What authors are you consciously influenced by?

[Skald the Rhymer]

Despite my love of the Perfesser, my fantasy novel is not in the style of Lord of the Rings. I think of it as a fantasy story written by the bastard child of Ernest Gaines and Pat Conroy.

[Orual]

My current Thing I'm Working On is a lesser scion of Charles DeLint in some places, Neil Gaiman in others.

At least in my head, that is. The reality of The Thing is probably not nearly so fine.

[Skald the Rhymer]

My current Thing I'm Working On is a lesser scion of Charles DeLint in some places, Neil Gaiman in others.

At least in my head, that is. The reality of The Thing is probably not nearly so fine.

I could have added DeLint, but his influence is mostly negative. That is, as much as I like his world-building and Jilly and Geordi, every time I read The Onion Girl I feel like screaming "God, Charles! No one cares about the mythic symbolism of the Mother Goddess figure! We want to know what's going to happen to Jilly! Get to the God! Damn! Point! or I will God! Damn! kill you!"

[Orual]

I could have added DeLint, but his influence is mostly negative. That is, as much as I like his world-building and Jilly and Geordi, every time I read The Onion Girl I feel like screaming "God, Charles! No one cares about the mythic symbolism of the Mother Goddess figure! We want to know what's going to happen to Jilly! Get to the God! Damn! Point! or I will God! Damn! kill you!"

Ha! I feel you.

I actually think Mr. DeLint should stick to short stories. I'm incredibly luke-warm about The Onion Girl and I've never managed to finish Jack of Kinrowan. But I greatly admire his characters, his world-building, and the "feel" of his writing..

[Julie]

In poetry, I'm consciously influenced by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edmund Spenser, and a poet friend of mine.

I'm unconsciously influenced by a lot of poets, but Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson are the biggies.

[Oakminster]

I don't think I'm consciously influenced by anybody. Certainly don't try to emulate someone's style. When I write, it just flows until it stops. Unfortunately, sometimes it stops in inconvenient places. I started a fantasy novel years ago, but haven't been able to get beyond the introduction. Same with a semi-modern novel. Thinking maybe I'm better suited to be a short story guy.

There are a number of writers I like, and it's possible that some of their styles will bleed through my own stuff. Heinlein, Tennessee Williams, Lewis Grizzard, Dave Barry...

[pepperlandgirl]

My best friend and my co-author. Even when we're not working together, I'm strongly influenced by her style and her approach to writing.

[SmartAleq]

I'd say my writing style is most influenced by the non-fiction writings of Harlan Ellison and Spider Robinson.

[Martini Enfield]

My non-fiction style is basically my own design (it has no conscious influences that I'm aware of), but my non-fiction writing is heavily influenced by Frederick Forsyth and Bill Bryson, from what I can tell.

[Harlequin]

Right now I'm consciously influenced by nobody, as far as I can tell. Unconscious influences, I'm sure there are many. I did once write a novel-length story that was consciously in the style of Kurt Vonnegut. While I'm not too proud of the story, I think I did a decent job on the style.

[fessie]

Erma Bombeck, and Bob Greene.

And various Dopers, to tell you the truth; the general tone of the Boards has been a big influence on my posting style.

[jarbabyj]

Eric Bogosian is my biggest influence, inspiration, non-present-mentor? I also fell in love with the writing in The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and for my blogging, I have to agree with fessie and say Erma Bombeck with a touch of smartassery like Cecil Adams.

[Zuul]

I'm currently writing a sci-fi novel that is like if Aldous Huxley, Terry Pratchett, and Hunter S. Thompson all turned gay together. I think somebody on this board actually spotted the Huxley influence when I mentioned some of the moral dilemmas from it.

[maggenpye]

I did a 1k challenge very consciously in the style of early Agatha Christie. Here. It's had a slight polish up since.

Usually I stop reading other authors while I'm actively writing - just to avoid that influence.

[iampunha]

If I'm influenced by anyone, it's bad AP writers, better bloggers and folks here.

I'm told my style is dialog-heavy, but if you're writing about people doing something, you can either describe them moving or tell your readers what they're saying.

[Harlequin]

I'm told my style is dialog-heavy, but if you're writing about people doing something, you can either describe them moving or tell your readers what they're saying.

I'm told the same thing, and I answer like you. Either I write boring dry descriptions or I have my characters tell you what's going on.

[iampunha]

I'm told the same thing, and I answer like you. Either I write boring dry descriptions or I have my characters tell you what's going on.

Seriously.

I mean, if I were writing about animated teacups or something, then the scenery would talk. But I have enough handwavery going on in my novel that I'm not especially enthused by the idea of having the bookcases in the book store talk. I've described the place so I don't have readers forced to draw maps from compass-point directions I have my primary give, and the point of the limited description is that my primary and supportings don't have the opportunity to look longingly at the book store because they're working on something a little more important.

Besides, people talk, and if having people from different centuries talking to each other isn't sufficiently interesting for you, nothing I could possibly write about a used book store nobody sees unless they need to is going to do anything more.