1. Johnattan Goodboy

    Johnattan Goodboy Member

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    Most influencial work for your writing?

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Johnattan Goodboy, Sep 20, 2016.

    It can be a movie, series, paiting, book, music or whatever...

    What was the most influencial work for your creative writing??
     
  2. Infel

    Infel Contributor Contributor

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    This might seem a bit odd, but I had to Richard Selzer's "The Knife" during an intro writing class in college, and it stuck with me ever since. The writing in it is just... just so good. And gross, since I think it's about cutting out a tumor from a body. I've always tried to write in a way that can inflict physical discomfort (or other feelings, whatever) the way that this piece did to me.

    Seriously worth a read.
     
  3. Lea`Brooks

    Lea`Brooks Contributor Contributor

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    Kelley Armstrong. She's a great YA author IMO, and reading her books really showed me what I was lacking in my stories and my quality of writing. I strive to be more like her.
     
  4. Garbage

    Garbage New Member

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    I find music to be very inspiring. I'll take long walks and listen to music, and think of scenes unfolding while the music plays in the background. It's led me to think of new things that I might not have thought before.
    I especially like listening to Hans Zimmer and Lindsey Stirling for that purpose.
     
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  5. Safety Turtle

    Safety Turtle Senior Member

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    For me it's Lovecraft, his way of telling a story and mythos he's built is extraordinary.
    Hope to reach just a part of that one day ^^
     
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  6. NoGoodNobu

    NoGoodNobu Contributor Contributor

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    I would say Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeous Tetralogy in that I've always wanted to emulate his writing. Especially his brilliant balance between the snarky first person & third person limited and the entwined immediate present & the events of the past all effortlessly passing the baton of the story between each until they begin running side-by-side to the inevitable conclusion. It's a children's story and I still find it breath taking, the rich simplicity of it & the author's wonderful control.

    I think Shakespeare, Austen, and Dumas though, having read them from obscenely early ages, shaped my oft archaic diction & style of prose ( >人<; )
     
  7. ThenColmSaid

    ThenColmSaid New Member

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    I would say The Lion, and the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. I'd love to write a series that gives that sort of magic to older readers, somewhat like a dark fairy tale of sorts. To give someone the feeling that book gave me when I was a child would be a dream.

    Lewis said himself: "But someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
     
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  8. Albirich

    Albirich Active Member

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    Not sure I have a most influential work, but I've always liked the villains, ever since I was a child. I never wanted the hero to win. At later points I got tired of the big bad dressed in black with a twirling mustache. I've known ever since being a kid that the world wasn't black and white, and I've never wanted to tell stories like that. Meaning any movies, books or tv series with grey characters have been highly influential in me.

    Most obvious example is A Song of Ice and Fire, but I began writing before knowing about that thus I can't contribute the influence directly at GRRM. Yet at the same time I can't pinpoint one thing...maybe Arthas from Warcraft? Or maybe some amalgam of my own life experiences when younger, the dissatisfaction of twirling black and white mustache villains etc.

    Music is also highly influential. Dark classical pieces (I am highly selective and only listen while working), video game soundtracks, movie soundtracks...soundtracks in general.
     
  9. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    For me, it was the work of James Michener. Not only did he draw me into the world of epic historical fiction, but through his work focusing on such diverse places as Israel, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Afghanistan, and the Caribbean, I've developed a much wider world view.
     
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  10. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I don't see how all those things can be the MOST influential on someones's writing. Movies, tv shows, music and paintings can all be great and even inspiring. But good writers need to read. There's really no getting around the reading if you are looking for something to have a big impact on your writing. It's starting to feel like a lot of people on here aren't really into reading. I'm not talking about this thread but in general on WF. I think it's kind of sad. I never knew so many writers who think you can just swap out reading for other things and expect it to help improve their writing. How you write can be more important than what you write sometimes. Like I said, those other things can inspire you to have story ideas, but they sure aren't going to teach you much about writing. Come on, a painting?
     
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  11. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    But the OP cites books as one of the things that may have influenced our writing.

    I'm influenced by other writers far too much. Copying a style I don't think is harmful - in fact I think it's how we all develop our own writing. Many will come along and deny this, and I think it's possible they're not even aware of the fact. However, I find myself not only influenced by style but by themes, too.

    My latest WiP has ground to a halt (as does every novel I've ever started) because I've had to admit to myself that I'm just writing my own version of Bukowski's Factotum. But his novel works so well because his alter-ego is a womanising, misanthropic, alcoholic bum. Whereas mine is just a bum.
     
  12. tumblingdice

    tumblingdice Member

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    High Fidelity, both the book and the movie.
     
  13. Orsondewitt

    Orsondewitt New Member

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    Starset. It's a music band; it motivates me, especially the song "Carnivore"
     
  14. hawls

    hawls Active Member

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    I can't say there's a single source that has influenced me the most. There are a number of storytellers who have had a huge impact on me.

    Sam Raimi, Joss Whedon, J. Michael Straczynski have all contributed to my sense of narrative, characterization and plot structure.

    Roald Dahl, J.K Rowling, Paul Jennings, Tim Winton, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde had a hand in shaping my writing style and expression.

    Individual works like Akira, Neon Genesis: Evangelion, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Never Ending Story, Watership Down have all had that kind of impact on me I'm sure manifests in my own work somehow.

    Then there are whole concepts like the gothic tradition (The Castle of Otranto, Jane Eyre the works of Edagr Allan Poe, Tim Burton and the like) the ideas, themes and philosophies of which heavily influence my craft as a whole even though I don't strictly write in the gothic genre.

    Hell, I know I'm still influenced by Beatrix Potter and May Gibbs. Things that captured my imagination as a child continue to fuel my sense of wonder and enchantment.
     
  15. Albeit

    Albeit Active Member

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    Tough one, will take some thought. But here goes. No priority or order to what I have listed below.

    I know that Catch-22 by Joesph Heller very much put the hammer down for me as far as how ridiculous and lopsided things can be when dealing with others who use rules and morals to hide their greedy intentions.

    On the Road by Jack Kerouac, opened up alot of youthful thinking as to how to grasp your life and what was worth retelling.

    Papa Hemingway ofcourse. Say no more.

    Damn here I go anyway.

    Clarity, honesty and economy in words. Regardless of what kind of person he was, there is no denying or getting around what he contributed to so many of us as a word merchant.

    Hunter S. Thompson. Just love his brutal and honest style of observation. Not only for his journalistic approach, but also for the way he went after the scoundrels of our times even when writing "fiction". He offered a style of writing that left you open to new ways of expressing yourself, implicating more of yourself and bouncing your gut feelings off all the existing characters that populate your life. Hell, somebody had to speak up as to what most of us were thinking.

    Lots of formal philosophy texts and the like, and in novel form as well. Books like Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance, Does it Matter ?, Nausea, The Outsider etc.

    Could go on, but this seems a bit self-indulgent at this juncture.

    Suffice to say that reading is vital. What you read and appreciate will pretty much determine what you write in turn. We do not stand alone.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2016
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  16. Caveriver

    Caveriver Active Member

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    Love them both! My playlist is full of carefully chosen soundtracks to movies, TV shows, and games, with some Piano Guys and Lindsey Stirling, and other random favorites thrown in. I RARELY write without being plugged into music- helps shut out the real world, as well as prompt better visualization- and is the best way for me to generate a fresh visual... that leads to an idea... that gets me rolling again.
     
  17. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Mine is kinda multi-media.
    Heavy Gear 2, Doom3, Dungeon Keeper 2 computer games.
    Killzone, Red Faction, Twisted Metal 1-Black, Metal Gear Solid, Spec Ops, Halo, and Counter Strike video games.
    Sci-Fi and Horror movies throughout the timeline.
    Metal(classic/current) , Hybrid, Techno, EBM, EDM, Cyber-Goth, Hellektro, Industrial, Rock (classic/current), Classical, Orchestral,
    Movie and Video Game OST's, Dark Emotional, SteamPunk (limited), SythPop, New Wave Retro, music genres(included on a global scale) .
    Roger Zelazny, Piers Anthony, Timothy Zahn, Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton.

    IDK, I try to combine a lot of the elements as they have all influenced me in some way or another.
     
  18. Lifeline

    Lifeline South. Supporter Contributor

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    "Memory" by Lois McMaster Bujold. I still remember when my former boss loaned it to me. I wasn't too thrilled at the time, because I up to this point I'd stuck with fantasy and he gave me scifi to read (and I had to read it ... because he was my boss and I'd stupidly made the mistake to admire his bookshelf). Half of the book I couldn't make head nor tail of as it was right in the middle of a series, but then this one scene struck me right in the gut. It was the most amazing character transformation within two pages I'd ever read, and I devoured the rest of the book and her writing style. I fancy some of it rubbed off, though I have gone on to find my own in the meantime ;)
     
  19. haider

    haider Member

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    For me, it's a picture of Saddam Hussain and Tariq Aziz.
     
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  20. Luke Scott

    Luke Scott Member

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    I love Michener too. Alaska was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.

    As for inspiration; I was initially inspired to write a series of novels based on one character. I got the inspiration from Patricia Cornwell's character "Kate Scarpetta". I realized (quite early on) that I lacked enough writing experience to take on such a task.

    25 years later and I am only now starting to put down ideas for the series.

    Forgot to add; I get inspiration from shows and movies about or involving writers. I actually watch Sex and the City because the main character is a writer.
    Also love the movie "As good as it gets", with Jack Nicholsan playing an OCD novelist.
     

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