Hatrack River Writers Workshop: What Author/Author's have influenced you the most?

This is topic What Author/Author's have influenced you the most? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by eclectic skeptic (Member # 3046) on :

Im just taking a general consensus on the authors you have enjoyed, and that have influenced your own writing. To me this axiom holds true; We write what we read. Sort of like, We are what we eat. Do you find this is so?

This list sums it up for me, in general order of Importance:

1. OSC, my favorite author, and who's writing style and prose I try to understand and emulate the most.
2. Robert Jordan, Nearly at the opposite end of the spectrum as OSC in style but almost as influential to me. (strange bedfellows I know, or is it headfellows? )
3. Isaac Asimov, he is great. Need I say more?
4. Fred Saberhagen, Terry Goodkind, George R.R. Martin, they are all kinda tied in their with fourth position. They are all great authors with unique foibles and styles, that for one reason or another are almost but not quite good enough to be in the top Three.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

If you are talking about writers I have wanted to write like at one time or another, then I'd say:

Andre Norton, JRR Tolkien, CJ Cherryh, OSC, Greer Ilene Gilman (sort of--no one can match her density of style), Octavia Butler

If you are talking about writers and stories I have loved enough that they have surely influenced me, the list is too long.

Posted by BruceWayne1 (Member # 4604) on :

I started as a trek,ee,er what ever and Star Wars. I read everything written in those two worlds and played D&D. then a few years ago I wanted to broadened out to other Sci/f. I got lucky when a friend suggested OSC's Ender's Game. I seen the Hugo and Nebula (whatever those are, i had no idea) award winner thing on the cover and looked for others with those credits. I read all the Ender stuff and then found

Vernor Vinge. His older stuff is fantastic. I couldn't believe the worlds this man came up with. then i found

Terry Goodkind. I loved the early books in the Sword of Truth series (the last three suck big time, they are total exposition for the first novels ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ). I have been scared to read Jordan or some of the other's for fear I might like them and doom myself to years of reading hundreds of back issues and never catch up. Believe it or not I just stumbled onto my first Anthology (that's right I am that new to the field) and am currently reading short stories by dozens of authors. I have found

Asimov and a few others but now I just read Survivor's posts and marvel.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

quote:
now I just read Survivor's posts and marvel

So do I, BruceWayne1, so do I.

Posted by eclectic skeptic (Member # 3046) on :

Surely the list of authors that have influenced me one way or another is too long to list here for me as well... So to clarify; the ones you were consciously motivated to emulate. Not copy, just understand how they set up a scene, and how they show their characters thoughts, etc.

Vernor Vinge... Sci fi, mostly post-humanistic/ post-singularity stuff? I think I read a couple books by him a few years back, can't remember the titles now. What are some of your favorites? I wouldn't mind getting into some good sci fi.

I have to agree with you on Terry Goodkind. Talk about a good setup of the series wasted on the last couple books. It seems to me he lost his vision, lost sight of his goals, if he ever had them in the first place. He might of been just spinning yarns from the beginning, with no set direction. Not that that is bad thing, unless it turns out to be useless drivel like his has.

Edited to say; My humble apologies to any Goodkind diehards. These are just my opinions. The first books were quite good.

[This message has been edited by eclectic skeptic (edited January 27, 2007).]

Posted by J (Member # 2197) on :

In order:

Ernest Hemingway
CS Lewis
JRR Tolkien
GK Chesterton
Jack London

Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :

For me JRR Tolkien and Stephen King are the enduring influences. A newer one is George R R Martin.

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

David Gemmel (who sadly passed away just this summer)
Frank Herbert (Simply Brilliant and sadly deceased)
Kevin J. Anderson (alone or with Brian Herbert)
OSC ('Nuff Said)
Robert Ludlum (deceased--damned depressing when you think about it)
Robert Jordan (his older works are less rambling)
Steve Perry (Not the Singer)
Brian Lumley
R.A. Salvatore
H.P. Lovecraft (deceased)
Robert R. McCammon (Boy's Life is one of my all-time-favorites)

Just to name a few...

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited January 27, 2007).]

Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :

OSC: obviously, because of his great books and brillant short stories. But the greater influence comes from Characters And Viewpoint, his lessons on writing found in this site, and the second hand teachings from more economically-well off Hatrackers who gave thier spare change to attend his class.

Roger Zelazny: for firing my imagination with limitless possibility, for cementing my love for reading as a teen

____ __________: To a published writer I will not name, who inspired me to write because I knew I could do better than that!!!

Robert Jordan: for showing me what not to do (1) by drowning me in dense layers of description, (2) by giving me cast upon casts of minor characters to the point I've a problem keeping track who is who, (3) by for giving me a few books where essentially not much happens, (4) by regailing me with the administrative drudgery of running of nations and creating the feel that I actaully did some of the paperwork the characters have to do, (5) by showing me that once certain characters obtain a high position, they cease to be interesting.

[For all that I love his series. I'm finishing up Crossroads of Twilight and am about to start Knife of Dreams--of course, I've been juggling other books as well]

Posted by BruceWayne1 (Member # 4604) on :

eclectic skeptic... Vernor Vinge
the peace war
a deepness in the sky
a fire upon the deep and
marooned in real time are all fantastic

his latest Rainbows end is very hard to get through very technical

If you like good sci fi I would recomend these first four the older the better in that order.

Posted by J (Member # 2197) on :

Babbler:

I am heartened to see someone include Ludlum. He spins some of the best, most creative, most captivating yarns I've ever read. His writing is like a tutorial of what not to do, but his plot development is so phenomal I would read it his books if they were written in crayon.

Posted by Ash (Member # 4615) on :

In terms of what I steal from them:

Tolkien: Tone, and sense of humor
Frank Herbert: Appreciation for civilization and culture in books
OSC: Character developement. His is the best anywhere.
Les Miserables (stage musical) (Hugo?): Tragic flair
Movies, endlessly: Dialogue. How to write dialogue.

I try to be original with my plots, but there is nothing new under the sun, so I imagine that those too are copies of old tales.

Book that has most influenced my writing: Ender's Game
Book that I most admire as an unreachable success: Dune

Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :

My biggest influence (that I'm aware of, anyway) is definitely Isaac Asimov. It's a little funny when I read a post by someone here at Hatrack who likes my stuff and doesn't like Asimov, because I can see similarities all over the place. I guess that means that the things he didn't do well (and those certainly exist, I'll admit) I do better. (Hey, no one has ever complained that my ego needed boosting.) On the other hand, I'm not claiming that he didn't do better than me what he did do well.

My second, I think, is probably OSC, and a large part of the reason he's only second is that I was already 23 when the Ender's Game novellette appeared. It's a tribute that he could have had that much effect on me when I was already so set in my ways.

Roger Zelazny is one who I wish had had more effect on me that he has; I love his writing, but I don't think mine resembles it at all.

Some lesser effects are Heinlein and LeGuin. Oh, and Kenneth Robeson (i.e., Lester Dent, the author of Doc Savage). I will blame him for all the stupid things I do, though he did have a certain undeniable story-telling flair. But, really, how could one man write such brilliantly insane titles as "The Land of Long Juju" or "Mystery on Happy Bones", and then write another with the beyond-dull: "The Man Who was Scared"? It blows my mind.

Posted by thayerds (Member # 3260) on :

Writers I wish I could touch with a ten foot pole:

Harlan Ellison, for story, stytax, and crisp plotting.

Ursula LeGuinn, for richness of character and story, and that smooth clean writing style.

James Clavell, for action, no one does it better.

Tolkien, for world creation he is the God (but Ursula runs a close second.)

Last but not least; Cordwainer Smith for pure imagination and gall. No one else has attempted the flights of fantasy that he achieved. If only he had knuckled down and learned how to write well.

Posted by thayerds (Member # 3260) on :

To Ash: Read Cordwainer Smith if think nothing is new under the sun. There is a collection of all his short works (even some that never got published before) called "The Rediscovery of Man". Stories like "The Dead Lady of Clown Town", "Along the Alpha Ralpha Boulavard", and "Count Two Think Blue", are wholly original works. I have never seen anything like them.

Posted by Max Masterson (Member # 4799) on :

First I need to agree with chris owens about Robert Jordan. Reading his series was exhausting (but addictive) for the reasons he listed above. However I've learnt a lot about characters from him. He has so many and I can't think of any too similar to each other that the similarity distracts you from the story.

I've yet to read any of Orson's stories (I know that is heresy on here but I'm waiting on 'Enders Game' to come from Amazon) but I have his 'how to write science fiction/fantasy' and his character book and am treating them like bibles at the moment.

Tolkien is the reason I write. The detail he put into creating a world with every bit of background in place is incredible and after reading his books and works, so many times that I've lost count, I'm addicted to world building.

Other writers I've enjoyed and hope I've learnt things from are; Robin Hobb, Terry Pratchet, Dick Francis, Terry Brooks, Tom Holt, Ursula Le Guinn, Doug Grant, Rob Naylor and William King.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke, to name the big three SF writers. Below them, in SF, there's H. Beam Piper, John Rackham, Philip Jose Farmer, L. Sprague de Camp, Lester del Rey, C. M. Kornbluth, Robert Sheckley, Frederik Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Cordwainer Smith, James Blish, Vernor Vinge, and Jack Williamson. (We're talking influences here, not "greatest hits.")

Outside of SF, but still in Fantasy (and / or Horror), there's J. R. R. Tolkien (of course), and then H. P. Lovecraft, Thomas Burnett Swann, Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Niel Hancock, Lord Dunsany, and Clark Ashton Smith.

Outside of both I've been influence by the writings of Emile C. Schurmacher, Bruce Catton, Jesse Stuart, P. G. Wodehouse, Michael Halbertsam, Theodore White...and also the non-SF non-fiction of the abovementioned Asimov and de Camp.

I wouldn't limit myself to just those as influences...I may have forgotten somebody...in fact, I'm sure I have.

(For Kathleen's [late and lamented] SF & Fantasy Workshop I once submitted a list of influences for publication in the membership roster. It may still be around somewhere...but it's been some time since the last time I updated it, and I don't remember precisely who I listed.)

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I did forget someone---Kenneth Grahame.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

I wasn't going to chime in on this thread, but I have to say that Card is someone I admire and try to emulate, because his prose is well written. He wastes no action, and his dialog is very realistic. It's hard to analyze his style because once you start reading, you get sucked up into the story and forget what you were trying to do.

Don't put off reading Uncle Orson's work simply because you are missing a volume in the Ender's series! He's got several books out that are single volumes only. Put the Ender series to the back of the line and go pick up one of his many other works: the Alvin Maker series, starting with Seventh Son (I wasn't fond of the last 3, but liked the first 3 in that series). I also enjoyed the Homecoming series, and nearly everything else he's written.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I can certainly add Orson Scott Card as an influence---there was a time back in the early eighties, where I thumbed through my big pile of back issues and read every story of his I could find. But not the "Ender" series---for some reason I just didn't take to it, or at least not the first slice of it.

I regret missing the "Alvin Maker" series---when I did read it, it seemed something right up my alley as a reader and as a writer---and how things were handled had some influence on two (possible but unwritten) novels I've worked on. (I know I read a couple of exceprts in the abovesaid back issues pile.)

*****

Of course there are still bunches of influences to bring up. Let me add Edgar Pangborn and Spider Robinson (SF), and Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers (non-SF / mystery).

Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :

Ray Bradbury.

Posted by Alethea Kontis (Member # 3748) on :

Writers I want my writing to be compared to: Robin McKinley, Dianna Wynne Jones, Meredith Ann Pierce, Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl.

People who have influenced me, mentored me, and kept me sane along this crazy path: Andre Norton, OSC, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta, Sharon Shinn, David Drake (who made me go meet Andre Norton), Toni Weisskopf...yeah, the list just goes on.

Posted by arriki (Member # 3079) on :

First off, Mary Renault. I read all of her Greek novels. One in particular, THE LAST OF THE WINE, I read at least once a week -- usually several times a week -- for over twenty years! I stopped reading it when our Tibetan Mastiff chewed my treasured copy to pieces one day. I bought a replacement copy but it wasn't the same somehow. The magic had gone with the chocolate stains and other personalizations of the original copy which my father had given me when I was ten or so.

As to other writers whose novels have influenced or enlightened me --

JK Rowling and Janet Evanovich and Martin Cruz Smith all of whom use an almost identical structure to tell their various stories and all of whom seem to connect with a vast audience. They're doing something right and I'm trying to figure out how to do it, too!

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

J ...Ludlum is an addiction. I tried not to mention authors that have already been named. Which--LOL--leads me to a few others:

John Sanford

John D. MacDonald

Robert E. Howard (Without whom I wouldn't have gotten into Fantasy, as I started with Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane. Also I first read Robert Jordan--when he could keep it under 400 pages--and Steve Perry through TOR Conans.)

John Saul (His old stuff)

Dean Koontz

Jean M. Auel

Clive Cussler (another addiction of mine, like Ludlum)

Dan Brown

Tad Williams (For his Memory Sorrow, and Thorn Saga--though it is a hell-of-a winded beginning)

Michelle Paver (Chronicles of Darkness. A guilty pleasure I share with my oldest two children.)

Eoin Colfer (again shared with my kids. They are not waiting for the next one as intensely as Michelle Paver's, but they love it.)

Posted by BruceWayne1 (Member # 4604) on :

I can't believe I forgot EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS. I have no idea if his writing was any good, it has been 20 years since I read any of his stuff but in jr high I hated reading until I found the Martian Tales and Tarzan. Those series started my love of reading.

ok thanks a lot guys now a I have to go back and read them again. see you in a few months.

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

BruceWayne1,

Don't kick yourself in the butt too hard, I was trying to think of his name when I posted last, and I kept drawing a blank. He and Robert E Howard were my introduction to fantasy. Tarzan is 95 year old this year! I had it read to me when I was a child, and just last year I had the joy of passing on the tradition to my kids.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

See? Already people have named influences on me I'd forgotten to name. I loved Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars stories when I was younger---they hardly seem well-written now, but they certainly hold up as good storytelling even today---but I never took to Tarzan in the same way.

Robert E. Howard, too---Conan in particular. There's been a new issue of Conan stories of late. I'm grateful for the reprinted stories---but the handling of the stories and commentary strikes me as incredibly pompous.

*****

On similar themes---I can't believe I left out Leigh Brackett. (Interesting story behind my interest. I picked up a "Best Of" collection earlier, but then reread it and then went out and started buying every book of hers I could lay my hands on---only to find out that the day my intense interest started was the day she died. Almost the exact same thing happened with me and Elvis Presley.)

Posted by CoriSCapnSkip (Member # 3228) on :

Two words. RAY. BRADBURY.

Posted by eclectic skeptic (Member # 3046) on :

Well, well. This is much more than I had hoped for. I think I will make a permanent link to this thread, and any time Im looking for a new author, well here we have it. All recommendations from people I respect. This is great.

Thanks people...

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

I'll throw in a few names that haven't been mentioned.

Larry Niven
David Gerrold
Poul Anderson
Theodore Sturgeon
Ben Bova
Frederik Pohl

[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited February 01, 2007).]

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

quote:

Larry Niven
David Gerrold
Poul Anderson
Theodore Sturgeon
Ben Bova
Frederik Pohl

See how hopeless I am at naming influence? Every one of these put out something that haunts me to this day and influenced me no end---a couple of them, several stories. (Looking at my original post, I remember I did name Pohl.)

(Belated aside to thayerds: your phrasing implies that the three Cordwainer Smith stories you mention were never printed before. Probably not your intention: all three certainly were. By the way, there's a new Cordwainer Smith collection out in trade paperback, called We, the Underpeople.)

[Edited to fix my quotation. Sure hope it works this time.]

[This message has been edited by Robert Nowall (edited February 02, 2007).]

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

Robert, you're influenced by everythign you read. It could be a model for your writing, it could be an example of what not to do, or it might be simply another way of doing things you wouldn't have thought of. Now, they're all somewhere in your toolbox.

Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :

Too many to list, I guess.

For my WIP novel, people have told me that they see elements of:

Jordan, Martin, Tolkien, Joseph Conrad, as well as a host of others.

If I could write 1/4 as good as the men mentioned above, I'd be happy.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Spaceman is right here---but I still haven't exhausted my influences.

If I had to pick one name out of all of them, I'd have to pick Heinlein. His work is quite literally (and literarily) the fulcrum of my life.

Posted by kmckendry (Member # 4936) on :

Short answer is I don't know.

Longer answer. I've been an avid reader since kindergarten(earlier?) I've read Poe, Shakespeare, the Bible, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Greg Bear, Ayn Rand, Silvia Plath, Joan Didion, orson Scott Card, Piers Anthony, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Douglas Adam, Robert Frost, Jasper FForde, Ian Fleming, Diane Duane, Anne McCaffrey, and hundreds of others that do not come to mind at the moment. They have all influenced me to some extent. Some more than others, some in ways that I am not aware of. They not only shape my writing, they have shaped my perception of the world.

Perhaps Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov have shape me the most. From the many books of Asimov and the "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series of Anthony's, I formed a noticeable part of my political thought. Ayn Rand reminded me of my personal responsibility to myself and family, so I need to give her credit, as well.

Keith

Posted by Tanuki Sama (Member # 2936) on :

Hm, my influences?

Well, first of all it is Robert Jordan. His books were the ticket for getting a young mind hooked on reading.

Then there is Frank Herbert. His books are simply great.

And lastly, Peter F. Hamilton. The Nightsdawn-trilogy is some of the best works I've ever read. Both the story itself and the setting is something I am left astonished by.

Posted by Tara (Member # 4638) on :

Laura Ingalls Wilder -- first made me want to write, at age seven.

Orson Scott Card -- basically taught me how to write...

Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :

Tanuki,

No suprise you like Jordan AND Herbert. The Wheel of Time is like Middle Earth meets Dune.

This is going to sound REALLY bad and I know this sounds rather insensitive, but Jordan better live long enough to finish the last novel. Or at least groom a worthy successor. I've spent the last 1.5 years reading the series (currently reading Knife of Dreams) and I'm owed a conclusion for spending all that time pouring over the series.

Posted by Max Masterson (Member # 4799) on :

chris I'm glad someone else said it first but I would feel let down as well if he didn't write the last book. I fully sympathise with him if he doesn't write it (whichever path his health takes) but after sticking with him through all the books and all the subplots he's put into his series I really want to find out how it ends. I've brought the knife of dreams but won't start reading it till he releases the last book. I don't want to get even further into the story if there's not going to be an end.
But I really do wish him the best with his health as I can only imagine how bad it must feel to find out you have an illness like that.

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

Jordan said, a couple of years ago, that he doesn't intend to tie up all of the story arcs. He's going to leave a bunch of stuff off in the middle, citing the excuse that "that's how it works in real life". There's all this crap about the Seanchan and it is--apparently--solely a misdirection; filler to drag out the conclusion.

I was ticked off when he started being incessantly redundant about irrelevant issues: twenty people asking Elayne if she drank her goat's milk; Egwene taking three pages to think about why she COULD have removed the mud from her dress with magic, but decided NOT to.

I also would agree that the Wheel of Time is like Dune and Tolkien, but I would add some Stephen King into the mix--atleast, this is true of his earlier books.

It's a sad thing that Robert Jordan has Amyloidosis. I hope they can send it completely into remission. He is doing much better, and I hope--sincerely--that he can finish the Wheel of Time novels. However, under the circumstances, I could forgive him if he didn't.

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited February 16, 2007).]

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited February 17, 2007).]

Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :

I do hope he gets better too and not just to finished the story. At the same time, he better finish it...

I liked Elyane until she got to Caemlyn, after that her viewpoint was one of the driest. She was much better when she was out adventuring and discovering her abilities. Egwene's viewpoint too is challenging, in particular since I can only keep a handful of the Aes Sedia straight, and their wranglings do tend to wear. I often wondered in the first books why people hated Aes Sedia so much--Morriane being the only example. And now I completly understand. What a bunch of petty toddlers!

The first 100 and some pages of Knife of Dreams kept me interested. After that I hit a patch of a viewpoint characer I don't know or care about, so I'm cycling through some other books and will return to it in a few days.

[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited February 17, 2007).]

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

There's nothing more annoying to the reader than a writer leaving a plot thread dangling---though I'm sure I've done it myself.

Posted by Sara Genge (Member # 3468) on :

I'd rather think books than authors, because good authors put out lots of books and some of them don't have anything to do with the rest.

Hart's Hope and Ender's Game by OSC
Left hand of Darkness- Ursula LeGuin
The Foundation and Robot books by Asimov's (ok, Asimov is an exception, _everything_ he's written is implicitly in this list)
The Night's Dawn trilogy- Peter F. Hamilton.
Oracle Night-- Paul Auster
The Giver-- Lois Lowry
Pigs in Heaven and The bean trees-- Barbara Kingsolver
The God of Small Things-- Araundati Roy

The list goes on and on.

Posted by TMan1969 (Member # 3552) on :

Let me see, in particular order...

Tolkien, CS Lewis, RA Salvatore, Robert Jordan, Ray Bradbury, Asimov, Piers Anthony, Robert Ludlum...the NUMA series (I forgot his name) Patricia Cornwell...so many names.