"Who do you want to be like?"

By J.D. Ray · Apr 18, 2019 · 592 · 4

I got asked yesterday who I wanted to "be like" as a writer. A non-introspective person might answer that they don't want to be like anyone; that they think their writing is unique among the billions of words written by tens of thousands of writers and authors plying their trade in the world today, let alone the countless writers who have gone before them.

I'm a little more open minded in my approach, and seriously consider who my influences are. However, I can't put my finger on the name of a particular author that I would like to use as a template for myself as a writer. Perhaps therein lies one of my failings. Perhaps I need to pick an author and study their work more closely than others to find patterns I like, turns of phrase, stylistic cues... Perhaps I need to establish a style and refine it.

Luckily for me, I'm a long way from needing to be so declarative. I'm slowly plugging away at writing a novel, and I'm getting good feedback on ways to improve it from some people who know the craft; people I respect, and who have influenced me with their writing. I'll slog away at the framework of my personal Monster in a Box, then go back and refine it based on what I learned along the way. With luck, it will be readable. With great luck, it will be salable. For now, I am pleased with the idea of finishing it in a form that I'm proud of. After all, we need to set our goals as things we can achieve.
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Comments

I have two answers and they are diametrically opposed to one another.

I want to write like Arthur C. Clarke

The genius of Clarke's writing is - in large part - due to his innate talent to construct the most lavish and lush of Science Fiction settings, plots, and themes, making use of only the most basic parts. Clarke never ever makes you reach for a dictionary. Ever. That's an art unto itself.

I want to write like Samuel R. Delany

Samuel's genius is drug-ridden and heady. Not chemical drugs. Verbal drugs. When you read his work, you snort rails of metaphor and bang whole syringes filled with pearlescent themes. He makes words dance in bizarre quadrilles that have not been seen since Queen Victoria's day. He invites you to rumple the sheets with noun phrases in complex contortions learned in the Kamasutra.

Wreybies, Apr 18, 2019
A cross between Ricky Gervais and Fyodor Dostoevsky would be a nice platform to start. A strange mix I know.

paperbackwriter, Apr 18, 2019
I suggest you already have a style, you just need to carve it out of the words you write down. As for the writers you might list as influences, you already have that too, in your library or your history of reading. Who moves you the most?

Me, I find myself hearing echoes, faint perhaps, when I write, of Samuel Clemens, James Thurber, Bill Bryson, Saki, and perhaps P.G. Wodehouse. Those are probably the ones I most enjoy reading, though of course I enjoy many others, from Dickens to Cather to P.D. James. And I can't leave out Steinbeck. I admire any author who makes me forget I'm reading.

GrahamLewis, Apr 19, 2019
1/3 Clive Barker
1/3 Roger Zelazny
1/3 Ray Bradbury

That would be a good mix, as those guys know
how to write some really good stuff without
going off the deep end.

Cave Troll, Apr 19, 2019

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"Who do you want to be like?"

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