Does anyone have any unusual writing influences, besides another writer? One of my writing influences is actually a movie director named Sergio Leone. He directed The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Every time I write a story, I always visualize it like a Sergio Leone movie where there are many close-ups, then I write the details of what I see in my head. I don't know if anyone else does that or if it's just me. Anyway, does anyone else have any unusual artistic influences?
It's a good question, but for me, not really. Sometimes if I get stuck I'll use a bizarre news story or a story about a disturbing trend, and think "what if this happened but with an extremity times 1000" and go from there ; that's as close as it gets. Real life, too.
Yeah, the "What If" approach is popular. Stephen King and Dean Koontz use it and I do it too. Although, I was referring more towards an influencing thing than an influencing approach or idea.
To be honest, I am not influenced by any author on picturing a story, but I do keep it in mind. I tend to write my story as if I am actually in it. It helps me to write narrative description better. Sometimes I fear that it gets too descriptive, so I never tried writing too much in detail. Maybe I should give it a try though.
My influences are from all over the shop - 80s cartoons, Pokemon. documentaries, songs, computer games, legends, religious philopsophies, my experiences as a parent, my experiences of having a gay bestfriend. All are in my book. Bestfriend can't read my book - says he knows I am bonkers doesn't need to spend hours of his time sat inside my head being told just how mad I really am
YouTube videos inspire me a lot. You know, fan videos and the like, and music videos. I love music put to scenes, it's so inspiring.
MUDding... No, not sloshing through the mud in a 4x4, but rather MUD as in Multi User Domain/Dungeon, or whatever your preferred translation of the acronym happens to be. Role Play Intensive MUDs specifically. Funny as it sounds, it served as an excellent testbed for trying out new and various writing styles, while being able to receive running critiques based upon the reactions of the other characters my own came into contact with was quite handy. It also forced me to focus on both dialogue and description, and to be able to come up with halfway decent paragraphs in just a few minutes flat. That all goes without even touching upon the character development part; I doubtless learned and improved more as a writer in that regard, in just a couple of years, than I might have in twice the time through traditional means. Not to mention that it taught me to type like an absolute fiend! Nothing like trying to squeeze off a few lines of description all while your adrenaline is running at full blast, and characters you've been getting to know and interacting with for the past few months are in danger of dying. And your own character too, of course. It's a nerve wracking thing, to have some 2,000+ hours of carefully orchestrated plots, intrigue, drama, romance and development all put on the very brink of being lost forever. Yeah... and some of you thought killing off a character in a book was a difficult thing! Try losing an alter-ego that you've spent the better part of a year developing. And by year I mean an entire year where the vast majority of real life waking thoughts and actions were directed toward advancing that fantasy character.
Sergio got most of his ideas from Japanese films staring Tishiro Mifune (super awesome), the the creative waters were rolling down the hill. Still, all movies start out as a written narrative and are then acted out by people on film. Of course, I'm excluding films that are made by actors ad libbing their roles. Edit: I get a lot from interacting with people. I'll meet someone who's unique and imagine them as a character is some SF or fantasy setting.
