You Favorite Writer?

Kantarii

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Your Favorite Writer?

For those that write stories on this site, "Is your writing style influenced by you favorite author?"
 
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Graham Greene and Lawrence Durrell, but only in certain elements/techniques.
 
John MacDonald, Mary Renault, Robt Heinlein, Mary (Andre) Norton, Martin Gardner. This dates me, right?
 
Mary Renault helped get me going. And Thomas Costain and Frank Yerby--so that dates me more.

Oh, yes, and C.P Snow too (Strangers and Brothers series)
 
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I like things by Jim Butcher, Darynda Jones, Nevada Barr and Neil Gaiman, amongst many others. I just discovered Nick Harkaway. My writing here tends to be of a very different nature, I don't think it bears much resemblance.
 
I think Graham Greene, Lawrence Durrell, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, and E L Doctorow have all had some influence; but I don't consciously imitate any of them. I have, however - and just for the fun of it - written a couple of stories in the style of J P Donleavy. :)
 
Thomas Love Peacock, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (Q), Shakespeare, Chaucer, Harrison Ainsworth, Georgette Heyer, Dorothy L Sayers, Sir H Rider Haggard...
 
no, it's normally influenced by the author I'm currently reading. Prehistoric author and I'll use words such as alas and thus. Modern author, I have restrain myself from using the words 'dude' and TMI.
 
John MacDonald, Mary Renault, Robt Heinlein, Mary (Andre) Norton, Martin Gardner. This dates me, right?

When I was a kid I read at least two science fiction novels by Andre Norton. Only when I tried to find other books did I discover the author was a female. There were no other books by her in the school library at that time. As I recall the Name of the books was: The Galactic Derelict and a sequel. Any other books by Andre that you would recommend ?
 
HP Lovecraft(obviously) is a favorite author and I like Michael Slade-who if I'm not mistaken is a pen name for multiple writers who work together, also Robert McCammon and King's older work.

But I don't see any of them in my writing other than with my Circle series I've tossed little Easter Eggs about the characters in the various books and some short stories and there's ties to them along with past events so its sort of a "circle mythos" as a homage to the Cthulhu MYthos style.

But I feel my writing is my own style, unless there's something I'm just not seeing.
 
The I WRITE LIKE site sez I write like Kurt Vonnegut.

I've never read a word Vonnegut wrote.
 
Among my favorite authors are Chandler, Heinlein, and Hemingway. Though I no longer read her work, I admire how Anne Rice can create an atmosphere.

Consciously or subconsciously, we are influenced by reading other writers. This doesn't necessarily mean we should be imitating their styles, but rather, trying to learn from their craft.
 
The one favorite writer among many who has influenced me is JK Rowling for her plotting, sense of humor, and emotional honesty. I think I privilege content over style and I learned that from her.
 
The I WRITE LIKE site sez I write like Kurt Vonnegut.

I've never read a word Vonnegut wrote.

It's okay you wouldn't understand anyway. He has no concept of what a timeline is. I would give my left arm to write like McCarthy Cormac, avec grammar. Poe makes me want to read Lovecraft, who is sometimes so prosaic it's painful. To relax I am a nutter for a romantic western.
 
Current favourite: Terry Pratchett.
Influences due to P G Woodhouse, EE 'Doc' Smith, Arthur C Clarke, Wilbur Smith, Jeffrey Jenkins
and a host of others.
 
It's okay you wouldn't understand anyway. He has no concept of what a timeline is. I would give my left arm to write like McCarthy Cormac, avec grammar. Poe makes me want to read Lovecraft, who is sometimes so prosaic it's painful. To relax I am a nutter for a romantic western.

Left to me I'd write like Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings:

“I see no reason for denying so fundamental an urge, ruin or no. It is more important to live the life one wishes to live, and to go down with it if necessary, quite contentedly, than to live more profitably but less happily. Yet to achieve content under sometimes adverse circumstances, requires first an adjustment within oneself, and this I had already made, and after that, a recognition that one is not unique in being obliged to toil and struggle and suffer. This is the simplest of all facts and the most difficult for the individual ego to accept. As I look back on those first difficult times at the Creek, when it seemed as though the actual labor was more than I could bear, and the making of a living on the grove impossible, it was old black Martha who drew aside a curtain and led me in to the company of all those who had loved the Creek and been tormented by it.”
 
My favorite author is Jack Vance. I would give my left nut to be able to write like he did. And that's my favorite one.
 
I love John Milton, Shakespeare, J. R.R. Tolkien, Pierce Anthony, C.S.Lewis, Edger Allen Poe, & Mary Shelley, H.P. Lovecraft. But, I don't think I write anywhere near as good as they did:(
 
Favorites include Poe, die BrĂĽder Grimm, Lewis Carroll, and Sylvia Plath, but I don't write erotic horror or fairytale/fantasy.
As for a comparative writing style to any of them, at times I do catch myself focusing more on describing details or back stories more than focusing on advancing plot, but I cut back on that when I notice it.
 
The I WRITE LIKE site sez I write like Kurt Vonnegut.

I've never read a word Vonnegut wrote.
Okay I had to try that site. When I put in my older stuff is said I write like Mario Puzo. I'd never heard the name "Mario Puzo" before but oh well. I pasted in some of my newer stuff and it said I write like Stephen King. Maybe I'm getting better ... or worse :rolleyes:
 
After the required stuff in high school, I didn't so much as pick up a book until Twilight. (In my defense, I only read it because some contributor on NPR raved about it as his guilty pleasure.)
From there, I've been on a nonstop binge of YA and urban fantasy and contemporary and NA romance.

My biggest influences are Linda Kage and Kylie Scott. Ms. Scott is the reigning queen of witty banter, imho.
 
I had try I WRITE LIKE too.

Apparently I write like Margaret Mitchell, who's only well-known story is "Gone With the Wind". Ain't never read that.

I posted in a number of different stories with what I thought were different approaches and got the same result every time. I'm a ilttle suspect of the results. Maybe Margaret Mitchell was the author of the day.

Or maybe I write like Margaret Mitchell.
 
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