Just a thread to see who inspired you to start writing and why? My inspirations for writing are comic writers Grant Morrison and Mark Millar. I know the two have a strained relationship but I like the way they tell stories.
No author in particular. If I had to pick anyone, I'd probably say my 2nd grade teacher. She assigned writing and illustrating a short story for class and that's when I fell in love with the art of storytelling. I've been inspired since becoming a storyteller by countless authors! Kurt Vonnegut and John Green come to mind right away.
My senior English teacher in high school was brilliant. She helped me get involved with the university newspaper I ended up writing for as well as critiqued and edited countless drafts for me to be published in high school and university publications, so as far as a person in my life who I worked with as an inspiration, she takes the cake. Author-wise, Stephen King and JK Rowling. The masters of the craft, in my opinion.
When I was in grade three my favorite teacher invited an author to come read her children's book to us. The story didn't impress me, but the woman's poise and self confidence did. That whole year revolved around writing. We made our own books - the teacher lamenated the covers and the stories were put in the library for others to read. It was the first time and quite possibley the last time I ever looked forward to school work. And though my writing afterwards was sporadic until I reached thirteen - I knew I was going to be a writer. As for the authors I take inspiration from - Vladimir Nabokov, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, James Joyce, well the list could go on and on - I don't just add authors but books can add inspiration Automated Alice by Jeff Noon, Alexander Theroux's color essays, Tom Wolfe's the Purple Decades, The Book of Revelation Rupert Thompson.
My seventh grade English teacher, who helped turn my childish fantasies of world domination and alternate history into actual storytelling. Unfortunately, it was revealed a few years later that he sexually abused a couple of boys and had to go to jail, so it's sort of awkward to say a pedophile inspired me. However, it was JD Salinger and The Catcher in the Rye (as well as the anime series Azumanga Daioh, to a much lesser extent (as I regard it as the happy antithesis to Catcher)) that really helped me figure out what sort of stories I wanted to write and the writing style I preferred.
I know I could probably choose some cool cat author to kiss butt over, but it was really my parents and their bottomless well of [tall] tales that got me into writing. That, and the typewriter my dad give me to go with it. Man, I really wanted to use that typewriter so bad! I was so attached to that thing. My dad is more Homer-ish (of the Greek - not Greg Daniels - variety) in his presentation, but my mom is great in interweaving the mythological with reality. If we were eating while laying down on the couch, she'd tell us in a matter-of-fact tone, "If you keep on doing that, you'll turn into a crocodile just like Princess So-and-So." We'd chirp back, "That's not true." And she'd be like, "Well, we'll see about that." Even though we eyed her suspiciously then, we'd still stop eating and put our food away, just in case. Unfortunately I'm not cut from the same cloth. I do prefer to write semi-autobiographical short stories or just stuff more grounded in reality. But, yeah. They were the ones that originally kick-started this hobby of mine, while my Creative Writing Teacher, Mr. Fielder, was the one to reign me in and show me how to continue honing my skills.
This is going to sound like a total non-answer but every author I've ever read has inspired me in some way. H.P. Lovecraft, though, was the writer who made me think I could do this myself. I had some good English teachers back in the day too, and my teachers at university also encouraged me too, but ultimately (aside from every day inspiration) the people who keep me going - keep me writing are, in no particular order: Dante George Orwell (whose essays and and political novels are the essentials of my mental furniture) Christopher Hitchens (whose articles and essays are the elaborate touches to my mental furniture) A list of musicians, especially Eric Johnson, R.E.M., Maynard James Keeton, Richard Wagner and Dave Brubeck - this is the sound track of my life. James Joyce Benjamin Franklin + Thomas Jefferson (anyone involved in the great movements of the Enlightenment really) Thomas Pynchon Friedrich Nietzsche These people not only inspired me but continue to inspire me, which is much more important I think.
nobody, really... i've always just been able to write better than most and started doing so seriously [as in for a career] rather late in life, thanks to having had 2 husbands [consecutively, not concurrently!] and 7 kids, which kept me from writing anything more than fun stuff for my kids and little bits of other non-professional sorts of stuff from time to time... when i was down to the last 2 of the 7 and separating from husband #2, i decided i really wanted to 'be a writer' and dove in...
My English teachers thought I was a smart ass probably because of the one liners or what I chose to write about. My Highschool interpretation of Kubla Kahn was "Sam was on dope" and my College English research paper, while everyone else did thiers on subjects like srem cells, immigration, or abortion, mine was on who would win in a fight: Samurai vs Viking. No I've always had a love of stories, especially fun ones. After reading enough books I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing my own.
This is a great thread! My inspirations have to be all of the children's authors that weaved the stories that I loved as a kid and new children's authors that I have grown to love even being a teen. Tony DiTerlizzi in particular. His vision and goal to write what 10 year old him would have liked has stuck with me. That's what I strive for. Kids themselves and their imaginations inspire me. I hope to one day have the honor to open their eyes to reading and for them to love books like I do.
I have always enjoyed expressing myself on paper. It has helped me in the past to develop ideas. While there are many great authors I have read, one thing always caught my attention. When I slowed down and began reading again, I had stopped reading for enjoyment after college and for ten years was busy building a business. I picked up a James Paterson book and his writing style really did it for me. I would like to write a book that captured the reader and had them turning pages getting deeper and deeper into the story until the book is at the halfway point and it is late in th night. His work was the spark that reignited a passion for reading that I had lost years ago. Something my wife said as I helped her with a paper one night gave me hope that I may write something great one day. She told me I have a way of putting words together to really express myself and get my point across.
I always liked to write. Even before l could spell, l would scribble 'stories' on paper and pretend to read them. I guess my inspiration would be my mother, who read countless stories to me growing up and was an avid reader herself, and my grandfather who, in my opinion, was a great storyteller. I could listen to him tell stories for hours about people he grew up with, places he'd worked and all the local folklore (my favourites). I always wanted to write down all his stories but sadly he passed before l had the chance. My mother has all his journals so l hope to one day use them to put together his life story.
Roald Dahl was probably my original inspiration, I loved his fantastical and often slightly macabre world and would try to write similar stories and poems.
My dad had a couple of video tapes, Truckers and a recorded TV series called Wyrd Sisters. I loved both and would watch them over and over. My dad then handed me a book called Wyrd Sisters by an author named Terry Pratchett. I was still too young to get it, but I kept watching the adaptions of his books until my dad thought I was old enough to understand the books. By then I think I was about 10 and read the Discworld series from start to finish. Repeatedly for years, that was what I read although I read other books in between times. Terry Pratchett is my first love in fantasy writing. When I was 16, my dad handed me a book by a different author, Dragonflight by (the late) Anne McCaffrey and I have never looked back. I've read Twilight and Harry Potter and His Dark Materiels and, more recently, The Hunger Games but I always return to those two authors. I'm fully (and painfully) aware that my writing is no where near their level of just sheer brilliance let alone anything else. I don't think their inspiration is reflected in my writing but I strive to achieve even part of what they have. In particular, as my dad calls it, 'sideways thinking' that Terry Pratchett does. I'd love to be able to write my own sideways thoughts.
Now, this may sound like a negative source of inspiration, and I will not name the author in question, but: My real inspiration to stop thinking about writing and actually start doing it came from reading a bestseller by an immensely popular author and thinking to myself: "Heck. I could do better than this."
When I was a kid I was a huge science fiction fan. When I started writing at eight or nine years of age, I was first inspired by Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. As an adult, I became more inspired by the poets Robinson Jeffers, Walt Whitman, and W. B. Yeats, and novelists like Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Rudyard Kipling, Anthony Burgess, and Joseph Conrad. Now, my ambition is to bring literary depth and (I hope) a certain stylistic distinction to popular science fiction. Of course, this may be a dumb idea ...
Aw, now you got me all curious. What book is that? Well, there's several authors I like. C.S. Lewis, O Henry, George MacDonald, and Tolkien. However, what really inspired me to write was the game Starcraft. The characters were interesting, and I was just drawn into the world. I had to write my way out.
I would like to be able to write short stories like Robert Sheckley. However, I believe that he was a bit inconsistent, a bit hit and miss. I'd like to eventually be able to write like his best work, at various lengths.
