No writer lives in a vacuum. We all take inspiration from the people who have come before us. We are moved some of their best ideas, we all start through imitation before we graduate to originality, and it’s important to recognize and honor the people who paved the way for your work.
This is an important process, and even as we mature as writers and as human beings we continue to be shaped by those around us and whose work inspires us, just as I’ve cribbed social media lessons from Tahereh Mafi and The Rejectionist even as they’ve become real-life friends.
I’ve asked before who in your life most influenced you on the way but who are the writers who have shaped your work?
For me, it’s Bill Watterson, Douglas Adams and Roald Dahl.
Art: Ein Maler bei der Arbeit by Paul Cézanne
An opportunity to demonstrate an education; the breadth of reading; just how many of the admired and fêted authors you know. For me it has to be Hergé and Enid Blyton. Nothing hidden, no subtext unwittingly placed between the lines. Everything accessible and understandable. Fun. (Of course, Hérge was full of subtext, but no-one knows that.)
Easily, I would say say Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
With more thought, a lot of choldren's books writers including Rolad Dahl and Robert Munsch.
C.S. Friedman, Margaret Weiss, Anne McCaffrey, Laurell K Hamilton, John Scalzi, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, and L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Interestingly enough, no writer influenced my writing, which is probably due to getting a very late start in writing (started 6 years ago when I was 41).
I did enjoy stories that were well written, so perhaps the only influence I had on my writing, indirectly at least, were pulp/noir fiction writer/editor David Cranmer and fantasy/horror writer Charles Gramlich.
Stephen King, which is slightly disconcerting since I write MG. great post!
Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury
Anne Tyler, Alice McDermott, John Updike, Michael Chabon, Saul Bellow, Richard Ford. It's a pretty eclectic list.