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Just out of curiosity, I'm interested in finding out who other people idolize. My greatest influences are Samuel Beckett, Thomas Pynchon, and John Milton. So who do you all idolize? Maybe I can find some more people to dig up and read! :)

I don't really have many influences in writing.
I began writing on my own with no inspiration, but I do have favorite writers: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), and Edgar Allan Poe.

Im quite a big fan of Carol Ann Duffy, although a lot of her work comes across as being very strongly in support of female empowerment. Which i dont have a problem with, it just sometimes makes some of her work tricky to identify with.

At 1/27/10 08:29 PM, megakill wrote: Im quite a big fan of Carol Ann Duffy, although a lot of her work comes across as being very strongly in support of female empowerment. Which i dont have a problem with, it just sometimes makes some of her work tricky to identify with.

Dude, I have the same problem when I'm trying to read like Junot Diaz or some foreign authors (like Fernando Pessoa). I love their works, but I have a tough time really digging into it because the characters are so cultural (not a bad thing, except that I have trouble empathizing with that culture sometimes, haha).

Though this is perhaps from my lack of reading as a child and thus I am only now getting around to reading, my biggest influences in writing have been R.A. Salvatore, Jacqueline Carey, and, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. I've always been a fan of the fantasy epic genre, of which Tolkien's works are considered (I'm not sure about Salvatore's, they might be. They're fantasy at the very least). Tolkien has effected multiple areas, through primarily in dialogue and world building

Salvatore's works with the Legend of Drizzt has also shaped a lot of how I perform action scenes, though I feel I still don't do well at them.

Carey's Kushiel series, meanwhile, has had the effect of making me work on my female heroes, as well as build upon my scene descriptive skills, the former I needed due to my usage of female heroes yet seeming to never make them look as grand and important as the male heroes. It used to annoy me a lot, as I liked female heroes.

I have also had some minor influence by Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling (With Rowling, it was mostly the last book teaching me "don't rush crap!")

The biggest influences on me, writing wise, would probably have to be Joseph Heller (Catch-22, God Knows), Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart, Anthills of the Savannah), and Neil Gaiman (American Gods, the Sandman comic book series published by Vertigo).

I love everything Joseph Heller wrote, he was biting and relentless in his satire of life. Something Happened is one of my favorite novels, the ending is exquisite.

Chinua Achebe, to me, was a modern master and wrote my all time favorite novel; Things Fall Apart. He wrote about clashes of culture and class in very direct prose. Extraordinary writer.

Neil Gaiman may not have the mastery of language that Heller and Achebe possessed but makes up for it in imagination. Incorporating mythology into contemporary life makes surreal and foreign the very things that we take for granted and think we know everything about.

Runner up: Nick Hornby. =]

At 1/27/10 08:51 PM, BlackmarketKraig wrote: Neil Gaiman

I've got one thing to say to that. Heck yeah!

I have to say that Oscar Wilde's really funny. Have you ever checked out Michael Swaim (who writes on Cracked)?

At 1/27/10 08:39 PM, Skye-McCloud wrote: R.A. Salvatore

Yes indeed! His Dark Elf trilogy has some of the greatest action sequences I've ever read in a book.

I'd also have to say Diana Wynne Jones has had a huge influence on me, along with Phillip Pullman. Rowling and Tolkein, too, but that's obvious for anyone who grew up recently.

Some weird influences I had were from the strange children's movies I watched as a kid, too, like The Secret of Nihm, Return to Oz, The Secret Garden. They all have this same sort of melancholy atmosphere that I've always felt drawn to.

I don't read that much but generally any book I happen to be reading will influence my ideas.

Quite a few people actually
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jack Ketchum, Edgar Allen Poe, James Herbert, Mark Twain

At 1/27/10 10:16 PM, coure wrote: Quite a few people actually
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jack Ketchum, Edgar Allen Poe, James Herbert, Mark Twain

A connoisseur of darkness, I see...

I mould my gothic horror after H.P Lovecraft and my science fiction after David Zindell. They're my two big influences. As for more intricate aspects of writing, I've taken to books such as Fight Club, A Clockwork Orange, The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night Time for literary realism, plot density and character development. Oh, and I'm also making my way through a good number of literary classics for good measure.

At 1/27/10 10:07 PM, Kajenx wrote:

At 1/27/10 08:39 PM, Skye-McCloud wrote: R.A. Salvatore

Yes indeed! His Dark Elf trilogy has some of the greatest action sequences I've ever read in a book.

I have to wonder, to an extent, what reading the Dark Elf Trilogy would've been like had I started with the Crystal Shard as opposed to it. But I'll save deeper discussion into that for the lounge or wherever we end up discussing books we're reading.

Believe it or not movies, games, and scenarios made me want to write.

If there was a certain author...then I would have to refer back to my childhood when I read books by Cornelia Funke. I wasn't super inspired by her books they were just somewhat interesting. What fantasy book isn't interesting anyway?

really bad ones

I didn't get into writing because of any author in particular i got into it because i had such a vivid imagination as a kid and i still get bursts of creativity and inspiration now and i needed an outlet.

I do have favorite authors however including, David Gemmell, Linwood Barclay and Michael White

I've been greatly inspired by Douglas Adams, the writer of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and by the music of Tool and A Perfect Circle.

I'd have to say Robert Buttener, E.E Knight, Emily Rodda and throw in a little bit of Tracey West from when I was younger.

Edgar allen poe, John Wyndham, ect. But my main influence is Oscar Wilde whom I worship like a god... I need to stop myself just writing exactly like him rather than my own style...

Like most people here Edger Allan Poe is my only literature influence. But I write screenplays, so literary figures aren't really the influence for that. I'm more influenced by film makers who write there own work.

At 1/28/10 05:06 PM, FrankoTaco wrote: But I write screenplays

That's awesome. If you wouldn't mind, could you please check out this play I wrote and tell me what you think about it. It'd be much appreciated.

My inspirations practically came from here, there, and everywhere.

No matter where you'll look, it's everywhere.

My biggest influences are...

1) Franz Kafka - I tried to write strange stories like his for a while. He wrote the Castle, The Trial, and America, and (everybody's heard of this one...) The Metamorphosis. I just like how his characters are so filled with self doubt. Kind of like Woody Allen is, but more neurotic.

2) Richard Brautigan - Much of my poetry from the past 3 years was influenced by Brautigan. He wrote really short and quirky poems, but he's mostly famous for his super-popular book: Trout Fishing in America. He is my favorite humorist, and my last great literary discovery.

3) Anna Akhmatova - She was a Russian poet who was declared a "whore saint" by the Russian government. She stayed in Russia her whole life, and was the voice of the Russian people during that time. I love her poetry, because it's dark, and yet she had such distinct style of writing concise poems. I have a long poem that I used her writing style on. Mine is fiction, but most of her poems were based on her own real experiences. She's awesome!

4) Mitch Hedberg - He's a stand-up comic, and there's a wikipedia page with his jokes on it. I'll try to link it here... hopefully it'll work... LOL. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedbe rg

5) Jack Handy (of SNL's Deep Thoughts) - His writing inspired me to try and write one-liners. The first comic I sold to Zuda.com consisted of single panel gag comics that I wrote after reading the first two Deep Thoughts books.

6) Elliott Smith - He's a musician who passed away in the mid 2000's. His lyrics are so filled with depth and underlining meanings that it's just insane. He's my favorite lyricist.

7) Charles Bukowski - Reading his work is one of my biggest guilty pleasures. He was a true bohemian, and led a long crazy life.

I have a lot of idols... LOL!

Enjoy!

-Daniel

All those people who make GREAT Legends & Myths+Modern stories

I don't read a lot and when I do read I never try to emulate what I just read into a story of my own, I think when writing it's best to not be too bothered with that "influence" stuff, because stories offer so little impression of style compared to movies, music or art, so you'd need a style of your own to really shine and get noticed.

But if you're a bad writer then imitating writers you admire is better than vying for a unique style.

First off, books show more authentic style than movies, since book authors have total control of what their readers experience, while movie scripters rely on tons of other people to see their scripts made into movies. When you watch a movie, the "style" is more dependent on the storyboarders, actors, and director. Secondly, artists of all medias do well to imitate their idols while trying to find their own style. If you don't think your work is influenced by anyone else, then show it to someone and ask them who or what it reminds them of. My guess is that your piece will remind them of something else, and if you have ever seen or read that "something else", then it has influenced you unconsciously. Nothing in the world of art is unique, my friend. :) -Daniel

Stephen King.

My prose has no influence, but my (more recent) poetry draws a lot from e.e. cummings, not just because they're all in lowercase.

Edgar Allen Poe, Albert Einstein, and John Mayer. There. Thirty comments.