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Which Writers Most Influence Your Work?

December 5, 2012 by Nathan Bransford 57 Comments

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

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: Life of a Writer, You Tell Me

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. S.K. Renait says

    December 7, 2012 at 3:02 am

    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.)

    Reply
  2. Charie Dawn says

    December 7, 2012 at 7:33 am

    Easily, I would say say Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

    With more thought, a lot of choldren's books writers including Rolad Dahl and Robert Munsch.

    Reply
  3. JM says

    December 7, 2012 at 10:17 pm

    C.S. Friedman, Margaret Weiss, Anne McCaffrey, Laurell K Hamilton, John Scalzi, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, and L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

    Reply
  4. G. B. Miller says

    December 7, 2012 at 11:21 pm

    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.

    Reply
  5. James Duckett says

    December 8, 2012 at 3:01 am

    Stephen King, which is slightly disconcerting since I write MG. great post!

    Reply
  6. wordboy says

    December 10, 2012 at 6:57 am

    Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury

    Reply
  7. cgblake says

    December 12, 2012 at 12:18 pm

    Anne Tyler, Alice McDermott, John Updike, Michael Chabon, Saul Bellow, Richard Ford. It's a pretty eclectic list.

    Reply
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Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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