Literary Role Model

Every time we read a book by a different author a little bit of their personality rubs off on us as writers. Sometimes it's a minor difference in the way that we write thereafter, and sometimes it's major. We may only take a few words of theirs to heart and enhance our own works, or we might begin to idolize them and make a 180 in our stylings and ideals. So, who is the most influential author to you? If you can narrow it down, what book has affected you the greatest?

If you can't think of someone that influential on you, then imagine if you're being published and people begin to herald you as the 'x of this generation' or 'the next x'. Whose name would you be most happy to see come up?

Bardothren said:

Hmm... good question. I think I've been affected by many of the fantasy books I've read, in particular from Tad Williams, George R. R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Mercedes Lackey, and of course, Tolkien. However, I find it harder to say which one is most defining in my work.

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Same, but in my case, James Patterson, JK Rowling, Eoin Colfer, and Rick Riordan.

I've read a lot of Stephen King, Rick Riordan and J. K. Rowling which is what I think affects a lot of my stories the most. I have been trying to read some more philosophical things like Thomas Hobbes and Friedrich Nietzsche so that my writing can become deeper and not be so straightforward in the concepts that it tackles, but I'm still absorbing all that at the moment. The book that affected me the greatest is probably either Thus Spake Zarathustra - which I've just recently finished reading and am going through a second time so I can really try and break down what makes his ideas and the way he writes good - or The Lightning Thief which I used to read religiously as a child.

I have no clue who my literary influences are. It's a bit complicated, as I write in English, but mostly read novels in Dutch, so the influences are less apparant. I think J.K. Rowling is a writer that has left a permanent mark on my style, though, as she did on many others. The atmosphere in her books is something I tend to aim for in a lot of my stories. The levity and injections of humour while never getting in the way of character moments and plot is something I really like. I'd hope to say I've taken some influences from Douglas Adams too, in my more comedic writing. I love his humour and cleverness and it's something I definitely wouldn't mind borrowing from.