PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human October 11, 2012 - 7:44pm

What are the books or authors that have most influenced your writing?

(This discusion may have been done before.)

Boone Spaulding's picture
Boone Spaulding from Coldwater, Michigan, U.S.A. is reading Solarcide Presents: Nova Parade October 11, 2012 - 8:46pm

Stephen King's 1970s-era writing.

Clive Barker's 1980s horror stories.

Jim Thompson, The Killer Inside Me/Savage Night/A Hell Of A Woman/The Grifters/Pop. 1280

Nathaniel West, Ms. Lonelyhearts/The Day of the Locust

Flannery O'Connor - everything, including her letters & essays.

Joseph Conrad - almost everything.

Catch-22

A Confederacy Of Dunces

My my. Darkly comic list there...

 

Alex Kane's picture
Alex Kane from west-central Illinois is reading Dark Orbit October 12, 2012 - 9:29am

Horns20th Century Ghosts, and Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill; The StandCarrie, Full Dark, No StarsEverything's Eventual, and Just After SunsetFight Club and ChokeLess Than Zero and The Rules of AttractionBlackbirds and Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig; American GodsIn Our Time by Hemingway; Hunter S. Thompson, Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Philip K. Dick, Tobias Buckell . . .

Not to mention the countless short stories that I come back to again and again, such as "Demon Lover," "The Man in the Black Suit," "Guts," and "Other People."

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest October 11, 2012 - 9:42pm

Fight Club - Chuck P. - Taught me structure and that a powerful opener really draws in the reader.

The Rules of Attraction - Bret Ellis - Taught me how to write multiple 1st person POV's

High Maintenance - Jennifer Belle - Taught me how to write a strong, high class female lead.

Hit Man and Hit List - Lawrence Block - Taught me how to write the assassin.

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby - Also taught me how to write multiple 1st person POV's and how to craft an engaging story.

In the Miso Soup and Audition - Ryu Murakami - Taught me how to extend conflict and tension.

I, the Jury - Mickey Spillane - Taught me how Pulp/Noir is supposed to be written.

The Game - Neil Strauss - Taught me how the mind of a pick-up artist works, and inspiration for Marlin in my novel.

Blue Belle - Andrew Vachss - Taught me how to blend romance into hardcore Noir.

Carrie - Stephen King - Taught me that perserverance (even after throwing out the first chapter) can result in a publishing deal.

Money Shot - Christa Faust - Taught me how to write a strong, ass kicking female character.

Pretty much anything by Elmore Leonard, but if I had to pick one it would be Get Shorty. Elmore's voice is so fucking cool and his dialogue is unlike any I have ever read.

Nicholas Sparks (yes, I said it) is great for learning how to build conflict chapter to chapter.

The Twilight series (yes, said that too). Despite that it's poorly written, it's still an entertaining story. I write for entertainment, to take the reader out of their mundane day to day life. 

The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty - Taught me that words can, indeed, scare the shit out of you.

And, although I haven't read it yet, Fifty Shades of Grey for what NOT to do...

Honestly, every book I've read has taught me something. These are the ones that I refer back to on a regular basis. And sometimes reading the really bad books can teach you more than the really good ones.

 

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs October 11, 2012 - 11:44pm

Steve Aylett, Russell Edson, Mark Leyner, Carlton Mellick III, Tao Lin, Richard Brautigan, Anne Beattie, Richard Stark, Robert Anton Wilson

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. October 12, 2012 - 7:03am

Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House was a big one for me growing up - made me love short stories.  Then I read a lot of Stephen King and comic books - blending action, emotion, and entertainment.  Then it was Douglas Adams, who showed me how much fun words could be.  Chuck P. taught me I could tell any story I wanted to read.  Neil Gaiman proved that words are magic.  Amy Hempel taught me that the magic of words could make you laugh and cry in the same sentence.

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like October 12, 2012 - 9:43am

I find this hard to answer, mainly because I don't think I have a single voice I use in all my writing. I can sometimes see an author's influence on a particular story, but not so much on my writing in general.

ReneeAPickup's picture
Class Facilitator
ReneeAPickup from Southern California is reading Wanderers by Chuck Wendig October 12, 2012 - 1:42pm

I've been thinking about this off and on since I saw it yesterday,and I am having a really hard time coming up with an answer. I have favorite authors, and favorite books, and I read stuff all over the map. I guess I would say I take a little from every author I find "good", whether I admire the way they paint a setting, or the way they give characters life, their prose, etc.

My most read/admired authors are probably Stephen King, Henry Rollins, Hemingway, Palahnuick and Ms. Lidia Yuknavitch--all for different reasons. I guess after taking two courses with Lidia here, she has probably directly influenced my writing quite a bit.

Ria's picture
Ria from New York is reading tons'o stuff October 12, 2012 - 2:02pm

Tamora Piecre's Tortall Books & Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Series are my main influences. These two authors are masters of characterization and showing. They're my authorly role models.

I can't say that these are the only influencers, though. Everything I read filters its way into my writing, whether I'm conscious of it or not.

Emma C's picture
Class Facilitator
Emma C from Los Angeles is reading Black Spire by Delilah Dawson October 13, 2012 - 1:12am

Neil Gaiman's work has to be at the top of the list. I'm in absolute awe of the breadth of his work, and how he can nail so many different styles, formats, genres. His stories open the most marvellous windows. I want someday to weave words with a fraction of his effortless grace.

Ray Bradbury gave me my work ethic, and my love of short stories. Days I don't/won't/can't write, I picture him shaking his head at me.

My love of characters comes from Douglas Coupland, whose sweet, smart, zany, absolutely broken characters feel more real to me than half the people I know. Life After God is what I turn to any time I'm happy/sad/uninspired/angry, or just want a story about a cat with a credit card.

Nick Hornby taught me how to be wry and endearing.

The Old Man and the Sea taught me the power in simplicity. Hemingway taught me it's OK to be crazy and have a lot of cats.

Ursula K. Leguin and Margaret Atwood taught me that women can write amazing effing speculative fiction.

And, much as I hate to say it, the Twilight books gave me hope that if they can be published, mine can too.

Dino Parenti's picture
Dino Parenti from Los Angeles is reading Everything He Gets His Hands On October 13, 2012 - 10:34am

Well, I'll certainly start by agreeing with Boone above and start with King's early stuff like The Dead Zone and The Stand, for the joy of great storytelling. Great "gateway" books.

Bukowski's early stuff such as Women and Factotum as proof you don't need an MFA or even creature comforts in order to write well.  You just need to LIVE. Again though, his is pretty much "gateway" material as well.

Anything by Hemmingway for the sheer power of saying so much with so little.

Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamozov and Crime and Punishment for the universal, inescapable gravity of guilt, jealousy and the hunger for power inherent in the human animal.

Palahniuk's Fight Club, DeLilo's Americana, Wallace's Infinite Jest, Ellis's Less Than Zero and American Psycho for illustrating the power of irony and satire.

Again, Wallace's Infinite Jest, for reminding me (sometimes painfully) that brevity is king--that you can say the same thing in two-hundred pages as you can in a thousand, only better. Read Wallace's The Broom of the System, or Brief Interviews with Hideous Men to get the same intelligent, well-written essence--without needing an entire summer to it:)

Murakami's 1Q84 and most of Atwood's work for showing that speculative sci-fi can also be literary.

Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, for teaching me that you can be both god and the devil at the same time--an absolute must, I believe, in order to write without any constraints.

LloydBurgess's picture
LloydBurgess February 11, 2013 - 7:45pm

My best mystery books that I've bought is from California and Rick Gangraw is the author. I love such kind of books and novels and it has been my favorite since I was in college.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. February 12, 2013 - 9:40am

One thing that really influenced me in the past few years (beside the workshop and all the great essays at Lit Reactor) would be Kidd of Speed.  It's free online, and the author has a way of blending the setting with the history of the world while keeping a narrative moving forward.  It really blew me away the first time I read it.

She can take an info dump and put it in context so that it feels like I'm learning while enjoying the read instead of feeling like I'm being taught something.  Head authority abounds, but so does heart authority.  She shows off a bunch of techniques from Palahniuk's essays so well that I'm surprised she didn't read them herself..

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts February 12, 2013 - 4:54pm

Douglas Adams, Michael Chrichton, Philip K. Dick, and Hunter S. Thompson was stuff I read very early on that I can still find shades of influence after I actually started writing a lot. Then it was more trying to mash up the influences of Harry Crews, Raymond Chandler, Michael Chabon, and Donald Barthelme. Now my influences from writers are more so descended from those writers; I consciously look for the kind of fiction so it will influence me/already fits into my fiction aesthetic. So when I get to writers like Barry Hannah or Mark Leyner or Thomas Pynchon or Don Delillo, of course their writing is flawless and beautiful and I want to crib everything from them; that's why I started reading them in the first place.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated February 12, 2013 - 9:04pm

Steven Karl Zoltán Brust, for showing me that a well done strong female character doesn't make a big deal out of being a strong female.

Michael.Eric.Snyder's picture
Michael.Eric.Snyder February 12, 2013 - 11:54pm

Impossible to say. I could pick writers that mean everything to me today, and then pick a dozen different ones tomorrow.

Some have already been mentioned above.

But for me personally, the novel of the past few years is The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. Simply beautiful, hypnotic writing and storytelling. Doubtless, if I could read faster than I could accomplish more reading of better books. Accomplishing more reading would provide a greater palette from which to choose those works that speak to me most. Maybe it wouldn't be The Sense of an Ending.  I try not to think about all those books that I haven't gotten to—and then when I look at what I've read I then wonder why I've made obviously wrong choices, in hindsight. 

Isn't that the way of it.

For example, currently I'm readying The Art of Fielding, a book published a couple years ago to incredible hype. A book that's proving ultimately disappointing (though I'll doubtless finish it; it's not a bore).  Unfortunately, I won't know what I should have been reading now until I'm finished with it later. I can only hope it's the next book on my everchanging list. And that I get on a really great run of really great books, and I get to put the second-guessing aside for a while.