1. NowhereMan

    NowhereMan Member

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    Who do you base your writing on?

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by NowhereMan, Aug 18, 2010.

    stephen king
     
  2. FrankB

    FrankB New Member

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    My own thoughts and experiences.
     
  3. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    My own ideas. My imagined worst-case scenarios.
     
  4. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    Again no one deliberatly lol Unless you count basing my main character Socrates on John Barrowman in his music videos What About Us and All Out of Love (not John Barrowman in particular just those two videos:))
     
  5. Shinn

    Shinn Banned

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    My own ideas, characters and settings.
     
  6. SilverWolf0101

    SilverWolf0101 Active Member

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    Originally when I first started writing I tried basing it off Jack London, then I stretched out to Dean Koontz.

    Somehow though, I developed my own way of writing, my own voice and my own way of presenting everything in the story. So now I base my writing off my own style and my own thoughts.

    After all, there's nothing more original then your own writing voice.
     
  7. Islander

    Islander Contributor Contributor

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    I base my writings on the little gnome who lives in my attic. Every night he comes down and drinks tea and tells me stories, which I put down on paper the next day.

    Seriously, though, I don't have a specific role model for my writing. When I write fantasy, I'm mostly inspired by Tolkien, because he had the guts to create an elaborate fantasy world from scratch. But my writing style is not very similar to his.
     
  8. Victorian girl

    Victorian girl New Member

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    I am influenced by the ghost writer Sheridan Le Fanu and also Charles Dickens. My characters are sometimes just figments of my imagination but sometimes based on real people, some are based on malicious people I have met but the names have been chaged lol.
     
  9. Zane

    Zane New Member

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    Music! I just can´t write without a background music!

    I write whatever I feel like writing. If I don´t do it, then a new idea will appear and my mind starts getting a bit too crowded :D
     
  10. Alexandra_Riera

    Alexandra_Riera New Member

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    music does it for me too, sometimes it's annoying as I'm not near a computer to write things down .... but music makes me come up with stories most of the time. I just have to listen and see and then write.

    sometimes if I want to keep a mood in the story I keep playing the same music and when I want a change of scenario I change the beat
     
  11. TWErvin2

    TWErvin2 Contributor Contributor

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    I've learned from reading (and studying) and been inspired by a number of authors with my fantasy and SF writing:

    Steven Brust, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, Steven R. Donaldson, Fred Saberhagen, Harry Turtledove and Terry Brooks.

    I don't try to write like them (although I strive to write as well as them) and hope someday I do.
     
  12. Motley

    Motley Active Member

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    I base mine on what my characters tell me to write.

    I can't imagine trying to base my style of writing off another writer. It wouldn't be mine then.
     
  13. Chel

    Chel New Member

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    Let's put it like this: I wish I could write like Guy Gavriel Kay. But I don't try to.
     
  14. Tessie

    Tessie Contributor Contributor

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    @ Motley

    Yes! I agree. For others out there, I think there's nothing wrong with trying to follow the style of authors you like or admire. Keep at it!

    But for me, I use my own style, my own characters, and not that of others. (For some reason it makes me feel like I'm almost stealing from their labor.) But that's just me.

    And besides, what I write about is something completely different from mainstream so I'm rather comfortable in my own skin.
     
  15. Radrook

    Radrook Banned Contributor

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    i think every writer absorbs different styles from different writers he or she admires and consciously or subconsciously incorporates them into his work. Ultimately all these different tidbits are merged to create your own unique style. I or example absorbed some techniques from Asimov yet I don't write like Asimov . But the influence is there and does modify my work in subtle ways.
     
  16. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Everybody is influenced by everybody they've ever read or talked with. Sometimes negatively - I have no desire to write like William Faulkner or Gertrude Stein, for example.

    My ideas and general outlook are my own, but stylistically my biggest influence is probably Robinson Jeffers. His poetry has some of the rhythms I'd like to hear in my own prose.
     
  17. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    no one... not even myself... i write in whatever style/voice the work calls for...
     
  18. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    I don't base my writing on any writer in particular, but I've probably been influenced by James A. Michener, Ernest Hemingway, C.P. Snow, Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Jane Austen and E. M. Forster. And maybe a little bit by Herman Wouk, Leon Uris, Louisa May Alcott, Isaac Asimov and Herman Melville. And also John Knowles, Harper Lee, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen.
     
  19. Cecil

    Cecil New Member

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    I imagine most of us have our influences, but I don't think it's a god idea to deliberately try to mimic the styler of another author. Well, maybe as a writing exercise, just to kind of explore. But you'll ultimately want to find you're own voice.
     
  20. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    I think when we say we're influenced, we don't mean we're consciously trying to imitate. At least, I don't mean that. We're just aware of who we've absorbed, so to speak.

    And we all have our own voices, whether we like them or not. They are who we are.
     
  21. thewordsmith

    thewordsmith Contributor Contributor

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    YES! Exactly. Basing one's writing on another writer is cheating yourself as well as the writer model. I cannot imagine basing my writing on anyone or anything other than the muse that moves at some given moment.
     
  22. arron89

    arron89 Banned

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    Every writer, whether they admit it to themselves or not, bases their writing on other writing. I'm not saying they crack open their favourite book and rewrite it, but they draw stylistic and structural influence from other writing, as well ideas for other stories, characters, situations, themes.

    You might like to think that writing is some kind of magic, but c'mon. Everyone is influenced by everything, all the time. No one is immune.
     
  23. SerraSwift

    SerraSwift New Member

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    I am most moved by the following authors: Shirley Jackson, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Sherwood Smith, JK Rowling, Phillip Pullman.

    I don't 'base' my writing off of these authors' works, but their books are what shaped me as a writer because I look to them as positive role-models for good writing. So if I see that I love how descriptive Patricia McKillip is, I try to be more descriptive. Or if I like how strong the characters are in The Golden Compass, I try to emulate Pullman by creating my own strong characters.

    :)
     
  24. Kratos

    Kratos New Member

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    I'd have to say that my writing style is partially influenced by Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, and maybe Stephen King
     
  25. Manav

    Manav New Member

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    Nobody and everybody... if that makes any sense :)
     

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