On Writing Again - Influences
I'd like to thank everyone for the awesome comments on our previous post. You have honestly given me more impetus to continue shaping my craft in the hopes that someday it will reach and affect an audience larger than myself. Now I'd like to talk quickly about influences.
My wife has often called me a chameleon, because in any given social setting I can take on the personalities, likes and dislikes of the people around me. Now, this isn't necessarily a good characteristic, simply because some days I might not be hanging out with a choice crowd, but will inadvertently begin to act and feel like they do, to my own detriment. It is often the case that instead of myself constructing a change or will to change in those around me, I am changed by them. So what does this have to do with writing?
Influences.
One of the hardest things about writing is creating an effective and unique voice that pervades all of your stories. If I take two authors, say, Stephen King and Dean Koontz, writers of the same genre, and perform a simple "taste test" by reading excerpts from the writings of each without revealing which one wrote which piece, I think all of you would easily guess the correct author. Why? Because each of them have their own unique voice, and it shines through regardless of which character is talking or which situational dilemma they have constructed.
My fictional voice is constantly being changed by what I am reading at the moment. As they say, "garbage in, garbage out." Deep inside each of my stories is a uniform voice begging to be fully realized. This voice has mainly been influenced by three writers, whom I will share with you now. Among the shifting winds of my own fictional voice, and my struggle to find my way to a real unique voice, these three remain the undergirding for every story I have constructed and will construct.
I used to limit my sentences to a certain length. I felt it was easier to read and left more to the imagination. That all changed with "Plainsong."
Check these sentences out:
"Here was this man Tom Guthrie in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was just coming up. After a time he put out the cigarette and went upstairs and walked past the closed door behind which she lay in bed in the darkened guest room sleeping or not and went down the hall to the glassy room over the kitchen where the two boys were."
I am now a firm believer in long sentences, solely because of this work.
I was first introduced to Tobias Wolff from reading "This Boy's Life," an awesome work. I quickly fell in love with his short story anthologies, especially this one. I would often end his stories scratching my head. If there was a "moral," it often eluded me and continued to do so as I pondered over the story's contents. All to say, you don't necessarily need a moral to tell a good story. He is a devout Catholic, and sometimes you catch glimpses of his devotion. But you have to look hard.
So what are your favorite authors, and why? If you write, who has influenced you the most?
Until next time...
posted by Team Kerbel @ 9:16 AM
11 Comments:
Ray Carver is my hero. I think he is the greatest American writer ever.
Dr. Seuss
People are always asking me who my influences are. I'm more interested in exploring to territory than retreading what other have already perfectly said.
Was This Boy's Life made into a film and did it have Deniro in it? I may have seen it , and liked it a lot. Or maybe not.
Here's some of my inpirations (they're always changing though):
1) Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket and William Goldmen. Because they showed how a story can be funny and serious at the same time.
2) CS Lewis. Because he's so good at writing for children.
3) Michael Ende. Because the Neverending Story is a perfect example of a story for the pure sake of a story. (Whatever that means.)
4) JM Barrie. Michael Jackson and I both agree that Peter Pan is just an amazing book.
And a few authors that I've been reading lately that have impressed me:
Agatha Christie, Neil Gaimen and Garth Nix.
Looking at that list it seems so incomplete, though. I'm sure there's a ton that I'm forgetting.
I adore Nathaniel Hawthorne. I love Steinbeck and Hemingway.
It's funny, as a writer, I've always been a sort of chameleon, too. I can read my diary from when I was a teenager and instantly tell what book I was reading at the time based on the writing style. So I try not to read anything else before I sit down to write.
Steinbeck was great, but pretty depressing. His stories revealed what it's like to be the people we're afraid to become; the outcasts, poor, uneducated.
Larry MacMurtry is the king of creating memrorable characters; The dialogue's he writes are hilarious and sound like people really speaking. He has the ability to climb into the head of a teenage girl, captured by Indians, then get into the Indian's head, and then speak from the character who's trying to rescue her. He's a master at this. Levi loves/hates his work because there is no moral universe, no meaning. They deal with life and death, and all the drama, yet, there's no real good/evil theme.
CS Lewis agrees with you about short sentences. In telling a child how to write well he said, "Don't use a big word if you can use a short one instead." The Chronicles of Narnia are a masterpiece.
Don't feel badly about being influenced by others, and finding a voice by listening to those that you think speak well. Lewis himself was influenced heavily by GK Chesterton and George MacDonald.
And once again, lil' ol' me's comment goes completely unoticed/unanswered. Ah well, such is life in the blog world for us simple commenters!
I deeply regret my lack of response in this comments section, specifically in answer to Melanie's simple and yet insightful question. Please accept my apologies and my answer:
Yes, "This Boy's Life" was made into a film, and it did star Robert DeNiro. The real question is, did you like it, or not?
Hawthorne, Steinbeck and Hemingway? Talk about heavyweights! Their voices were very powerful and unique.
So Jana you're a writer too? Maybe you should follow the trend and post some of your own writing for us to look at. Just a thought.
Gotta go!
Sheesh! What does the bible say about a "gentle word turning away much wrath?" (Not that I had much wrath or anything.)You're forgiven Simon.:)
It's been a long, long time since we watched "This Boy's Life," but I remember it being a really- moving-,funny-in-some-parts, sweet- in-others,and-rather-disturbing-and sad-film. Deniro made me squirm in my seat much the same way as Dwight Yokum did in the movie Slingblade. Being a mom of 2 sons (who are pretty close and protective of eachother) made it especially hard to watch at times. If you liked that one, I recommend "Radio Flyer."
Excellent, love it!
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