Has your writing ever been affected by another author?

[TheEarl]

I was reading the editor's forum and Dr Mabeuse said something along the lines of: "He [Patrick O'Brian] also makes very heavy use of colons and semicolons in places where I think anyone else would have used periods. Yet he is such a great writer you don't even notice these things. I'm finding a lot more semicolons and colons now popping up in my own writing."

I've noticed in my latest writing that I owe a bit to the style of Christopher Brookmyre who I've just started reading in terms of character narration wandering off at tangents to give background and depth.

Has anyone else noticed their writing being affected by unconscious aping of an author you admire?

The Earl

 

[violent intimacy]

My writing is affected by almost everything I read. Well, the stuff I consider enjoyable and well-written anyway. I'm not sure I could point to a specific thing I did and say a particular author influenced me, but I do find myself noting the writing style and phrasing of the ones I especially like.

Hmm...

 

[KillerMuffin]

I haven't noticed it myself. Of course, I read flowery romance novels and ridiculous westerns while my writing tends to be more minimalist, dark, and harsh. I am speaking, of course, of my non-Lit writing.

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

weapon of choice: semicolon

a few years ago I really got into Iain M. Banks, and he uses semicolons everywhere. I think subconsciously I learnt how useful they are, and since I use them all the time (to the extent that an editor chastised me in an early draft of Rhiana ;-)

M. Banks' writing style definately influenced me, as did his plot progression. I find myself using more and more flashbacks where I used to write a story as a monologue. I add things that don't make sense, I confuse the reader, I switch between current and flashback without any warning, to the extent that my story might not make perfect sense until it's read a second time (most M. Banks stories are like that).

But then none of that really applies to a short story. Which is probably why I never write shorts.

Ax

 

[Sabledrake]

It's apparently not that uncommon for some writers to have whatever they're currently working on end up emulating (unconsciously or not) the style of whomever they're reading at the time.

I know that I've fallen prey to this sort of thing a few times myself. I will be reading something by an author I admire and find that bits of their style come creeping in. Sometimes, I'll do it on purpose -- I once read nothing but Lovecraft for a week so I could write a story in that style, and boy, did my dreams get freaky <g>.

Sabledrake

 

[TheEarl]

Banks is one of the most confusing authors I've ver read. Timeline jumps all over the place.

The Earl

 

[MathGirl]

Influential writers

My writing has been influenced by reading Terry Pratchett. It's also being affected by DurgGurl, and I can feel myself slowely losing the ability to use the Eanglish Language"
MG

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I grew up reading Stephen King, as most people my age did. I'm not saying I'm any where near as talented as he, but I learned to write by reading him. My often overgrown stories sometimes show that.

 

[pop_54]

Hi

I'm probably the only authore here who doesn't read much at all of other peoples work by the sound of it.
I used to read many novels, factual, and fantasy story books when younger.
To be honest I just don't get the time to read properly, that is without disturbance, so I don't bother to start a book these days.
(Pains of self-employment, work on the brain 24/7)

I can't say that I am influenced by anything or anyone really.

pops.............

 

[Dirt Man]

We are influenced by everybody...

Writing is such a personal thing, that once hand is set to creativity, people, places, things, and books, as well as movies influence our craft. The mind is a wandering vagabond of information that strives to draw pictures worthy enough for others to sigh, cry, or die over. All humans want to have the last word, and be the center of attention, and in writing we get that chance better than anyone else.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt man

 

[reohoko]

Influences are such a fluid thing, like gentle breezes and sunlight. You can't hide too well from them, they are there, whether it's othe people's literature, tv shows, movies, or just a friend's voice.

My writing is seldom influenced heavily by other people's writing,

(I am the type that reads a story and goes DOH!!! that gives me an idea... drop the book and start writing yet again.
- then hubby goes, but that isn't anything like what you just read.. yeah but it fixed the frozen section of my brain... all better now )

but I am influenced by all the people around me, the things I see online, in game, on tv, etc. Even a calm day in our quiet little neighborhood can appear in one of my many stories... and I mostly write fantasy.

HUGS HUGS HUGS
Reo

 

[Pookie]

I don't think my writing has ever been affected by another author. I have learned things from other authors. But I feel like I have settled in on a style that is comfortable for me more from just plain trial and error. I know the styles of writing that I enjoy reading. I try to accomplish the same with my own "flavor" of writing.


Pookie

 

[gauchecritic]

My writing style is exactly the style that I like to read, there is only one other author here at Lit who's work I enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing. That's not to say I don't like other authors. I'd never read anything again if that were the case.

I have probably been influenced all my life through reading other's work but specifically I can't point to any single writer who I can say makes my stories as they are.

There are often authors who I make a mental note never to appear like and these are just as useful in that way.

Gauche

I just noticed I said the same thing as Pookie. snap.

 

[jfinn]

My writing style is exactly the style that I like to read...

Style? I'm supposed to have a style? Oh well, I knew I was missing something.

Actually, I have to watch this carefully because I'm a sort of chameleon when it comes to writing styles. I have a bad habit of sounding like the last book I read. Since I read a lot of junk this is not a good thing. It can make it tricky to begin something, but once I get past that I can usually continue on influence free.

Jayne

 

[Otus de la Nuit]

I definitely have an influence in Douglas Adams. I try not to let it become all-encompassing, but he had a very specific and wonderful way of manipulating words. It's very tempting to use some of the methods he did. Also, everything he wrote, he wrote with humor. Even the most dire of situations, those tragic characters that just break your heart, he demanded you laugh at.

Before him I didn't know you could mix tragedy and comedy; that if you did it, it would detract from both. In my opinion, he not only pulled it off, he made it greater than the sum of the two.

After being stuck living alone in a cave for two years, which he began several years after his home planet was destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent's friend Ford found him. They chased a sofa which had suddenly appeared through a field, then jumped on. Coming to and looking around, he sees a blue shape that looks like a policeman in front of him.

"This is Lord's Cricket Ground, isn't it?" snapped Arthur. "Where did you find it, how did you get it here? I think," he added, clasping his hand to his brow, "that I had better calm down." He squatted down abruptly in front of Ford.

"It is a policeman," he said. "What do we do?"

Ford shrugged. "What do you want to do?" he said.

"I want you," said Arthur, "to tell me that I have been dreaming for the last five years."

Ford shrugged again, and obliged.

"You've been dreaming for the last five years," he said.

Arthur got to his feet.

"It's all right, officer," he said, "I've been dreaming for the last five years. Ask him," he added, pointing at Ford. "He was in it." Having said this, he sauntered off toward the edge of the pitch, brushing down his dressing gown. He then noticed his dressing gown and stopped. He stared at it. He turned around. He flung himself at the policeman.

"So where did I get these clothes from?" he howled.

He collapsed and lay twitching on the grass.

Ford shook his head.

"He's had a bad two million years," he said to the policeman, and together they heaved Arthur onto the sofa and carried him off the pitch and were only briefly hampered by the sudden disappearance of the sofa on the way.

 

[openthighs_sarah]

I always loved those stories, Otus, and for the same reasons. There was a gentle kind of absurdity to the writing -- very humanistic, never mean-spirited at all. And I still think the author's explanation of how to go about learning to fly ranks as one of the most wonderful examples of pure logic in history.

 

[Otus de la Nuit]

Muahaha... I could be mean and keep the valuable information all to myself, but I'm sure you would agree others need to know. That and I don't want to be flogged.

How to fly:
Aim for the ground, and miss.

 

[Alex De Kok]

Influences? Innumerable. I'm an avid reader and I'd hate to single anyone out, but it would have to include (in no particular order) Stephen King, Dean Koontz, C J Cherryh, Sheri S. Tepper, John Grisham, Ed McBain, James Herbert and J K Rowling (all of whom I have been reading in recent months). There are a lot more I have left out. And yes, I have read Douglas Adams, just not recently.

The biggest influence on my writing of (hopefully) erotic works, however, must be the legion of writers of less-than-perfect tales who persuaded me to try writing in the possibly mistaken belief that "I can do better than that!"

I like to think I have my own style and as others have said, I write stories of the style I enjoy reading.

Alex

 

[TheEarl]

I do like you Otus. Funny posts, Douglas Adams (Sadly RIP), Red Dwarf. Have you tried reading Tom Holt? Very good Adams substitute.

The Earl


The Babel fish is a small fish that lives inside your ear. It feeds off all sound vibrations and, by a curious coincidence, excrete a modified variant of those same sounds, effectively translating everything that your hear into your language. It is an astounding coincidence and many people have tried to use the Babel fish as proof that God doesn't exist.

The argument goes like this: God says, 'I refuse to provide proof that I exist, for proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing.'

But man says, 'Ah, but the Babel fish is so astoundingly useful that it could not possibly have evolved by itself. Therefore you proved you exist, and by your own logic, you don't.'

'Oh,' says God. 'I didn't think of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

'That was easy,' says man and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

 

[MathGirl]

Chapeau

Dear Earl,
I believe I saw that hat of yours before. It was a tablecloth in an Italian restaurant.
MG

 

[reohoko]

Gauche

I just noticed I said the same thing as Pookie. snap.

hehehe and I just noticed I said the same thing as the Earl....
Everyone is a bad influence on me *giggle

do it more!!! hehehehe