If you could write like…

[Carmenica Diaz]

If you could write like a well known author, who would it be? And would you be happy?

I quite like the minimalist style (something I try poorly to achieve) so I would like to write like the late Mister Green - Brighton Rock with floggings.

 

[TheEarl]

If you could write like a well known author, who would it be? And would you be happy?

I quite like the minimalist style (something I try poorly to achieve) so I would like to write like the late Mister Green - Brighton Rock with floggings.

Christopher Brookmyre - a funny, entertaining storyteller with some exquisite turns of phrase. And yes, I would be very happy.

The Earl

 

[Carmenica Diaz]

The happiness is vital as, in my limited experience, creative people are usually not happy.

 

[zeb1094]

If I could write like author it would have to be combination of two of my favorites, Robert A. Heinlein and Anne McCaffrey. Nothing erotic, just fun stuff to read, Sci-Fi and Sci-Fantasy. I would be happy to write like them.

 

[rgraham666]

Looking for my own voice.

If I was to pick somebody though, Joseph Conrad.

Another outsider exploring the language and telling stories.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Sara Paretsky. She writes mysteries mostly, and they're the most well-researched, well-thought out, complex plots with a heroine that's (gasp) actually over 40 and sexy as well as tough and smart. She has a great grasp of language and nuance and emotion, and makes her characters human with real lives.

She also used to help women get safe abortions back when back-alley abortions hurt a lot of women.

 

[Bishonen]

Hmmm, I don't know. On one hand, I'd like to be able to write something that would be considered a classic, and that school children would have to read for decades in English class, just like Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck.

On the other hand, I'd like to to be able to write some cheap fluff like Barbara Cartland and sell the same story 900 times, with just a few alterations of names and locations within each book.

 

[cloudy]

Easy question.

Sherman Alexie.

He writes things that are hilariously funny, and in the next sentence has you sniffling with the tremendously sad.

 

[MichelleLovesTo]

For fiction in general -- Dennis Lehane. For erotica? Me.

 

[Guest]

Not for all time, but if for a while I could write like Henry James (just one short story) it'd be like heaven on earth (at least in my head).

By "write like" I mean wielding that near unparalleled command of language.

Perdita

 

[impressive]

Looking for my own voice.

*nods*

I don't want someone to read me and say, "That reminds me of ..."

I want someone to read THE OTHER PERSON and say, "That reminds me of IMP!"

My style. My voice.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

*nods*

I don't want someone to read me and say, "That reminds me of ..."

I want someone to read THE OTHER PERSON and say, "That reminds me of IMP!"

My style. My voice.

I adore you.

 

[MichelleLovesTo]

I adore you.

A week ago you adored me...fickle bitch!

 

[Quiet_Cool]

rgraham's got it right. My own voice, but better.

But if I'm going to pick, I'd honestly say King. I know, it sounds like a sell-out answer, but the guy can write very well. Extremely well. And he understands both story and character. Two things I deal in more distinctly than plot or any type of hidden meaning.

Q_C

 

[sophia jane]

Elizabeth Berg, no question.

 

[Carmenica Diaz]

*nods*

I don't want someone to read me and say, "That reminds me of ..."

I want someone to read THE OTHER PERSON and say, "That reminds me of IMP!"

My style. My voice.

It’s not a question of parodying or, indeed, copying another author. It’s rather admiration and perhaps a little envy at the delicate way sentences are constructed.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

A week ago you adored me...fickle bitch!

Uh...yea, I got the two of you confused....yea, that's it.

I love Amy Tan...and Margaret Atwood.

 

[MichelleLovesTo]

Uh...yea, I got the two of you confused....yea, that's it.

I love Amy Tan...and Margaret Atwood.

Well, our fonts are the same.

I don't think anyone other than Tan or Atwood could "sound" like Tan or Atwood. I cry like a bitch every time I read or watch Joy Luck Club.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Well, our fonts are similar.

I don't think anyone other than Tan or Atwood could "sound" like Tan or Atwood. I cry like a bitch every time I read or watch Joy Luck Club.

Did you read Tan's opposite of Fate?

 

[MichelleLovesTo]

Did you read Tan's opposite of Fate?

No, but I just Googled it. I need to get this book!

 

[cward2]

Tough question. I admire so many writers, but my fav is John Steinbeck. As for poetry - me

 

[Stella_Omega]

Too many to count! From the time i learned to read, I read- me and my sister were each allowed seven books apiece, weekly, from the library. I read ll of mine, and usually all of hers, each week, plus what I got at school, and what I found on my parent's shelves.


I think my earliest writing heroes were Carl Sandberg, and Ray Bradbury. BOth of them wrote poetry as prose.

As a teen, I went for the decadent authors; Vladimir Nabokov, William Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, William Burroughs.
I love Fritz Lieber, Terry Pratchett, MIchael Morecock, and recently Neil Gaiman, and I see bits of them come out in my writing once in a while. Norman Mailer taught me a little bit.

There are the three women- English mystery writers all- I revere Dorothy Sayers, for her clarity and emotional precision. And then there's Margret Allingham, who just wants to tell the story dammit! and Agatha Christie who tells it with such grace.

There are three American women, too- Anne Tyler, Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan.
I am indebted to E.R Eddings and William Morris, for my "Mad Moll" story- they both taught me that you CAN make jokes in ancient dialect, a thing J.R.R. Tolkien apparently never learned

 

[oggbashan]

Imitation and the real thing

I have written stories in the style of Jonathan Swift (see sigline) and have attempted pastiches of Shakespeare and Chaucer.

I am reasonably pleased with my imitation of Swift but I would rather have a voice of my own that is not a copy of anyone else.

If an unknown novel written by Jonathan Swift were to be discovered and published today it would have academic interest only. He, and other great authors, were writing for their time. Their greatness shows in that we can still understand and enjoy them today.

What any author needs is a unique style that can perhaps be imitated but that no one can do as well.

We can just continue to write until we succeed or time runs out.

Og

 

[CharleyH]

If you could write like a well known author, who would it be? And would you be happy?

I quite like the minimalist style (something I try poorly to achieve) so I would like to write like the late Mister Green - Brighton Rock with floggings.

Apparently, I do write like a well known author, unbeknownst to me four years ago, (and barely read her so as not to be tainted) when someone pointed it out. It was a definate ego boost. Now? Having read said author twice? I write like me, and that is the best author to be ... my own inspiration, with cudos and references to those before me or those authors who inspire.

 

[BlackSnake]

Mark Twain, write right off the top of my head. His editor and him had issues.