Writers that made you want to write

[Infra-Man]

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

A third and related and final question, who is the writer that made you reevaluate, reassess, or rethink your own personal approach or philosophy to writing?

[Michael P]

There have been a couple billion, but the first was Dave Barry.

[Corrina]

Originally Posted by Infra-Man

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

A third and related and final question, who is the writer that made you reevaluate, reassess, or rethink your own personal approach or philosophy to writing?

1. The first thing I can remember loving to write was a knock-off of JRR Tolkien. So it would have to be Tolkien. But it was comic book writers who fueled my imagination before I got disciplined about it and started putting down the stories constantly running in my head.
Runners us: Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan), Walter Farley, Mary Stewart.

2. Lois McMaster Bujold, Laurell K. Hamilton, Robert B. Parker, Julian May, Anne McCaffrey.

Bujold is the most recent of those. Hamilton blew my mind originally with books 1-5 of her Anita Blake series, Parker had all that lovely banter, Julian May doesn't get enough credit but her Galactic Milieu series has a cast of thousands and juggles so much intensity so well, and Anne McCaffrey because, well, DRAGONS!!!!

3. I think this more refers to a teacher, rather than a writer. Though I do think writers can learn from just studying other books, I was lucky enough to have a mentor who was also an excellent writer & teacher, Jennifer Crusie.

Everything I know about writing craft started with her informal teaching on the 'net and those guidelines still inform how I write. There have been other influences too, writers you guys wouldn't know that I'm close with that help with process in an amazing way.

But, like I said, I was lucky enough to have direct contact. I highly recommend that.

[FeminineMystique]

I can't think of any one in particular. As a kid I read everything science fiction, horror, comedy, romance and everything inbetween. And my parents had a UGE comic collection and there was a comics shop right by where I lived so I read a lot of those too.

I just sort of knew as soon as I started reading that one day I wanted to be like the people who'd written such amazing stories. And I still hope one day I'll have a book of my own on the shelves

[Global Honored]

Harry Crews, John Kennedy Toole, Elmore Leonard, Haruki Murakami, Jack Kerouac, Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger, Edgar Allen Poe, James Joyce, Joyce Carol Oates, Bob Dylan, Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino....the list goes on

Some more recent influences would include Micheal Chabon, Jasper Fforde, Chuck Palahniuk, Ed Brubaker...Gail

[Sarah Beach]

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?

Probably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- I encountered unabridged Sherlock Holmes when I was in fourth grade, and not long after wrote my first story - a mystery. That would have been at about 10-11 years old.

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

That's a bit more difficult, as there have been several that have nudged me, inspired me to step further out of my box: Shakespeare -- I loved what he could do with the language, to making iambic pentameter seem almost conversational -- I want to be able to handle language that way; Tolkien -- the vastness and complexity of his created world, so complete and solid -- I had to eventually accept that I don't have the chops to create a whole language, but other than that, I always have the challenge of his thoroughness in world-building. Other than that, it would be more difficult -- there are some writers I admire, but that don't have the big "I Aspire To This" tag on their work.

A third and related and final question, who is the writer that made you reevaluate, reassess, or rethink your own personal approach or philosophy to writing?

I don't know that I've had anyone who made to "reevaluate, reassess, or rethink" my approach to writing. Mostly, there have been several who have built on the ground that I started from. I'd like to think that my approach to writing was grounded on a solid foundation from the start and didn't need a lot of changing. So what has come after had just allowed me to continue building on what was already there. Tolkien's theory of story, how everything goes into a big pot and we draw from that, has been inportant -- it gives me a surer comfort about the inescapability of "influence", and a recognition of when someone has only achieved "imitation" (that is, they have not really absorbed the essence of the influence into themselves and so only copy the forms). But in terms of just "working on the story", I'd have to say that Blake Snyder and his Save the Cat! book (on how to structure a piece of writing) has become the most useful tool -- I now frequently use his Beat Sheet for structuring almost everything, even non-fiction stuff.

[Tobias March]

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?


Michael Scott is little known outside of Ireland, but he was the first author I read whose work inspired me to attempt something. I was 10 and had read a book reinventing aspects of Irish myth called Windlord. Afterwards I tried copying his style, so I would point to him as a very early influence.

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

Pynchon, which might sound wankery, but Gravity's Rainbow was this associative fugue, which was exactly what I was looking for when I read it. Inspiring. Recently Danielewski's parodying of film horror in print also impressed.

A third and related and final question, who is the writer that made you reevaluate, reassess, or rethink your own personal approach or philosophy to writing?

Mervyn Peake. Because it should be done for the love of it alone.

[Mick]

Originally Posted by Infra-Man

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?

Enid Blyton.

Originally Posted by Infra-Man

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

Ooh. Good question. Isaac Asimov, maybe. His short stories introduced me to "real" science fiction.

Originally Posted by Infra-Man

A third and related and final question, who is the writer that made you reevaluate, reassess, or rethink your own personal approach or philosophy to writing?

Definitely Matthew Reilly. It was his books that encouraged me to just write whatever I wanted to write, and I think I'm a much better writer for it.

[shrike]

Usually bad writers have made me want to write, just because their stuff is so dreadful.

[ScottyQuick]

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?

Gordon Korman from his wonderful McDonald Hall books, Eoin Colfer with his morally ambiguity-for-kids! Artemis Fowl series, Marc Andreyko from his Manhunter series and Brian K Vaughan from Runaways.

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

Brian K. Vaughan. I never knew that you could fall so hard for fictional characters, or even care so much for them. I never knew that fiction could change your mind, and even your world, until I read some of his stuff. I never knew you could feel genuine tears for a blot of ink, but you *can*.

[mikekerr3]

Kerouac, Kesey, Heinlein, Zelasny and Brunner.

[gryhpon]

to the first, frank herbert ( and stephan pastis)

to the second, douglas coupland and umberto eco

to the third, again douglas coupland and umberto eco also robert e howard

[Jbenn]

Originally Posted by Infra-Man

Who is the writer that originally made you want to write?

A second and related question, who is the writer that expanded your thoughts on what writing could be or can accomplish?

A third and related and final question, who is the writer that made you reevaluate, reassess, or rethink your own personal approach or philosophy to writing?

1. Dr. Seuss. Seriously. First book I ever read by was by him and I wished I could do something like that (and I was 5 at the time)

2. Raymond Chandler - working within a limited genre (the hard-boiled American P.I. novel) he made it into an art form. Which means any kind of story can be elevated if the writing is good enough.

3. The 3rd writer is my old college creative writing teacher who gave me some of the best advice ever when I was an Undergrad and I've continued to use it in my own writing today - no matter what the topic is.

[spidervenom]

Quentin Tarantino, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Geoff Johns, Mark Millar, Kevin Smith, Hideo Kojima and Warren Ellis

[Tyr]

James Cameron, I started writing bad Aliens knock off stuff after watching his work.

Also Robert Heinlein, Robert N Charette's Battletech stuff, Ray Bradbury, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and, to a certain extent, Rod Serling.