What author has most influenced your writing?

[EmilyMiller]

Not your favorite author (or not necessarily). For example, with the exception of the occasional (OK frequent) Poe-like logorrhea, I can’t ever hope to write like my literary heroes (Conrad, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Greene etc.). But the one that is reflected, albeit imperfectly, in your own style.
I think I have two. And - for the avoidance of doubt - I’m not claiming to be able to write like either of them either, but the general whimsy and playfulness of Lewis Carrol and the middle-brow silliness of Douglas Adams have echoes in a significant part of what I write.

How about you?

Emily

 

[8letters]

Dick Francis

 

[EmilyMiller]

Dick Francis

Had to Google him…

 

[R. Richard]

Strangely enough, the writer who has influenced me the most is me. As I go through my life, a plot idea sometimes springs up. I start a story. If the story talks to me, on I go. Else I wait for the next plot idea.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Dostoyevsky.
I often show the inner thoughts of my characters and they sometimes debate the questions of right and wrong, whether there are gods or not, and such. I plan a small homage to Raskolnikov's dilemma in series four of my fantasy pentalogy and an homage to Ivan Karamazov's rejection of faith in series five. For the record, I haven't written a word of series three yet. I might have an obsession with planning far ahead

 

[Voboy]

Tolkien and Pratchett. Then, later, Irvine Welsh.

Tolkien because I read him EARLY and often, so I was exposed to high-level prose at a time when my classmates were still reading Encyclopedia Brown. It was a struggle, but I'm indebted to that struggle. So worth it. Tolkien's style is dated, and he does overuse the verb "to be," but his poetry was prose and his prose was poetry. That's valuable for a young writer.

Pratchett because of the palpable joy he always took in his writing, and in the way he was able to send that joy to the readers. I'm seldom able to do that, but every now and then? I can, and I feel so good about it. His imagination was so very rich, and his style so very zany, that it taught me it was fine to be whimsical in your prose.

And Welsh, who taught me it's okay to make assholes sympathetic, and who inspired in me the idea to "link" my stories into some kind of sub-real universe that parallels the real world. I love finding Easter eggs in his work, and I hope my readers love finding some in mine.

 

[AlexBailey]

L.A. Meyer

His YA series ‘Bloody Jack’ about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to work aboard a British Navy tall ship. It struck a chord when I read it for my kids several years ago.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Tolkien and Pratchett. Then, later, Irvine Welsh.

Tolkien because I read him EARLY and often, so I was exposed to high-level prose at a time when my classmates were still reading Encyclopedia Brown. It was a struggle, but I'm indebted to that struggle. So worth it. Tolkien's style is dated, and he does overuse the verb "to be," but his poetry was prose and his prose was poetry. That's valuable for a young writer.

Pratchett because of the palpable joy he always took in his writing, and in the way he was able to send that joy to the readers. I'm seldom able to do that, but every now and then? I can, and I feel so good about it. His imagination was so very rich, and his style so very zany, that it taught me it was fine to be whimsical in your prose.

And Welsh, who taught me it's okay to make assholes sympathetic, and who inspired in me the idea to "link" my stories into some kind of sub-real universe that parallels the real world. I love finding Easter eggs in his work, and I hope my readers love finding some in mine.

Thank you. Tried to like Pratchett, couldn’t though. I’d make a transatlantic excuse but a) lots of Americans like him and b) I like lots of other Brit authors. Just didn’t click for me.

Read Tolkien rather too much as a child. I’m a little obsessive .

Never read Welsh - Trainspotting, right?

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

Dostoyevsky.
I often show the inner thoughts of my characters and they sometimes debate the questions of right and wrong, whether there are gods or not, and such. I plan a small homage to Raskolnikov's dilemma in series four of my fantasy pentalogy and an homage to Ivan Karamazov's rejection of faith in series five. For the record, I haven't written a word of series three yet. I might have an obsession with planning far ahead

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Emily

 

[Voboy]

Thank you. Tried to like Pratchett, couldn’t though. I’d make a transatlantic excuse but a) lots of Americans like him and b) I like lots of other Brit authors. Just didn’t click for me.

Read Tolkien rather too much as a child. I’m a little obsessive .

Never read Welsh - Trainspotting, right?

Emily

Pratchett... yeah, I figured I'd like Adams because I liked Pratchett, but I found they didn't really cross over.

Tolkien? I'm nerdy enough to have read all the Christopher material, and understood most of it, and even enjoyed it.

Trainspotting, yes, but Trainspotting was largely a collection of previously published work that he wrangled into a novel. So it's a bit contrived. But it gave him a platform to write proper long-form stuff, and I think his subsequent material is better. So mordant.

 

[KeithD]

Graham Greene and John LeCarre

 

[EmilyMiller]

Pratchett... yeah, I figured I'd like Adams because I liked Pratchett, but I found they didn't really cross over.

It’s the opposite for me. Which did you read first? I read Adams. I was inducted by college friends in London.

Tolkien? I'm nerdy enough to have read all the Christopher material, and understood most of it, and even enjoyed it.

I read some of it, but kinda gave up on The Book Of Lost Tales part 22, or something. Liked the Silmarilion - very Greek tragedy.

Trainspotting, yes, but Trainspotting was largely a collection of previously published work that he wrangled into a novel. So it's a bit contrived. But it gave him a platform to write proper long-form stuff, and I think his subsequent material is better. So mordant.

Will have to try some time.

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

Graham Greene and John LeCarre

Hey! Me too. Well not in my writing (as if), but two of my favorite authors. Could argue that Cornwell took on Greene’s mantle.

Emily

 

[MillieDynamite]

My father has had a great influence on my work. But of better-known authors and ones I can cite by name, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, Earl Stanely Gardner, Raymond Chandler, and Sir Author Conan Doyle come to mind.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Emily

Such a strange question to be asked in this thread
I'll bite though. Reincarnation? Not really, no. The trouble doesn't lie there, though. I mostly have a problem with the word "believe" and thus every religion sounds equally ridiculous to me. The best way I can put it is that... I hope there is something more than this, and if there is, I am quite certain no one has a clue what that something really is. So I can say that I "hope" but I don't "believe" in any specific religion nor in the idea that any person or any religious book in this world has answers to those questions. I am mostly an agnostic/skeptic.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Lewis Carroll builds such amazing worlds. More generally I love children's fiction. It is often times so imaginative in a sort of sensical-nonsensical way. We could all benefit from being more childish.

For me: probably in terms of prose Anthony Doerr (I say hopefully), in terms of wider narrative and style maybe Haruki Murakami or Phillip Pullman. I like little notes of surrealism or magical realism in stories.

 

[vagrantx]

Stephen King, by far. Maybe Dean Koontz, too. Most of my writing is horror themed, and I use a lot of little devices I've learnt from King.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My father has had a great influence on my work. But of better-known authors and ones I can cite by name, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, Earl Stanely Gardner, Raymond Chandler, and Sir Author Conan Doyle come to mind.

I’m a big Sherlock reader - the books are so much better than an adaptation

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

Stephen King, by far. Maybe Dean Koontz, too. Most of my writing is horror themed, and I use a lot of little devices I've learnt from King.

Again (and @Djmac1031 will kick me under the table) never got on with King either. Kinda lumpen in places and self-indulgent. He has excellent ideas, his execution (hah!) is patchy.

Which is sad really as I knew he rates my stories

Emily

 

[vagrantx]

Again (and @Djmac1031 will kick me under the table) never got on with King either. Kinda lumpen in places and self-indulgent. He has excellent ideas, his execution (hah!) is patchy.

Which is sad really as I knew he rates my stories

Emily

He's a bit like Bob Dylan in that regard. Great stories, terrible voice. But even if he's no Joyce Carol Oates, I think his writing is simple enough, while still being colorful, to not detract from what's important - the emotions he's trying to.... inflict.

There's beauty in simplicity. Not everything needs to be Black Water.

 

[AchtungNight]

Douglas Adams, Terry & Rihanna Pratchett, George Lucas, Tim Zahn, RA Salvatore, Larry Correira, Eric Lustbader, Stephen King, Jonathan Maberry, Jim Butcher, David & Leigh Eddings, Rick Riordan, Stan Lee, Bob Kane, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Garth Ennis, Greg Weisman, Marti Noxon, JJ Abrams, Drew Hayes, Harlan Coben, CJ Box, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, and Laurell K Hamilton have been among my favorite mainstream professional writers. As for online erotic authors, BlueDragon has a large portion of my lasting respect. Also Carnage Jackson, aimingtomisbehave, EmilyMiller, and Freya Gersemi. And Christine Morgan and Christi Smith Hayden in the late 90s when I first seriously started writing online. But there is no one writer to whom I would give primary credit. My own imagination always takes the top spot phasing outside influences into my work.

 

[AlinaX]

Tolkien, Herbert, Niven, Rice

 

[SimonDoom]

Roald Dahl. Especially for James and the Giant Peach. It might seem strange to cite the author of a children's book, but the sensibility of that book and its humor strongly influenced me as a reader, as a person, and as a writer. I liked the dark, irreverent humor, and the combination of a somewhat twisted, nasty view of things with the values of kindness, tolerance for differences, and the possibility of redemption. The way I thought about things after finishing that book is pretty much the same way I've thought about things ever since.

A few others: George Orwell, for Animal Farm and 1984. I can't think of any works that influenced my political sensibilities more.

Tolkien for LOTR. I liked the theme of the greatest hero (Sam, obviously) being the humblest character of all. The gardener saved the world.

Joyce, Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, for its theme of breaking the shackles of religious and social conventions and expectations to realize one's artistic self.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Chuck Norris can list more authors than @AchtungNight

 

[EmilyMiller]

Was gonna add that while I can’t see any echoes of my literary heroes style in my own work (more’s the pity) I think there are echoes in my vocabulary.

Emily (yes, I did swallow a thesaurus)