorite author learn their style by rote copying. The official scheme we call the EMPRINT METHOD. But copy-cat is what it is.

 

[Hypoxia]

Admire and devour: many.
Writing actually influenced by: few.
My most prominent: Mary Renault and John D McDonald. And maybe Robert Crumb.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Authors who inspired me: Hermann Hesse, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Authors whose style I admire: George R. R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, Peter F. Hamilton, Stephen R. Donaldson, Frank Herbert
Authors who my writing somewhat resembles: Eric Van Lustbader

 

[MrFoxwood]

Martin Amis for his style, Laurie Lee for style and themes, Mark Haddon for themes and wit, Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman for cynicism and scope.

 

[Aynmair]

Interesting.... there are definitely a number of favorites shared by most, and some more individual choices. I was extremely minimalist when I posted my list - I also thought to include Asimov and Dick but didn't in my first list.

I'm accumulating quite the reading list for myself, and learning a wee bit about some of you.

Another author I'll add for those who like history and nonfiction is Peter Hopkirk, in particular The Great Game. It's about the British and the Russians fighting over, in the mid-late 1800s and in somewhat of a Cold War-like manner, "unclaimed" territory (by these two then-superpowers) in Asia. The collateral damage is plentiful, but among other things it gave me a better feel for the background to the Afghan wars. Very cool history, zippily if not always elegantly written.

Is anyone surprised by any choices, or by "missing" authors?

 

[Acktion]

More often than not, I tend to be uninspired by certain authors. That is to say that I like their work so much that I despair that I will ever be that good and it takes me awhile to pick up writing again after I close the cover on one of their works.

While I'm pretty widely read in diverse genres and have actually read most, if not all, of the top 100 must-read-to-be-considered-a-scholar books such as "War and Peace", "Moby Dick", "Inferno" and so on, I tend to gravitate towards more recent "mind candy" and have certain books and series that I re-read when I'm... mmm... too tired(?) to launch on another dust jacket wrapped adventure. (Or perhaps too broke.)

Amongst the authors that I've collected and have a tendency to re-read are;

Laurell K. Hamilton

John Ringo

David Weber

Lois McMaster Bujold

David Eddings

Robert Heinlein

Zane Grey

 

[49greg]

Wow, I like the previous posts, some authors in there I haven't read in years. I used to eat up Costain and Yerby.

The authors I keep going back to include: John D. MacDonald, Robert Van Gulik, Tony Hillerman, Raymond Chandler, Arthur Ransome, and others.

I love historical fiction and Bernard Cornwell does great books. Patrick O'Brien, C.S. Forester, Dewey Lambin, Alexander Kent/Douglas Reeman are also up there, with others.

In my teens through early thirties I also read a lot of SciFi. Lin Carter, Edgar Rice Burroughs (but not the Tarzan ones, they didn't do much for me), Otis Adelbert Kline, Poul Anderson, Andre Norton, Larry Niven, David Drake, L. Sprague DeCamp, Fritz Leiber, Heinlien, Phillip Jose Farmer, and others. I still look for new S.M. Stirling and Harry Turtledove titles, and have recently discovered Marco Kloos, John Scalzi, Lindsay Buroker ( but not sure if she fits in any of the established genres.) Terry Pratchett is fantastic.

There's a lot more. I've always had at least one book that I'm currently reading, pretty much constantly since about the 5th grade.

As you can see I don't just read the Important or Impressive authors, I just read for fun.

 

[Hypoxia]

I already mentioned Mary Renault and John D McDonald as stylistic mentors. I'll throw in a few more -- inspiring if not literately influential.

Asimov & Bradbury & Clarke & Heinlein, hell yes!
Mary ('Andre') Norton and Alice ('James Tiptree') Sheldon
Larry Niven, with or without Jerry Pournelle
HP Lovecraft & Robt A Howard & Edgar A Poe

WARREN ELLIS!!!
ALAN MOORE!!
VERNOR VINGE!!

Ursula K LeGuin
Barbara Hambly
Kage Baker
John McPhee
James Burke
Allen Ginsburg
Samuel Delaney
Ken Follet

I'd better stop now. The list could get long.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

WAR AND PEACE is maybe the most important novel, ever, because it exhaustively explores the business of maturation and crystallizing values and morals. Leo Tolstoy was a moral philosopher, and W&P illustrates his philosophy.

 

[sr71plt]

One author on my "inspired" list, Mary Stewart, died on 15 May at 97. RIP.

 

[lovecraft68]

If you wanna write like your favorite author learn their style by rote copying. The official scheme we call the EMPRINT METHOD. But copy-cat is what it is.

If you want to write exactly like anyone.....don't bother. What's the point?

On the other hand if someone does want to copy another author exactly then.....

There is a chance to be the next EL James.

 

[lovecraft68]

Lovecraft- 70 years later there is still an entire genre of people writing based off his writing never mind the influence his work has over so many movies and new authors.

Clive Barker-at his best makes King look like a guy telling children's stories. Okay at his worst he makes King look like...

Thomas Harris, but only for Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, the following books were cash cows only.

Alan Moore- Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and the writer who caused DC to tell the comics code to go fuck themselves with his resurrection of the Swamp thing title and creation of John Constantine.

And one more because I see others referencing comic book writers

Stan Lee. Yes his work now seems "cheesy" as most of it was done 40's-the late 60's, but without Stan the Man you don't have Byrne and Moore and all the other great comic authors.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If you want to write exactly like anyone.....don't bother. What's the point?

On the other hand if someone does want to copy another author exactly then.....

There is a chance to be the next EL James.

LIT is living proof 99.99% of us are happy clones, but dip your big toes in an existential pool, and the mob will one-bomb you to hell and gone.

 

[lovecraft68]

LIT is living proof 99.99% of us are happy clones, but dip your big toes in an existential pool, and the mob will one-bomb you to hell and gone.

I agree. It is amazing how people will not only read the same handful of premises over and over, but get put off when an author puts a twist or spin on it.

I suppose its the same in horror and adventure and whatever else. TV/movies/music even comic books are as unoriginal as it gets these days and no one seems to mind too much. Occasionally you get your "Game of Thrones" that has some different turns to it, but mostly everything else is rehashed pablum.

 

[Hypoxia]

Stan Lee. Yes his work now seems "cheesy" as most of it was done 40's-the late 60's, but without Stan the Man you don't have Byrne and Moore and all the other great comic authors.

Then we should add two very influential author-editors.

JOHN CAMPBELL - edited Amazing/Analog, nurtured the Golden Age SF writers
AL FELDSTEIN (recently RIP) - with Bill Gaines, invented most of MAD Magazine

I'd say those guys had major impacts on generations to follow. Other editors come to mind - Judith Merrill, Jeanette Kahn, Cat Yronwode, Hugo Gernsbeck, August Frugé - but they weren't authors.

I agree. It is amazing how people will not only read the same handful of premises over and over, but get put off when an author puts a twist or spin on it.

I suppose its the same in horror and adventure and whatever else. TV/movies/music even comic books are as unoriginal as it gets these days and no one seems to mind too much. Occasionally you get your "Game of Thrones" that has some different turns to it, but mostly everything else is rehashed pablum.

This invokes the idea that only 3 (or 7 or 13 or 37) basic stories exist, so we only have a few possible stories -- but many different ways to tell them, such as all the Romeo+Juliet variants. The problem arises when they AREN'T told in different ways, just the same way over and over, giving us the "rehashed pablum" we're so familiar with.

BUT -- If one is creating for (entertaining) an audience, then one provides what the audience wants, or one soon has no audience. Little kids like hearing the same story over-n-over. Older kids like hearing the same song over-n-over. Yet older folk may like reading the same stuff over-n-over. IOW, "rehashed pablum" is the stock-in-trade of entertainment.

We may write creatively. Our creations may or may not shift audience tastes. Our creations may also sink like stones. We must decide for ourselves why we bother to create.