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  1. lordofhats

    lordofhats New Member

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    What works have influenced your writing?

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by lordofhats, Jan 14, 2009.

    I just thought of this question a bit ago and was curious what other people had to say. What works have influenced your writing? Have you borrowed themes or ideas from works you liked and found ways to make them your own? Is your style heavily influenced by another?

    An attentive person could probably find that a lot of my stuff is heavily influenced by Mobile Suit Gundam, The BattleTech/MechWarrior universe, and Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Star Wars too. What can I say I love reading and watch scifi and mechs, and the effects of war on the human condition XD. I can't really think of any author who's writing style I've picked up off hand but I suppose there are a bunch who have influenced the way I try to write.

    How about you guys?
     
  2. Benska

    Benska New Member

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    "People are sponges."
    I think that your writing style, just like your general personality, often your speech vocab, and your accent is influenced by those whom you spend alot of time around, your writing style is molded by what/who you read most. But then again, it could be totally unuque. It is most likely an assimilation of the styles of the writer's styles you like... maybe even some you don't, or just random writer's styles who's stuff you've read. Anyways, I mention this because most don't notice this going on, and (probably) need other people to analise their work to tell them who they write like, or who it seems influenced by.

    Personally... I wouldn't have a clue who I write like :D.
     
  3. Dcoin

    Dcoin New Member

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    I think my writing has seen more of an influence from the genres I read as opposed to a single author.

    The influence extends even to the activities I enjoy in real life. Its funny how the things we read really begin to influence every part of a life.
     
  4. Heather Louise

    Heather Louise Contributor Contributor

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    Having read Memoirs of a Geisha again the other week, I realised how much that book had changed my writing style. I sort of adapted the flowery, absent minded tone of the main charector in that for certain peices of my work, which I kinda like actually, although only for some peices.

    also, I saw a trick a few times with one word sentances and paragraphs and I love it; I'm one word sentance mad ! :p
     
  5. othman

    othman New Member

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    As everyone else said; everyone. But...recently it was John Wyndham's The day of the triffids but a long time ago; Anthony Brown's Bear Goes To Town...the one with the magic pencil, it is AWESOME!! EVEN AT MY AGE!! WOOT FOR BEAR GOES TO TOWN + CAPSLOCK!!
     
  6. 67Kangaroos

    67Kangaroos New Member

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    I have tons of influences... But most of my concious ones come from whatever I'm reading at the moment. Like when I read jane Austin I cab feign eloquence and when I read murakami I use details that seem minor but aren't
     
  7. Unsavory

    Unsavory Active Member

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    Most of my conscious influences are almost too embarrassing to admit. I don't read as much as I should (though I do try) which leaves my artistic influences to movies, video games and song lyrics. I can say without too much hesitation that my work is influenced by films like Star Wars that adhere so strictly to the hero's journey but the other things are harder to identify.

    A few nights ago I was at work browsing on Wikipedia and I realized that one of my major plot points is almost identical to something that happens in Final Fantasy IV. I've played that game a dozen times and not until reading the plot did I discover that I was stealing from a very old super nintendo game.

    ...And I can't tell you how many times I've said "No, I can't say that because it's a line from a Tool song."
     
  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Frank Herbert and Octavia Butler for their introspection on the human condition and Arthur C. Clark for his sharp, clean writing style.
     
  9. Leaka

    Leaka Creative Mettle

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    Most of the time it's everything I see, read, and hear. So everyone and everything can be an influence.

    But a heavy influence on me, and I mean heavy is Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. <---the name is awesome, like some wicked spell....the Lovecraft spell.
    lol!
    Sorry weird I know. -.-
     
  10. Adelaide

    Adelaide New Member

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    The intense, lyrical aspects of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison is a stye I strive for, though it's hard to come close to their genius. I try not to get too weighed down with this style and be concise and clean when I need to.
     
  11. architectus

    architectus Banned

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    I would rather people tell me who my influences are, because I really don't know.

    I would like to be influenced by Dean Koontz and Hemmingway for writing style, but that is asking a lot from me.

    I think some YA novels have influenced my YA style a bit. Such as Marked, Blood and Chocolate, Twilight, and the Golden Compass.
     
  12. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    all and none

    [figuring that out should be simple]
     
  13. JavaMan

    JavaMan New Member

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    Edgar Poe's works have always been very inspiring - the stories and poems, as well as his book, "The Philosophy of Composition."
     
  14. Ice

    Ice New Member

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    My biggest influences have been J. R. R. Tolkien (introduction to fantasy) and R. Scott Bakker (spectacularly rhythmic style and a great example of how telling, not showing, can really work in the right hands).

    I'm currently reading Olivier Pauvert's Noir and am trying to emulate its sort of otherworldly, mysterious atmosphere in my new project.
     
  15. Scarecrow28

    Scarecrow28 New Member

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    Clive Cussler heavily influenced my switch to thriller writing, James Rollins and Dan Brown have had a large impact on the historical background of my writing, Matthew Reilly taught me everything I know about writing action sequences, Lee Child's lead to me showing the thought of my characters during the course of the story, and Richard Mattheson's I AM LEGEND taught me it's ok to have a story without much dialogue. Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn taught me to include a political side to the my stories, or atleast the political reprecussions that come as a result of the main storyline, and Robert Ludlum and Brad Thor also had some influence on the way I write in general. For movies, I'd say Indiana Jones had a big impact and a lot of bands like Coheed & Cambria and Tool probably influenced me somewhere along the line, because they're all I listen to when I'm writing :)
     
  16. TwinPanther13

    TwinPanther13 New Member

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    Wreybies, not too many people know Ms. Butler. I have started reading her and find her work interesting. She has become somewhat of an inspiration to me.

    I will honestly have to say that every story I have read influences me. I read a lot of novels by different authors, and no single author has influenced me.

    I have a little bit of everything in my stories to reflect the many experiences of my life and what I have read.

    I hope this is an adequate answer.
     
  17. tehuti88

    tehuti88 New Member

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    Jung's ideas have influenced the themes and symbolism of my writing, but his style certainly hasn't. (Let's just say a lot of his writing is hard for me to wrap my brain around.) My plots and such were also heavily influenced by the Ojibwa myth retellings of Basil Johnston.

    In terms of style, I would have no idea since I don't set out to mimic anyone else's style, I just write the way I want to write. I also don't read much fantasy fiction (the genre I write in).
     
  18. Metaphor

    Metaphor New Member

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    Ray Bradbury definitely influences me, but it's not just with Fahrenheit 451.
    In fact, his short stories do a lot more for me. But really, everything the guy writes is gorgeous, so I always have him in mind when at the word document.

    I also notice that I can't seem to write a poem without adding some Biblical/other relious reference. They're just so easy for me to build off of. A lot of religious and "morality" writing does that for me, actually. I've seen traces of William Golding, John Bunyan, and Aesop in a few of my poems. =D
     
  19. Rosetta Stoned

    Rosetta Stoned New Member

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    Margaret Atwood and George Orwell to say the least. Also, some works by Yeats, Achebe, The Beatles and Murakami.
     
  20. g1ng3rsnap9ed

    g1ng3rsnap9ed New Member

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    Clive Barker and Stephen King influence me the most because they are the two authors I read most. The films, books, and comics that I saw as a kid influence me a lot too. H.P. Lovecraft is the most inspiring author in the "After Reading This, I Want To Go Write Something" category. My writings are also heavily influenced by my personal life.
     
  21. hyperknees91

    hyperknees91 New Member

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    Orson Scott Card, Douglas Adams, Tolkien.........Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

    Mainly helps influence my imagination.
     
  22. Aeroflot

    Aeroflot New Member

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    I don't know how much has influenced me or just agreed what I already know and do.

    Kafka has opened me up to the world of the blurred reality with Metamorphosis, the Castle, The Vulture, Arabs and Jackals.

    Murakami has expanded upon what I've learned from Kafka, and has added a more social critique element, intro to freestyle writing, and the loosening of the confines of what is correct writing and what is not. Pinball 1973 did drive me in another direction though, I have to admit, to more abstract writing.

    The authors' real lives has probably influenced me more than the writing itself.

    Dostoevsky. To me, his work is so old and outdated that it is hard for me to draw anything from his writing. But he was the original author that inspired me to write more on the psychological side, to experiment with first person writing styles.
     
  23. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    I like to think of my writing style being a bit like Thomas Pynchon and H.P. Lovecraft, but I've written something that is a bit of Hemmingway, Edgar Allen Poe, Don Delillo and a lot of Stephen King in there.

    I was read The Dark Half last night and realised just how much King has been an influence on me, as much as I do not wish to admit it.
     
  24. Kas

    Kas New Member

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    Like Maia, I think I learn something from every author, but emulate none. I've read far too many books to do that. My writing is influenced by the fantasy genre in general, however, since I read so much of it. I'm trying to get away from that, though, because the fantasy I write is very different from what I read.
     
  25. Agreen

    Agreen Faceless Man Contributor

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    My studies in the Humanities have influenced my writing more than the novels I've read. The works that have had the greatest effect on me have probably been Dante's Divine Comedy, The Upanishads, and The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche.
     

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