Jody Picoult, Bryce Courtney and Alice Hoffman. They all have the most extraordinary eye for detail, which I love.
I don't deliberately base my writing on a specific set of authors. Instead, I have a goal of one day being "as good as," "half as good as" the following authors. As good as in worldbuilding: Niven & Pournelle, Brandon Sanderson Half as good as in worldbuilding: George R.R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Naomi Novik, S.M. Stirling At least half as good as in descriptive and pacing ability: Brent Weeks, S.M. Stirling, Scott Lynch, Jim Butcher, Rudyard Kipling At least as good as in descriptive and pacing ability: Stephen King, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Lolah Burford This is my lifetime goal, not my "I'll definitely make it" goal. More of a dream than a goal, really, although it gives me something to aim for.
I read quite seldom and mostly different writers. Therefore I have no real model in writing. Heh, but I don't consider myself a real writer either.
When I'm trying to be humorous, I usually end up sounding like Douglas Adams. When I'm not, I end up like someone trying to describe Stephen King and using far too many words to do it. The fact that I just compared myself to the two people I consider to be the best writers ever is not meant to be self-flattery.
I am influenced by others' writing only to the extent that I have been reading since I was four years old. Yes. Writers are, generally speaking, influenced by the writing of others ... generally speaking. That does not mean any particular body of work influences the way a writer writes. Having read, through the years, a multitude of writers of diverse style and voice and quality, All of whom moved me in some way, am I then to determine I am influenced by this or that writer because I read his or her work? That's a pretty fine line. Do you also give credit for your muse to the guy who writes the column you enjoy so much in the Sunday newspaper? I should hope not! Where do we draw the line between good writing inspiring one to write and leaning on a particular writer's style and form for one's own inspiration? And, since most people do not limit their reading to one author alone, I should think, if one was drawing "stylistic and structural influence from other writing, as well ideas for other stories, characters, situations, themes" their own work would come out looking and sounding fairly schizophrenic. And if one is drawing ideas for stories, characters, etc. from another's work, as well as that writer's style and structural influence, the work would appear so imitative so as to be barely marketable, if at all. And I can safely state with absolute certainty that I do not draw ideas for stories, characters, situations, or themes from the works of other writers. And, if everyone who writes must, by your assessment, base his writing on some other writer's work, how,then, do we account for the earliest writers? Must we then say they based their writing style on certain cave paintings and therefore were influenced by some unknown cave man? How far back must we go before we discover the sole original writer? The 'magician', if you will, who had the one original thought from which every writer thereafter extrapolated some concept which he moulded into his own version of that one original idea? Is it really so impossible to believe that, in this day and age, somebody could actually have an original idea? Approach that idea from a personal standpoint? Produce something uniquely his own? Perhaps some people do aspire to write like their favorite writer. To be like Stephen King or John Donne or Chaucer. Perhaps in ages long past, some young scribe longed wistfully to be able to write like Wm. Shakespeare. But I would suggest it is just as likely there were others who longed only to put down the stories they had in their heads. To enthrall others with their tales of the fantastic. Vying for the title of best of the best among their compatriots, they would, in a drunken ether, tell the tale of a man put together, an olio of parts of many, and brought to life striking fear and wonder in the souls of all who saw him. Or, maybe, just to amuse his own children, a man writes down his own secret inner child on the pages - that part of him that never grew up. Or an old man who had no real love of children but believed all adults were, indeed, terribly child-like in their ignorance, wrote nonsense stories full of made up words, couching moralistic stories of greed, selfishness, ecology, and even compassion in childish presentation. Yes. Everyone is influenced by everything, all the time. But does that mean there is some conscious, or even unconscious patterning of another writer's style? Perhaps, with some, that may be the case. Overall, excepting those who actually do consciously attempt to mimic the writing style or other qualities of their favorite writers, I think not. Everyone is influenced by everything all the time. That means they can be influenced in unique and very personal ways. I tend to give people credit for a level of intelligence that allows them to create independent, cogent thoughts of their own.
I don't really base my writing off of anything. A phrase, a song, a picture... anything can inspire me to write at any given moment. Though it's true whenever I write it is usually influenced by whatever book I'm reading or whatever I'm learning at school.
I like to think my writing is my own thing. Sometimes I see a sentence and think "Oh that sounds like something so and so would say." And occasionally my writing will take on the style of whoever I am reading at that time.
