Every writer has people in real life and authors they’ve never met who put them on the path to scribe-dom, whether it was an encouraging teacher or a writer who revealed what was possible with the written word.
Who influenced you along the way? Who helped make you the writer you are today?
Dee Carney says
Like everyone else, I’m an avid reader and could cite any number of authors as influences. But if I had to pick the one DIRECT influence, hands down, it was my 10th grade English teacher, Mrs. Katsikas. She *loved* my stories. Every time between then and now that I thought about writing a story, her encouragement always rang in my memory. Mrs. Katsikas, it took me almost 20 years to start writing again, but I did it. Thank you.
Kristin Laughtin says
Even though I started writing long before I read his work…Kurt Vonnegut. When I read SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, it blew my mind and showed me just how much could be done with books.
Azzy says
I can’t think of a time when I didn’t tell stories. That evolved into being a writer in middle school but I didn’t really recieve encouragement until high school. My tenth grade and eleventh grade English teachers both inspired me so much.
These days my closest friends influence me the most – they’re always asking me about my stories and giving me feedback on them.
Writers that influenced me – McCaffery, Gabaldon, Austen, Tolkien. Each people who started writing in order to tell stories for their own enjoyment.
Jake Seliger says
Picking just one is impossible, so I’ll name the top three: Bellow, Tolkien, and Robertson Davies. And unlikely trio, perhaps, but thee you have it. Not coincidentally, they’re also mentioned frequently on The Story’s Story.
Kelly Pollard says
Jack Kerouac–more so, his ‘other’ books like Desolation Angels and Dharma Bums. I wrapped myself in his writer-bum lifestyle while I read his books in high school…
Dorothy Parker for her snark…
My freshman english teacher Mrs. Gray.
And VC Andrews…something about the taboo of the stories, and the insane amount of series and books cranked out of that name (though I now know there are more writers behind the byline)
Whirlochre says
The pipe-smoking old curmudgeon who said beware pseudonepotism.
JeanieW says
Waaaaaaay back when I was in the sixth grade, I read CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and it was like a switch flipped in my brain. I’d read books I liked before then, but THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE was the first to make me wish I’d written it myself.
Anonymous says
Strange, because you represent his literary estate (not sure if that’s the right term) but the book Justine by Lawrence Durrell has most influenced my approach to writing. That book cracked my head wide open.
Anonymous says
My 12th grade Humanities teacher Mrs. Jordan, who said, “You should be a writer.” She didn’t know that’s what I wanted to do.
Father Mike who encouraged me not to be afraid of my dreams, specifically writing.
John Steinbeck
Charles Dickens
Armstrong Sperry (read “Call It Courage” – it’s YA – or is it?)
BTW, Nathan, you rock! Great question. Great blog. 🙂
Best,
Fotini
Anonymous says
I have been fortunate enough to have a six times published author take me under her wing to help guide me through the process of getting published. She reads and critiques my work, gives generously of her time and advice, and is just a wonderful woman to work with. I will not name her, since I’m sure she doesn’t want to be bombarded with pre-published authors seeking help, but I know how very lucky I am. The last person she mentored sold her first book for $40,000.
Lisa Iriarte
ken says
Tolkien saved my life. (Not literally, of course. But after my dad died it felt like it.) George Lucas made me want to live again. (Seriously, I saw STAR WARS on opening day and have never been the same.) Douglas Adams made me love living. All three men made me yearn to have even a fraction of that kind of impact upon others.
Arovell says
Ha ha. My first grade teacher sent me to the Principal’s office… so I could show him this little fishie-shaped book I made that, you know, reeked and dripped with orange marker. I was flattered, though, and writing became my niche. ^.^
Mya says
Don’t laugh but I was inspired at a young age by E.B. White and her book Charlotte’s Web. I thought it was brilliant the way she made me identify with the pig and the spider as if they were human. I became a closet writer at about the age of ten. I won’t tell you how long ago that was. I have recently come out of the closet as a writer. It’s amazing what came out after years of confinement.
I have to add that I inspired myself as well. I am the type of person who looks at people and their situations and then visualizes what their life is really like or what has brought them to this point. I finally started writing about my thoughts. That is what started my first novel.
Anonymous says
My family. Being constantly told to shut-up and being ridiculed when I dared to speak drove me into my imagination. Writing saved my life.
Tish Cohen says
Maurice Sendak, Lucy Maud Montgomery, then Ayn Rand, Simone de Beauvoir, and Edith Wharton. A weird mix, maybe but all of them really just kicked me with a love for language. But what made me actually start the first page of my first book was a very depressing moment when I was weeping and tallying up all the wrong directions I’d headed in my life and thought, “Maybe this is a book.”
Okay, according to editors, it wasn’t. But the one after the one after that was.
wonderer says
My father, who told me bedtime stories of his own devising; my mother, who facilitated my book addiction from a young age; and my sister, who co-authored the elaborate games with dolls that eventually gave way to written words.
Gene Roddenberry, for providing a universe big enough for me to play in while learning my craft.
My partner, who also writes and with whom I’ve shared countless hours of discussion about writing. We’ve both learned a lot.
Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo (say what you will about it, it’s a fantastic way to get a wannabe writer to Apply Butt to Chair) and the wonderfully supportive community of fellow newbie writers I met through that site.
In recent years, I’ve taken inspiration from Neil Gaiman’s NEVERWHERE (my first exposure to urban fantasy, to which I had the reaction “You can do that?!”) and Guy Gavriel Kay’s brand of quasi-historical fantasy. I wouldn’t call them big influences, but they definitely widened my conception of fantasy, and I’m exploring those new horizons now.
Welshcake says
Timothy Lea, who wrote the seminal ‘Confessions’ series.
My personal favourite is ‘Confessions of a Literary Agent’.
Anonymous says
Jacques Cousteau
THE SILENT WORLD
davec says
At a very young age I began reading Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike because they both came to speak at a literary festival near where I lived. I had no idea who they were, I was merely a sophomore in high school. But I started reading them, probably not picking up very much in those days but there was some pretty explicit stuff in there for a relatively naive high-schooler! Anyway, as I grew older and majored in English, etc. I gained a deeper appreciationg for these and many other writers, especially Ernest Hemingway and some American poets.
From people I know, I think I am encouraged by the inspiration I get from knowing good people. I don’t particularly look for my family’s or my friends’ validation; rather, I think of them as inspiring figures who by their very existence make me want to write.
tanaudel says
CS Lewis, who showed that books don’t have to end.
Lloyd Alexander, who showed me happy endings are sometimes the saddest.
Shaun Tan, whose stories are like his pictures (jewel-bright and strange) and who said the best writing advice anyone ever gave him was “Finish”.
Anonymous says
Ummm, Mya?
Elwyn Brooks White was a man.
Kate says
Kate DiCamillo, because when I read Because of Winn-Dixie I finally understood voice, and I thought, “I want to do this too!”
Lupina says
My second grade friend, Joanne Beeson. After we moved to another town that year I assuaged my loneliness by writing letters to my former classmates. She wrote that she liked my letters because my stories made her laugh. Somehow it stuck in my head that I had an ability to amuse people through writing, and although later reinforcement from teachers, editors, etc. was also crucial, I will always owe Joanne for planting that seed.
Katharine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia convinced me that her audience was also the right one for me.
Wendy Melchior says
Flannery O’Connor, Amy Hempel, e.e. cummings, Kurt Vonnegut
Carley says
Author: I'd have to say Jane Austen…because on those dark & frustrtating days, when the rose colored glasses fall off, I always think of her, writing the brilliant stuff she did at the age she did, with the education & life experience she had, and then I say, hey if she could do this, so can I.
People: My daugher, who is always reading over my shoulder as I type, hungry for more, in her sweetly biased way. Best cheerleader ever, albeit not the most objective!
Maureen says
My high school English teacher when I was a freshman. He encouraged me to keep writing and to study journalism. I worked for a few years as a reporter and a columnist. While I enjoy writing I soon came to see that I didn’t have the agreesive personality required to be successful as a reporter. That was when I turned to fiction.
A great many published writers have influenced me from John Steinbeck to Marcia Muller.
AstonWest says
My mother, who as an English teacher, beat into me the importance of proper spelling and grammar…
It’s served me quite well as an engineer. Most of the engineers I come across can’t spell or use proper grammar to save themselves.
🙂
Anonymous says
One of my New School University writing professors who liked my wild style. Melanie Rae Thon. Margaret Atwood.
And the editor who published a chapter of my memoir, paid me, and nominated me for a Pushcart.
all the people who’ve read my work and say they want more.
Sue says
the theater (and the wonderful people in it) and my own burning desire to create something special that could be passed from generation to generation (I hope)
Marion says
Heinlein, Issac Assimov, Andre Norton, Jules Verne, and many others for Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. for murder mystery/suspense.
A whole host of Romance writers.
My main inspiration of course is an ancestor of mine who was my great grandmother’s cousin…James Fennimore Cooper. Nothing like someone famous to motivate you to try your hand at writing. I grew up as a child with that reminder and have tried my hand at all types of writing. My first start was with Poetry, then three act murder mystery plays, then Sci-fi and Fantasy, then Romance, then commercial fiction and on and on. With a University education I also learned how to write non-fiction and to lecture. Writing is such a huge field of opportunity to express whatever strikes you as a good story. Language and how it is used in all genres is a subject of endless interest to me. I’m alos a Edgar Allen Poe fan as well. Nothing like a good horror or creepy story with things that go bump in the night!
Richard Mabry says
Two people: Robert B. Parker, the prolific novelist and former English professor whose work has taught me so much, and James Scott Bell, a successful writer of fiction who has mentored me by example and direct encouragement.
Kitty Bucholtz says
Specifically, Susan Day, 6th grade teacher. I really need to find her and tell her how far I’ve come. I was unhappy and bored and she found out I wrote stories in my notebooks. She told me she’d give me extra credit for each one I turned in, and suddenly I was rushing through the boring “regular” school work to get to my story writing! In a backwards way, my mom was the other encourager. She had to keep her writing a secret from her dad and her husband because they thought it was stupid, but she never stopped writing. Mom encouraged us kids to tap into our own creativity and tried to help us not be afraid to let it out. Great women, both of them! 🙂
Gail Goetz says
My son…he gave me a computer and said, “Okay, Mom. Write your book.” I have no idea why he said that, but since that day I have written eight novels, none published, but I have had a wonderful time creating all those stories and the characters who inhabit them.
A Paperback Writer says
My writing style has been most influenced by Mark Twain, Erma Bombeck, and Salt Lake Tribune newspaper columnest Robert Kirby.
My desire to write was probably most spurred-on by a college student who came to practice teach for just a few days at our school when I was in 6th grade. I don’t even remember her name, but I recall that she gave us two lists of vocabulary words and told us to choose one list and use the words in a story. She said she’d read the winners from each list aloud. I wrote a vampire story. She read it aloud — and the other kids laughed in all the right places! Wow! I was a hero for the day! And I wanted to write more stories where people would laugh in all the right places.
Daniela Soave says
How long have you got? As a child in Scotland, Robert Louis Stevenson, Enid Blighton,and Ruby Ferguson (Jill Has Two Ponies etc – an author who talked to you informally; something totally new). As a teenager, poet John Donne, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins.H E Bates. Hunter S Thompson. As a parent Alan Ahlberg, Clive King and Roald Dahl. More recently Jonathan Coe, Kate Atkinson, Jane Smiley, Anne Tyler, Joan Didion, Gayle Brandeis, Alice Sebold, Elinor Lipman, Patrick Gale, David Mitchell. But also, many music journalists, contemporaries of mine, and musicians. Conor Oberst. Noel Gallagher. Neil Young. Neil Halstead. James Yorkston. The guys from MGMT, Death Cab for Cutie, Hot Chip. Ed Harcourt. Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley.
All of these things, including the weather, and the countryside, and the insanity that is Glasgow, and my former life in London. Everything influences me, more than I can list, and everything in the future will leave its mark. But most of all, the thing that influences me is the feeling of being apart, of experiencing everything through a glass partition.
How pretentious is that? Sorry.
Tiffany Kenzie says
The first influence was Jacqueline Carey’s first Kushiel book. It’s the first book I ever read and actually said, wow, I wish I wrote that.
Biggest influences: Anaïs Nin, DH Lawrence
Ely–Kisses to you! mwah! You should be taking a big cut of that pie!
Anonymous says
Some great secondary school English teachers and a childhood spent reading magical tales by the likes of Enid Blyton, thanks to a book loving mother.
Bethanne says
Nora Roberts.
I know! it’s become cliche… I can’t help it. I read her books and want to be just like her when I grow up.
I love Romance Divas and Charlotte Dillon’s Romance Writer Community. I couldn’t have better support.
A Paperback Writer says
And by the way,
it is really heart-warming to see how many of you credit teachers for inspiring you.
Anonymous says
Azzy,
I totally agree with Gabaldon.
I’d also add K. G.’s Wind in the Willows,
Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat,
and PG Wodehouse…
JES says
Aw, jeez — what a question. And like many of your questions, I see it’s provoked an avalanche.
Great to see so many teachers mentioned (and often named) as personal influencers. I’m guessing it would be a teacher in my case, too, and probably I’d have to say the first was 6th grade, Miss Pearson. Later teachers, too, sort of handed me along to where I am now. (Mr. Krause, Mrs. Kaness, Mr. Harkins, Mr. Lombardi, Dr. Mitchell…)
Writers: I just went through an exercise of building a “pantheon” of writerly influences as a link category on my blog. The surnames in that list are Watts, Dillard, Schneier, Ackerman, DeLillo, White, Thurber, Evanovich, Shepherd, McPhee, Heller, Vonnegut, Kael, Reynolds, Pirsig, and Pynchon. And it was hard to limit it to just them. Kind of a mish-mash, eh wot? 🙂
Adam Heine says
Most influential author: Orson Scott Card. I’ve read nearly everything he’s written, including Characters & Viewpoint and How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy.
Most influential person: Professor Baron, my close friend who convinced me to take his poetry class. For the first time in 25 years I understood poetry, I figured out what imagery was, and I learned that anything can be improved with revision.
Margay says
The most influential person in my life was my seventh grade English teacher, Miss Black. She was the person who put a name to my passion: writing. At the end of the school year, she gave me two pieces of advice: Have a great summer and Keep Writing.
I just want to say: Thank you, Miss Black. I did both.
Jeff says
Tennessee Williams
Julie says
My 6th grade reading teacher who inadvertently stuck the idea in my head that I was going to be a writer some day.
And Kelley Armstrong, Author, who’s website and online writing group have been invaluable tools in my ongoing quest towards being a good writer and publication.
lotusloquax says
My mother probably more than anyone. She was always reading something and instilled that love of reading in me.
A college professor in my creative writing class read out my first assignment as a great example of capturing a scene. The other students were spellbound by it, and I was hooked on writing ever since. It’s a heady thing to capture an audience’s attention.
Some of the authors that have influenced me most are Chaim Potok, Leon Uris, Louis L’Amour, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Sarah Dessen, Orson Scott Card, Jane Austen, and Karen Hesse. A nice eclectic mix, eh?
I really enjoyed King’s “On Writing.”
Some authors like Steinbeck and Dostoyevsky stop my writing cold and leave me chanting in my head, “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.” Ah well. C’est la vie!
Timothy Fish says
Nolan Porterfield, the author of Jimmie Rodgers The Life and Times of America’s Blue Yodeler. I knew him as an English professor at Southeast Missouri State University. He brought a copy of his book to class and told us that he was getting just about enough from royalities to pay for a nice dinner every once in a while. I thought at was cool. The publishing industry is always looking for books that will sell many copies and yet here was a guy who was content to get a royalty check every once in a while for a book without a huge readership.
jbrian says
Tolkien first.
I remember “The Hobbit” as the first book I’d read and thoroughly enjoyed. And it wasn’t even a school assignment. After that I devoured “The Lord of the Rings.” Many years later, I’m still a huge fan.
Hemingway second.
For his perspective of the gritty side of life. It was because of Hemingway I was a Journalism major and not an English major.
Heinlen third.
For showing me the possibilities of thinking outside the box.
Anne Granberry fourth.
My high school senior honors english teacher. Before she died (way too early in her life) she taught me a pure love for literature in all its many genres.
Anonymous says
Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor – the original Southern Goth girls.
Rena says
A little white mountain goat …
And yes, I am serious. Inspiration comes in many forms.