# Who are your main influences?



## kinetickyle (Jul 12, 2003)

What authors do you feel have had the biggest impact on your writing and why?  

The biggest influences for me are Jack Kerouac and Hunter Thompson, because of their free-flowing prose and use of odd descriptives, and Stephen Ambrose, because of his excellent narrative of historical events.  And I can't forget about Ernie Pyle, who wrote about the everyday man in the foxholes of WWII.

What about all of you?


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## Kurkurrage (Jul 12, 2003)

My influence list would read exactly like the Who's Who of sci-fi. You name 'em, I dig 'em. I've been reading science fiction since I knew what words were. The first books I read by myself were the Dune books by Frank Herbert. TOUGH READ, y0! I toned down to R.A.H. and Isaac Asimov -- stuff I could comprehend!

As far as poetry goes, I'd have to say I have no influence(s) . I play it by ear, let the ink flow or what have you.

I really enjoy the style and substance of William Burroughs; that dude had issues! I can relate, to a small degree.


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## Csira (Jul 15, 2003)

Most probably, Edgar Allan Poe. It is hard for me to tell which style I incorporate from since after reading a book, I have this strange tendency to mimic the language of the author, and most frequently the author would be Shakespeare. I guess I'm just one of those people, the word escapes me now, who absorb from others.


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## kinetickyle (Jul 15, 2003)

Csira said:
			
		

> I have this strange tendency to mimic the language of the author



Don't feel bad, I have that same inclination.  It usually takes me a couple of drafts to filter out whatever I read last.  But, I think it's a perfectly normal phenomenon.  If you ever read Jack Kerouac's "The Town and the City," it reads just like a Thomas Wolfe book, who was one of Kerouac's greatest influences.


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## Aubrey (Jul 22, 2003)

Hmm, good question!  *thinks a moment*  

As I write more poetry, more often than not, I'll reflect off them for now.  I've always been strongly influenced by what you would call 'classical' poets; Edgar Allen Poe, Keats, Byron, and Shelley, Dante, and even Milton.  Sometimes I think my poetry writing style is far too 'antiquated' for the 21rst century, belonging more around the Renaissance period or Baroque.  (Either way I love to write for the sheer love of writing itself and enjoy sharing my works with others!)


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## amie (Jul 22, 2003)

I tend toward the minimalist-esque (a new word is born!) writers such as J.D. Salinger and Hemingway with an appreciation for not only the structure of language but also the sound. I write short stories about every day life and try to make them more real than reality. I suppose I have Salinger, Updike, Welty, Hemingway, and countless others to thank for that.

It's too bad my work doesn't even compare to these guys.

- amie -[/i]


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## modified7 (Jul 23, 2003)

*Two parts King, one part Chandler and a straight shot.......*

Two parts Stephen King, one part Raymond Chandler and a straight shot of Ernest Hemingway on top yields my influences......... sounds like a scary combination.   It's highly likely my biggest influence I've yet to read, but in time.......... Keith


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## Fugi Origami (Jul 27, 2003)

The author who made me want to write was and is Flannery O'Connor. There is something so real, so tragic and flawed about every character in her stories that you cant help but becomed entranced.

She wrote short stories, which is not usually a medium that i tend to explore, I do so for the best in southern Gothic literature. She, in my opinion, which of course is humble, is highly underated. She should rank up there with Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Faulkner as one of the great 20th century authors. 

One of my personal favorites is her short story of a young writer who is sick and believes that he shall die. He sees himself as a tragic literary genius struck down in his prime, and is angry at the world. Yet as you examine the character you begin to understand that he doesn't hate the world, he hates himself for not truly being what he imagines himself to be. brilliant

-Fugi


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## MarkS (Aug 7, 2003)

I tend to sway towards interlocking the styles of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. The reason is simple because they are my two favorite authors. Heck, pretty soon I'll be writing a story about a Time Machine that goes Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.


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## Hazel (Aug 9, 2003)

My Influences are highly Stephen King and Richard Adams. The former for his ability to tell it like it is and still have meaning in his words and the latter for his smooth and tranquil descriptions. They're also my two favorite authors....


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## scryer (Sep 7, 2003)

Oh boy, lets see....Edgar Allen Poe!!!  Enoch the Prophet (true author is debatable), Life.., Anne Rice, President Lincoln, and Dr. Martin Luther King, and Einstien to name few.  I tend to draw my inspiration from all sorts of strange places, as you can see.  I am infulenced by my obsessive need to make sense of the world around me, then I try to put my newly accquired views and opinions into works of fiction and poetry.  Did that make sense?

-Lisa


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## Penelope (Sep 7, 2003)

(short stories) - Somerset Maugham [The master in my opinion]
(fiction) - Jan de Hertog - Homer - Hugo - Nevil Shute
(non fiction) - Gerald Durrell - Pierre Burton
(poetry) - my mom - Dr. Suess - Rudyard Kipling 
Noel Coward - Ogden Nash - William Blake - Leonard Cohen 
Robert Service - John Lennon -Sarah MacLaughlin
(mind expansion)
my parents & Karl Jung


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## Sir Joel of Cardwell (Sep 8, 2003)

I like the Bible, I found it challenging yet satisfying.

Oh, Dostoyevsky is a fine author too.

Solzhenitsyn, lengthy, but good for dipping into.

Q Magazine 1986-1995

Bob Dylan

Shakespeare

Anton Chekov (only lately)

Oscar Wilde, dandyism up for a come back? I hope so!


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## SD (Sep 9, 2003)

Ezra Pound, Sylvia Plath (her poem Lady Lazarus inspired me to write poems), Edith Södergran, Emily Dickinson, Walt W, the Bard to name a few of my favourite poets, but how can one choose like this? Eeep. 

Let's just say that I like to experiment rather than conform (  ) and read poets with the same drive

SD :lol:


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## somearthur (Sep 16, 2003)

My greatest influences...Keats, because he died at twenty five and yet my teachers in high school and college managed to dredge up enough material that his writings were in my required readings for six straight years.  When I think about Keats I have hope that someday I could be forced on students by a strangling school curriculum.  (and I really honestly am touched by his work)
In general I find the Romantic poets the most inspiring, as writers, but as far as actual writing goes...I have a couple other random influences...Banana Yoshimoto, for writing two of the most beautiful novellas about ghosts I've ever read, Mark z. Danielewiski, for writing the most unique novel I've ever come across and giving me the taste for more...  (in addition, he has a passion for words which I completely respect)  Michael Chabon, for giving me a book that I seriously thought was agony to put down.  I almost didn't think books really did that anymore...and I want to create dramas like that for myself, and in my own writing.  
I only wish I could be half so talented...


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## Anonymous (Sep 17, 2003)

*influences*

Influences?  Hmmm . . . 

Don Delillo, Chuck Pahlahniuk, William S. Burroughs, James Joyce, Gary Jennings, Poe, Lewis Carroll, Graham Greene, Toni Morrison, Margaret Laurence, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Paul Sartre, John Steinbeck -- and in my misspent youth: Stephen King, Anne Rice, and a plethora of comic book writers whose names I can't recall at the moment.

Lots, I guess -- and a motley crew!


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## Fantasia (Sep 17, 2003)

Influence...

Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Ann Marston, Jennifer Roberson, JKR, Isaac Asimov and all the authors in his Devils/Giants/Witches/Wishes/ etc.


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## Gia (Sep 17, 2003)

Dark , gothic writing has always facinated me .


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## Paul (Sep 17, 2003)

*Main influences*

Spike Milligan, Charles Dickens, E.A. Poe, in  fact, anybody who writes a story that makes me giggle, go pale, or turn the page until I finish. 
Hugs
Paul the bleary-eyed Ogg


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## Elphaba (Sep 23, 2003)

Stephen King (for his attention to detail and wonderful ability to showcase what most of us overlook about small towns), Robert McCammon (Southern locales, great characterizations), SK Epperson (a damn good female mystery/horror writer who cusses as much as I do), Roald Dahl (weird, off-the-wall whimsy), Elmore Leonard (simplicity and straight-forwardness), and Shirley Jackson (writing style, although I'm not as vague as she sometimes got).


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## Anonymous (Sep 24, 2003)

I always find it hard to pinpoint specific authors.  Mostly because I don't read many authors' entire bodies of work... and therefore feel I cannot have been influenced!

But... if I were to name a few that I loved...

Many children's authors including but not limited to: John Bellairs, Madeleine L'engle, J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl, Lois Lowry, Lloyd Alexandar, oh and just on and on... (I think I was a much bigger reader as a child.)

Other people:  Joseph Heller, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Robert McGammon, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, there's more but I have a headache....

I think reading intimidates me now.  I go into a library or a bookstore looking for something good to read and I haven't any idea where to begin.  In the fiction section, I can start at either the As or the Zs and work forwards or backwards... but there is so MUCH out there that I haven't any idea what to hone in on.  I guess that's why the children's section draw me... shorter shelves...


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## Kittie (Sep 24, 2003)

Ick.  I was signed in... but I must read posts very slowly or something because by the time I decide to post, it's logged me out.  Once again... I am the "Guest" up above.  Sheesh!


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## godisthyname (Sep 25, 2003)

Shakespeare.  Once you read Shakespeare you have read everybody.  Or so I'm told.


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## AdamR (Sep 25, 2003)

For me, main ones would be:

- Verne
- C.S. Lewis
- H.G. Wells
- Tolkein


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## jjmulletman (Nov 13, 2003)

William S Burroughs is my #1 influence.  I like the way his reality cascades into lunacy.  It reminds me that what we see may only be a veil of whats really going on.  Check out _Naked Lunch _and _The Soft Machine_.

I also love Philip K Dick for similar reasons.  The characters are always stuck in a dead-end job, or hating their life, and then some surreal event happens. Then the character overcomes the event and returns to his boring meaningless existence. 

I guess I just like the paranoid idea of the cosmic insult.


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## Lily (Nov 13, 2003)

hmm . . . interesting question. I'd have to say my main influences are as follows:

Chaim Potok
Orson Scott Card
Amy Tan

I'm sure there are others that I just can't think of now!


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## DL Ferguson (Nov 14, 2003)

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Michael Moorcock
Lester Dent
Chester Himes
Ismael Reed
George C. Chesbro
Iceberg Slim


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## The Admiral (Nov 17, 2003)

For my humor writing (which is my favorite type), Douglas Adams definitely has the biggest impact.  For poetry, Shakespeare.  For other fiction, Tolkien.  For philosophy, C. S. Lewis.


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## Lily (Nov 17, 2003)

I forgot to add Robert Heinlein to my list


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## gabriella (Jan 4, 2004)

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, whom I feel are the best fantasy writers alive.


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## Guineapiggy (Jan 4, 2004)

I'm quite unfussed when it comes to style I'll pick up any book and analyse anything I can find for techniques and styles I like. Anything... Douglass Adams, Tolkien, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, Stephen King, Emily Bronte, Margret Atwood, (I was the only male in the house so a lot of them were uberfeminist narcacists like Atwood...) R.L. Stevenson, H.G Wells etc. (And once, to my absolute shame I even read part of a Jefery Archer book...)


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## safari invasion (Jan 8, 2004)

Michael Crichton has always influenced my thought process when it comes to developing plots. The concepts and creativity behind his books is something I try keeping in mind when I develop my own ideas.
I would say that I am also influenced by Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, and Poe among others.


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## strangedaze (Jan 9, 2004)

*...*

Hmmmm...I am a self-professed Kafka-a-holic. I love George Orwell, and I usually get through his work three or four times faster than I would anything else. I like the aesthetic quality and emotion of Virginia Woolf's writing, though I have yet to conquer _Mrs. Dalloway_. I try to read all the classics and expand my horizens every now and again, but for some reason surrealism, dystopian literature, and stories spotlighting the darker facets of the human condition really catch my interest. I don't know who I could claim I model my style after (if I even have such a thing in these early stages), but if I had to choose whose style I'd most like to assimilate I'd have to choose a combination between the aforementioned three  :? Haha Just wait for my next story. It's about a group of farmers who wake up one morning to find themselves transformed into verminous farm animals. These animals stage a closed-curtain revolt against Bigger Brother, all the while dealing with their own demons and the loss of their mother. The whole thing would be written in stream of consciousness, too, while we're at it  :wink: Hurrah for my lame jokes!


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## Oopgrub (Mar 4, 2004)

Well, i'd say Stephen King, for his great, prolonged descriptive detail, and great horror filled books. R.A. Salvatore for his brilliant Characters and character development, and Edgar Allen Poe, for his awsome ways of letting you see through the eyes of a mad man.

I find I write like all of them combined.


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## Zachary Glass (Mar 5, 2004)

Main Influence and motivation to be a writer: J D SALINGER

BIG influence: MICHAEL CHABON

Naguib Mahfouz
Bohumil Hrabal
Jack Kerouac
John Kennedy Toole

And many many more.  I think I find influences whenever I read a book that I absolutely love.


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## ShamSham04 (Mar 5, 2004)

My greatest influence is Stephen King.

The man is a genius when it comes to horror fiction. He never fails to satisfy his fans with brutality, descriptive detail, and tremendous character development. His earlier works are some of the best novels ever written, and those novels have gained all of my respect for him.


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## Zachary Glass (Mar 6, 2004)

The thing I like the most about Stephen King are his beautifully, fully realized characters.  People don't give him enough credit...I've even heard people call him a hack.  Which is just ridiculous...his characters are brilliant.


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## Pawn (Mar 6, 2004)

Poetically - Byron, Larkin, Keats, Shelly, Whitman, Neruda, Auden, Wilde.
Playwriting - Pinter, Wilde.
Wider writing - Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Adams, Asimov, Fitzgerald, the ubiquitous Tolkien and numerous other fantasy authors.


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## Blackdragonhide (Mar 9, 2004)

C.S Lewis ~
   A young publisher author.
Christopher Paolini ~
   A modern-day of the above.
Phillip Pullman ~
   For his outstanding amount of determination and skill.


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## Lily (Apr 28, 2004)

I can't remember if I put Orson Scott Card or Madeline L'Engle . . . I know I'm forgetting a few right now, but oh well.


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## Guest (Jun 3, 2004)

I enjoy reading Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.Emerson's Essays:First and Second Series Essays are so inspirational. Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy is excellent.

I love Ernest Hemingway's descriptions. They are so vivid and colorful.

As far as poetry, I love Rumi, Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, and Shakspeare.


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## sully474 (Jun 30, 2004)

I like to write in more of a comedic style, so some of my influences are my stepdad, who has done some really crazy stuff. (One time he and some friends padlocked a drive thru window shut) 

Also Gordon Korman, because he writes books that have very funny parts in them, but also carry an excellent storyline.

Charles Dickens would probably be my last one, because I love the way that he talks about people and situations. I have tried to imitate his stylings before.


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## The Tao Of Spike (Jul 1, 2004)

Right now:  Douglas Adams and J.D. Salinger.  But, it changes a lot depending on what I like about who I'm reading.


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## WiCkEd (Jul 4, 2004)

I have to say John Saul was somewhat of an influence, however I don't really write horror. Others include: Lawerence Block, R.A. Salvatore, and I suppose even Stephen King. There are others that for some damn reason have slipped my mind.


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## Gordash (Jul 7, 2004)

Hidaeki Anno is a major influence for my characters. Robert Jordan is for my actual plot.


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## Twiddler (Aug 6, 2004)

My influence, and, hell....he's even one of my idol's, is Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series. The first time I read one of his novels, I was hooked!!! The man's awesome at writing fantasy/comedy stuff, which is, pretty much, what I write. People have even compared my writing to both him AND Tolkien. So, ya...he rules.


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## RachelEvil (Aug 7, 2004)

I'm kinda influenced from a lot of directions. H. P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, Douglas Adams, Anthony Burgess, Brian Michael Bendis, Robert Anton Wilson, Stan Lee, Aaron Sorkin, Grant Morrison, Steve Gerber, Gail Simone, Peter Milligan, Sam Kieth, Dashiell Hammett, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov... A lot of directions.


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