Influenced....

[-Carlos-]

Who has influenced you as a writer and why?

I am thinking seriously of doing some writing (short fiction) myself; the writers that I respect and are influenced by so far are Hemingway, Steinbeck and Hijuelos. I dream of writing as close as I can to those talents (some day). Let's see what happens.

You?

 

[-Carlos-]

I did not say why...

I love Hemingway's economy of words (less is more), Steinbeck's clear and realistic ability to describe personalities (emotions) and scenes, and Hijelos' (the most underrated writer today) poetic flow of words- his command of prose.

 

[ValkyrieRaven88]

I think the writers that have influenced me are:

1. Ray Bradbury. He always wrote what he imagined, and although his writing could get dark, his imagination was large and child-like, which made his stories so enchanting.

2. Laurell K. Hamliton. Although I don't care for the way her later books turned out, her first Anita Blake books had great characterization and sarcastic humor.

3. Jonathan Stroud. I haven't read anything but his Bartimaeus Trilogy, but here I saw a great and believable example of how to take ancient characters and make them not seem over-the-top while you still knew how impressive they were. Also great sarcastic humor.

4. Michael Crichton. His science fiction books were so effective because they were so believable. This showed me how research could be put into the story without long, boring exposition, and that you could make even the most unbelievable concepts seem realistic (dinosaurs meet man, for example).

 

[Rien]

::grins brightly at the Raven type::

I, too, have been a bit influenced by the LKH, despite how horribly a turn she took in the end. She created a world quite seperate from the type most writers go for, while still keeping it close to our own. She managed to get into the characters extremely well, and she was very good at keeping drama an undercurrent, humour sliding in and out, while the storylines built the characters she created.

I've also learned a lot from the many authors of Forgotten Realms, especially R. A. Salvatore. His portrayal of characters in The Dark Elf Trilogy always leaves me breathless and wishing I could write nearly so well.

Aside from that, the writing of my sister, Cat, has done a lot of good for me, I think. Although she's never written a full book, the smatterings here and there are brilliant. A lot of her writing is done for characters in her roleplays either in Marvel or DnD.

Anyway, that's all I can really think of, aside from the ones listed for my favourites: Diana Wynne Jones, Charles de Lint, and Terry Pratchett.