Young Writers Society

I'm talking about music, games authors, maybe people on YWS. Go on spill, maybe some of us share influences.

Mines are "Christopher Pike" "Ian Irvine" and "Victor Hugo". Now I'll tell you about each of these authors. One is the best goddamn horror writer I've read, even now he still scares me. Another is greatest fantasy writer I've read. Lastly is writer of Les Miserables, I've heard the wonderful musical I long to read the book, but musical as influence me greatly.

So my story is this " a dark tragic fantasy with many aspects of horror"

Hmm... well, in music, probably Christina Aguilera inspires me a lot. I listen to her lyrics, and can get some great ideas.

I reckon I take away a little of everything I read and put it into my writng. JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson, Natasha Friend and Anna Fienburg, to name but a few.

...

George Orwell. I would kill to be able to write a satire even half as good as his works. That man owns my soul, even in the grave. <3

Musically, it's a bit shameful to admit, but hey, I like them. My Chemical Romance is good inspiration for me. There, I said it. Hey, at least I'm honest, no? I just use them to help with emotions in scenes (and not always the sappy ones thankyouverymuch).

Every author I read inspires me in someway. Even if the book is really bad, then I can think, "Uck, okay, don't write like them," and I have been inspired!

Of course, I'm mystified by the way Dostoevsky lures me in. No matter what is going on, when the chapter ends, I am urged to read the next chapter. He always writes it so that if I put the book down I'll suddenly miss it. I even ended The Brothers Karamazov and I still can't get over it. He puts me in the world, and once there, I do not want out. He also has this amazing ability to info dump, I noticed XD I don't think anyone could info dump these days, and yet he does it, and I just now noticed!

As for music, anything I listen to. The lyrics mostly though, rather than the actual sounds created. Although sometimes the atmosphere of the music my give me a feeling or a thought which could then turn into something. I listen to a lot of things, so I won't even go into a list of artists...

What other random things? Haha, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. I've really gotten into watching this. I hate when they have celebrities, usually. But they have some pretty odd stories. Like the people who were being stalked on their cell phones, or the woman who was kidnapped from her wedding by her own parents. It's my guilty pleasure, but really, a lot of the stories could be turned into awesome short stories, or even novels I'm sure.

The guy who wrote Eragon, I forget his name. His book is the first book with dragons and magic I've ever read that actually touched me. I've heard some people saying his work sucks, but that doesn't change my opinion about it.

Hmm, my main influences would be

Irvine Welsh
Apart from the occasionally irksome Scottish dialect; (though that only adds to setting the environment of Glasgow) he develops his ideas brilliantly

Yann Martel
DBC Pierre

Hunter S. Thompson
From his drug experiences to his insider view on elections, his style has influenced my work immensely

Kurt Vonnegut

Basically, i like first person humour/literary fiction; and would like my work to be in a similar vein

I am influenced by a great manner of things. Rowling influenced me to get off my rear end and write, then games, movies, tv all kinda mixed all together in my head.

Of course, My lovely collection of toys was a lovely influence too. I remember all my childhood adventures with them.

Music and Manga have basicly kept my hipothetical boat from sinking. Whithout either I would be in alot more trouble than I am now.

~Pol

My influences, hm? My influences aren't always the same as my inspiration, but they do over-lap.

JK Rowling, Francesca Lia Block, JRR Tolkien, and Holly Black all continue to influence my work in their own way. Rowling introduced me to symbolism (with a sledgehammer), Block was my first experience with magical realism (something I still can't write properly), Tolkien is ... himself, and I'd never heard of urban fantasy until I read Black; plus, I'd never cared for characters romantic relationships until Roiben/Kaye.

That was for my prose, but I'm not sure where the hell my poetry comes from. Oscar Wilde, The Beatles, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rowling, so far.
(It seems I only write poetry about books.)

Razorblade_Saint wrote:Musically, it's a bit shameful to admit, but hey, I like them. My Chemical Romance is good inspiration for me. There, I said it. Hey, at least I'm honest, no? I just use them to help with emotions in scenes (and not always the sappy ones thankyouverymuch).

You're not alone! I, too, am a MCR fan, although their song titles influence me more than their lyrics.

Which brings me to my main influence - song titles! I've said it so many times, but they really do influence me in a whole variety of ways. They're so different, and you can find such huge depths of meaning in them. In fact, my first novel (which I have yet to outline, let alone write - I love disorganisation XD) is called "House of Wolves", from the song of the same name on the MCR album, "The Black Parade". So, yes... song titles.

EDIT: *kicks self for forgetting* The above are plot/theme influences. I would say my major style influence is Rowling. I love the tongue-in-cheek humurous way in which she writes, and everytime I'm day-dreaming, thinking of lines which I will, eventually, write, they always seem to mirror her style. In that respect I suppose Pratchett has influenced me a reasonable amount as well, and also Eddings, although every time I pick up Castle of Wizardry he's irritating me with his aversion to words: in addition to his aversion to using the word "where" in words such as "anywhere" (it's always "anyplace", "someplace... grr), he now is refusing to use the word "lit". 'Why,' I ask, 'is "torch-lighted" used instead of "torch-lit"? Is it somehow superior to the latter?' /rant

I've been influenced by quite a few things, but I can name the major.

The PS2 Game Dark Cloud 2: This is brilliance. It really is...it inspired my love of time travel ideas and Imp. :huggles Syrus:

Final Fantasy x: Yes, this has touched my ideas of magical creatures and magic, and I refer back to it every now and then.

Rowling: I've been told here and there that my work has been obviously influenced by Rowling...that's fine with me, because I've been reading HP for YEARS.

Laurence Yep: his Tiger's Apprentice trilogy got me thinking about magical creatures a lot...

Fuyumi Ono: the author of the "Twelve Kingdoms" books, also where I drew the idea of pegasi. She's good.

And dozens of other things....but those show the most. Especially Rowling. ^_^ I love her brand of humor.

Authors? Goodness..

Tolkien is a big influence. Lloyd Alexander as well; I read the Prydain chronicles in middle school and I'm re-reading them right now - great stuff. C.S. Lewis inspires me to through in some philosophical and religious elements every now and then. Phillip Pullman is another favorite, everything in his books is so intricately planned. I adore Terry Pratchett for several reasons - first, his impeccable humor; but I also use his books as a model for pacing , dialogue tags, and use of black space/white space.

As far as music goes... Led Zeppelin (their slow stuff...), Rainbow, Pink Floyd... the kind of music that makes you think of big empty spaces. Spaces for me to fill. Also slow trippy stuff - if anyone has heard of Goldfrapp, their first album jogs something in my brain that tends to put me in a pensive mood. That's the best kind of music for writing, in my opinion, something that gives you a little wiggle room.

Well, in seventh grade, after reading Eragon, I was inspired to write a novel. He was fifteen after all when he started writing. If one kid can do it, any kid can do it! So Chistopher Paoloni would have to be one of my influences.

Some other major influences:

-- Orson Scott Card
-- John Grisham
-- Richard Matheson
-- Robert Ludlum

I've read alot of classics, and I'd like to say they influenced my writing, but they haven't. Maybe Victor Hugo. My influences come from thrill writers

So I'm a philistine....

-Kylan

ZOMG, Lynlyn- Goldfrapp is good. Obscure bands are grand for that sort of thing, right? ^_~

Most of my influence comes from music, since I don't tend to read as a writer very often (or else, I feel like critiquing it -_-). But I've read some amazing books as of late- Everything is Illuminated, by Johnathan Safran Foer, Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, and The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak- that have drastically changed the way I look at historical writing and modern context...an idea I'm rather obsessed with. The idea that you can use historical characters and happenings and make them relatable and make your prose absolutely grand, something that tends to be ignored by most writers.

Or, at least, those were the only books I could find that I didn't want to red pen. And therefore, I think they're amazing and I should emulate them. ^_~

I've got a bit of a thing for satire and the more edgy, realistic side of comedy- Burroughs, Sedaris, Vonnegut, and more recently, Waugh. Quite a mix, but I think that's a bit essential...just reading one type of thing and never leaving the comfort zone doesn't do one much service, right? Looking for Alaska by John Green was one of those where I sat and said, "Well, I was expecting a sappy teen novel but it was absolutely brilliant and witty and happened to make me cry"- something that doesn't happen often.

And I'd totally be lying if Georgia Nicholson didn't creep into my writing, ever.

More rambling about history in a modern context- the Decemberists. I wouldn't have survived this much of my most recent draft without them...the lyrics are just uber-amazing and I love them just as much as any book out there. [One of the reasons I get all snappish and weird when people go on a tangent about how pop culture is corrupting our brains and sucking our creativity, and whatnot.]

Any group, really, that the lyrics have an element of poetry to them- The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, Cold War Kids, The White Stripes [and, dare I say, Arctic Monkeys]- I've found have really helped me to look at literature in a way that's not straining my eyes.

Ooer, pun. XD