I find this is an interesting question because no two writers will have the exact same influences.
Here are my influences: Part 1 and Part 2 that I posted a while ago on my blog.
So...which authors have been influential and/or inspirational in your work?
Started around 1991 with Sarah Bird, an Austin gal. My two favorites of hers are "The Byfriend School" and "Alamo House, or Women Without Men, Men Without Brains."
ReplyDeleteThat was when I thought I wanted to write chick lit. I did that for a while, but never finished anything. I still love her cynical viewpoint and jaded views of relationships.
Then, I became a Peter Mayle fanatic, based mostly on "Anything Considered." His style was quirky and fun, with an educated, British eye for interesting detail.
After a long hiatus, I can credit writing my Smith genealogy for really revving up my love of writing again. I now credit reading oodles of old microfilm as my main influence. I get more ideas from one page of old microfilm than from anything else I could read. I can completely lose myself in history-- will literally sit for HOURS and contemplate what ifs and whys of old events.
Lately, Marion Meade's "Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin- Writers Running Wild in the Twenties" and Dennis Lehane's "The Given Day" were two of the smartest purchases I've made in a long time.
Just about any Sci-Fi writer, but when I was younger I read mostly short stories, not novels. The usual suspects, Asimov, Clarke ("overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out"), Niven, etc but also Olaf Stapledon and Michael Moorcock's anthology 'The Traps of Time'.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of Fantasy as well, Tolkien of course, and Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison and Mervyn Peake.
More mainstream, George Orwell and Jorge Luis Borge.
I also went through a phase of reading medieval books such as Orlando Furioso, the Mabinogion, Nibelungenlied, Ecclesiastical History History of the English Nation, all of which are surprisingly good reads.
And since I presume that we are also influenced by what we don't read, or more likely, give up on after several chapters, Dickens, anything Russian and Don Quixote.
I'd have to say Anne Perry influenced me because of her ability to mix really horrible situations with a sense of compassion and understanding, and Dean Koontz because he can make me laugh at the same time he's scaring the pants off me...
ReplyDeleteZac Ephron)?) wrote Stranger than Fiction and I LOVE his use of words. That guy made every syllable count and it was genius.
And, of course, I can't say enough about the great writers in our group and my other critique group...some of the best writing out there is unpublished, which is why we have to keep going, right?