First off, this idea came to me a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to get some of my fellow Writers in on it. What we'll be doing here is making a list of our Top 8 Literary Influences, and explaining a little about how each one has impacted us and helped mold the way we write. The only exception to that is my pal Sean Taylor, who already made a long list on his blog a few years ago, which I'm just going to link to here.
Now, shall we begin?
First off, John Durden, Author of Melatonin.
•
Number Eight
◦ Richard Dawkins
▪ I know that a strictly scientific
author may seem a bit odd as a source of inspiration for an author as myself
who writes primarily fiction, but this is my list and I intend to explain.
Before I first read Dawkins, I always struggled trying to explain how I came to
different conclusions, whether it be in life or on paper. Dawkins to me always
over analyzed anything and everything he talked about in The Greatest Show
On Earth, however, in the end I saw why he went to such great lengths to
describe everything so intricately. The way he took the time to bridge his
findings to the tiniest difference of an organism taught me how important it
is, whether I decide to include the fully expounded thought in the final text
or not, to take each and every little idea, digging into every minute
possibility, and open it wide as far as my mind could fathom, before being
satisfied with the final product. This has helped me develop deep, strongly
plot driven material using the most minute of characters to proactively tell
the story through the actions and interactions within their own lives
•
Number Seven
◦ Franz Kafka
▪ For those who have heard of Kafka, he
is probably most well known for his work Metamorphosis as it was a
highly popular required reading for the people of my generation. It was
interesting to say the least, as the reader is faced with a man that within
twenty-four hours has his life transformed quite literally. Though this giant
bug of a tale has been a long time favorite, I am more a fan of his work A
Report to an Academy in which the person speaking in the beginning turns
out to be someone (or rather something) that you would never expect. It was
this author that taught me how to take outrageously erroneous circumstances
that shock the reader and compare them to the grotesque actualities of daily
occurrences.
•
Number Six and Five
◦ Stephen King and Alexander Gordon
Smith
▪ I read Smith well before I ever read
King, which might be shocking to hear. I grew up watching various movie
spinoffs of King's works and they left a lasting impression in my mind for
being simply chilling. Later on I came to the conclusion that a majority of
King's works dealt with highly possible real life scenarios that sought to make
you uncomfortable in any way possible. It was that aspect that pulled me in and
captivated my attention, specifically one of the most recent works I have read
(Apt Pupil). However, before I even picked up a book by King, a friend
recommend Smith to me. She had first discovered an audiobook for his first work
Escape from Furnace: Lockdown, and gave a wonderful description of it,
sparking my interest. I immediately went out and bought the paperback. I
finished it quickly and began to devour the rest of the books in the series.
What captivated me most, in this case, was not the fact that it dealt with a
common day scenario, but that it dealt with a “what if?” scenario that to the
modern reader is highly unlikely, but at the same time is something that many,
including myself, feared as a child. The series is filled with imprisoned
delinquent children, scary gas mask being armored with syringes, silver-eyed
serpent men that watch your every move, and SPOILERS Nazis! This paired with
the plot of Apt Pupil gave me more than enough material to dwell upon as
I worked (and continue to work) on my series.
•
Number Four
◦ Dan Wells
▪ I owe my passion for fantasy to this
wonderful man. It seems strange to think that I could pull fantasy from a
series about a boy who constantly struggles with the reality of slowly becoming
a serial killer. I never cared for fantasy growing up and being born in the
late eighties I saw what could be seen as the teen years of fantasy which
included works by Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan which to this day I can't
stand to read. As a primarily nineties kid, I enjoyed the movement of cool
cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and short books like R.L.
Stine's Goosebumps horror series. It wasn't until about three years ago
that I was introduced to Wells. He has a style of writing that grabs your
attention. He uses the disturbing things he knows you'll like to lure you in
and stabs back with biting dialogue and inner monologue that will keep you
reading for hours on end. He even manages to introduce monsters and
extraterrestrial beings without being overly fanatic. This is what caught me
and introduced me to the idea that there is a perfect type and amount of
fantasy for all readers.
•
Number Three
◦ Christopher Moore
▪ I couldn't possibly complete this
list without include a comedy writer, and a damn good one at that. He takes
everyday scenarios, finds the humor in them, stretches that humor to it's
limit, and throws in awkward monsters and giant sentient lizards. From Fool to
Practical Demonkeeping, Moore's stories followed the lives of one
pathetic character after another. His world is like no other I have ever seen
before and will forever be the basis for how I judge life in California. He is
a huge inspiration for my writing style, especially the dialogue that I use. My
idea for the demon in my series spawned from the demon Catch that first
appeared in his debut novel Practical Demonkeeping. It was his work that
reignited my passion for reading and enjoying what I read, and is now what
drives my ability to tell a story.
•
Number Two
◦ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
▪ I struggled with this one and the one
that I chose as the most influential person for my work. My love for mystery is
built around this man and the invincible Sherlock Holmes. If anyone had
critical thinking skills it was Doyle. Not only did he have to think like
Holmes, he also had to NOT think like Holmes. It doesn't make a whole lot of
sense at first, but when you think about it you can surely deduce the meaning.
In the world he created, Sherlock was the end all be all to the story. He knew
all he needed to know and if he didn't, he knew how to get the answers. Most
other characters in the story aside from Watson had a single clue. They way Doyle
manages to balance the differences between Sherlock and the common citizen or
police force, as well as between Sherlock and Watson, astound me even to this
day. His many works following the rather-not-be hero give me insight and
confidence in my own writing and proper balancing of characters.
•
Number One
◦ Lois Lowery
▪ When I was younger, the last thing I
wanted to do was read. To me, reading was absolutely boring and a waste of my
time. Sure, I grew up with Goosebumps and was involved in my local
library reading program, but eventually I grew tired of reading all those books
for such stupid prizes. It was really the only reason I did it, even though, as
it turns out, I actually enjoyed some of the books I read. When I grew out of
the program, I saw no reason to read again until about my freshman year of high
school. Our first assigned book was The Giver by Lois Lowery. I wasn't
really happy about having to read anything, but the book was relatively small
compared to the monstrous books I had to take home every day. It was an easy
and enjoyable read nonetheless. I fell in love with the book instantly. It was
that draw to something that I couldn't have that I was determined to get,
regardless of the consequences. I was Jonas throughout his entire journey. I
desperately wanted Rosemary to follow me, but she just couldn't got through the
pain again. Defeated I took Gabriel with me, determined to make a new world. I
laughed at the oddities and cried in joy when I escaped to a house at the
bottom of a snowy hill, filled with the warmth and joy of Christmas Eve. It
opened up my heart and unlocked my passion for reading once more. I couldn't
get enough after that and ever since it has grown along with my passion for
story telling.
****
And now, a word from Anna Smith.
"This was really difficult for me. I generally don’t
follow authors—I pick what to read based on jacket copy and first line tests
more than anything. Apart from that, I can’t really say what writers “made me
want to write,” because I’ve literally written stories since I could write. My best shot is below.
My eight literary influences (in no particular
order)"
1. S.E.
Hinton
When
I was in eighth grade, The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton was on our list of required reading. It was easily the bets of
the books we read that school year. We spent a lot of time that year reading
books set in World War II—memoirs of Holocaust survivors, a book about a German
prisoner brought to a small American town. The
Outsiders was told on a much smaller scale than the rest of these books. It
didn’t deal with global problems. It focused on the inequalities in one town
and on personal relationships rather than international ones. And it delved
into social issues without preaching.
But
the big thing about the book—the thing that impressed me the most—was that S.E.
Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she
was sixteen. I started trying to write my first novel the day after I heard
that. I mean, if she was able to do it, maybe I could?
Hinton’s writing is simple. She
doesn’t bother with big words or complex sentences. She just tells the story.
Whenever I feel like I’m trying too hard with a story, I flip through The Outsiders. Seeing a story told
without flourish always helps me figure out where to tone back.
The
other thing that sticks with me about Hinton’s writing is her ability to write
relationships. I cared about what happened to the characters because she showed
me how deeply the characters cared about each other. The way that Hinton wrote
the characters’ relationships in The
Outsiders definitely informs how I write the ways that my characters
interact.
2. Lynne
Truss
Lynne
Truss has written a bit of fiction—a handful of novellas, including a new one
called Cat Out of Hell that I’m going
to have to procure. Mostly, though, my favorite Lynne Truss writing is her
non-fiction. You might have heard of a book that she wrote about punctuation
called Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Truss’s writing is, above all things, smart. And not smart in an academic
sense, but witty and informative. Reading Eats,
Shoots & Leaves, you’ll learn about punctuation, yes, but you’ll also
laugh. A lot. Lynne Truss is definitely who I shape the tone of a great deal of
my nonfiction work around, and there are some characters that I write that draw
on Truss’s wit.
Apart
from her wit and her amusing and informative nonfiction writing, I appreciate
Lynne Truss’s fiction for one important reason: she always writes about
whatever the hell she wants. Publishing is a business, as writers are
constantly reminded. Sometimes your fantastic book or story can’t find a home
because of nebulous “market reasons.” To account for this, writers sometimes
let the market decide what they write more than they do. Truss has never done
this. Admittedly, she’s protected by her successful non-fiction work and her
fame in journalism, but she was still willing to write a book about Alfred Lord
Tennyson and Julia Margaret Cameron living it up in Victorian England (and by “living
it up,” I mean being frustratingly posh). People didn’t buy it, but Truss still
refers to it as her baby. The willingness to tell the story that you want to
tell and not the story that the numbers tell you will sell is something that I admire
as a writer and something that I strive for myself.
3. J.K
Rowling
My
90s might be showing here, but Harry
Potter was a huge part of my childhood and was the series that got me into
genre fiction. My next door neighbor handed me the first book when I was eleven
years old and promised to lend me the second one when she finished it. After
about the third book, I was one of those fans that was at the midnight release
every time. I’d stay up all night reading the books—in part because those were
the early days of the internet, and the phrase “spoiler alert” wasn’t really in
most people’s vocabulary, but mostly because I couldn’t leave the characters or
their world. Yes, the earlier books were rough around the edges, but even so,
the woman knew how to hook a reader.
One
of my favorite things about the Harry
Potter series was that nothing was done accidentally. Things that wouldn’t
be plot points until book six were worked into the narrative in book two.
Someone who wouldn’t be significant until book three was mentioned a handful of
times in book one. This, to me, is something of a lost art in YA series
fiction. There’s a thought that these subtleties will be lost on younger
readers, but I don’t think that’s the case. I know I appreciated those things—and
I was always really excited when I was able to read the clues to guess a plot
point.
More
recently, I’ve been impressed with her writing as Robert Galbraith. I’ve always
loved a good murder mystery (I blame it on all of the episodes of Matlock my mom made me sit through), and
The Cuckoo’s Calling was everything I
would have asked for in one. Rowling shows her versatility with this book—a versatility
that I myself long for.
4. Sylvia
Plath
This
is probably as dark as this list will get. Most of Plath’s work was essentially
a chronicling of her own mental breakdown, and Plath ultimately took her own
life in 1963. Though her ability to use her writing to cope was, admittedly, questionable,
Plath was the first writer who introduced me to the notion of writing through
the pain. Plath’s writing is dark and deeply personal. She didn’t write to be
loved or to be famous—in fact, a
reading of The Bell Jar indicates
that she wasn’t really built to handle fame. But she wrote from herself. That’s
her blood you’re seeing on the page—it’s her life.
While
my inner demons have never been as dark or as strong as Plath’s must have been,
I’ve taken a leaf from Plath’s book, as it were, and used my writing to work
through my own problems and pains. Since reading The Bell Jar, I pour more of myself into what I write. My work isn’t
about me, but it is the way that I negotiate my own feelings.
5. Truman
Capote
The
first page of In Cold Blood is some
of the best writing I’ve ever read. That book is one of my all-time favorites.
It’s also the last novel Capote ever completed. What I learned from reading
Capote and from researching his life is about the process of writing. It can be
unforgiving. It can tear you apart from the inside. Capote was broken. But Capote
was brilliant.
Apart
from his beautiful prose, Capote inspires me to keep myself in check. I am a
writer—but I’m more than what I write. Capote and others like him—Williams,
Plath, Hemmingway—remind me that art comes at a price, but I get to determine
what that price is for myself. I would love to write like Capote, but I don’t
want to live like him.
6. Harper
Lee
Harper Lee only wrote one book, but she
made it count. To Kill a Mockingbird
is one of my favorite novels. Lee manages to recreate the racial tensions in
the South and illustrates how innocent lives get destroyed by the rampant
prejudice that was (and still is) the norm in our society. She only wrote the
one novel, but she said some very important things with it.
I also appreciate that she was able to
make such important commentary in a book that was told through the eyes of
children. Every time someone says that children can’t handle serious material
or that books for or about children can’t tell important stories, I come back
to this book. I write YA. I also write about class conflict, the dangers of
conflating “progress” with “improvement,” the failing of the mental health and
correctional systems in our society. Lee reminds me that young people and
serious issues don’t have to be kept separate.
To
Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, well-loved and respected
book. It’s also, as I recall, the first “important” (in the school system’s
opinion) book that I read that was written by a woman—and a woman from Alabama
at that. I don’t know if other Southern writers feel this way, but hearing the
way that the media tend to shit on everyone living in this particular corner of
the country is sometimes hard to rise above. There are plenty of Southern
writers I think of when I start feeling held back by my roots—one is mentioned
above, in fact—but Harper Lee is always the first to my mind.
7. Christopher
Moore
I
like to laugh as much as the next person, but I generally find books that are
explicitly comedy to be sort of lacking on the storytelling. Something in the
effort to be funny takes away from weaker writers’ ability to keep the plates
spinning on a story. Christopher Moore flips that trend the bird. Moore’s work
is irreverent, wildly imaginative, and incredibly well research. He parodies
Gaelic myth, but he demonstrates thorough knowledge of the myths and
characters. He sets a fantasy farce in turn-of-the-century France, using
historical figures and hits the nail on the head with their mannerisms and
works.
Comedy
is work. Comedy doesn’t have to mean stupid. No one does a better job of
meshing storytelling, comedy, and research than Christopher Moore. I don’t know
that I manage to tie those threads together too well, myself, but reading Moore’s
work definitely makes me want to.
8. Greg
Rucka
Rucka
is mainly a comic book writer, but he has written novelizations for a few of
his comics. He’s written some of my favorite comic book characters—Huntress,
Question, Wonder Woman—but he’s also created some amazing characters of his
own. What I love about Greg Rucka is that every character he writes is so
complete. Male protagonists are just quietly angst-ridden death machines.
Female protagonists aren’t just fighting fuck toys. Each character has a
complete story. Rucka reminds me with everything that he writes that it’s
important to write not just strong stories, but strong characters as well. As
someone who’s always hungry to see a well-written female protagonist, Rucka is
an inspiration to me. He knows the secret—write strong characters, male or
female.
****
And now Jonathan French, Author of The Exiled Heir, Book 1 of the Autumn's Fall Saga. And this one's in video format, for your viewing pleasure.
****
Well, I guess that just leaves me. This is by no means an easy list for me to make, considering how many different writers have influenced me, literary or otherwise. That said, I'm gonna tackle this full-force, and we'll see where it goes. Now, for those of you who might have seen my Top 10 Authors of All Time list from last year, this isn't a straight repeat of that list. While I do consider that lot of Authors to be the best, not all of them have had the strongest influence on me like the ones in the list I'm making here. Now, here we go.
8. Luo Guanzhong
Guanzhong's way of taking prominent historical figures and making them larger than life had a big impact on me as a kid. Through Dynasty Warriors 4 on PS2 when I was 12 or 13, I was first introduced to Guanzhong's work. Granted, the games aren't 100% accurate, but it was my front door into the world of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
When I say Guanzhong's characters are larger than life, I'm not exaggerating in the least. Lu Bu, already a well-known and feared warrior in history, was turned into a practically unstoppable force on the battlefield that NO ONE could best in single combat. Then, moving on to his horse, Red Hare ... well, according to Guanzhong this horse to gallop a thousand leagues in a single day and not break a sweat. Yeah, I know, crazy....
More importantly, Guanzhong is one of the earliest writers I've found that managed to build standout characters. No two of them are the same, and it's really fun watching the way they interact with each other.
For anyone who wants to get an idea of the world, but doesn't want to dive into the dense text of Romance, you have another option. Red Cliff, a movie by John Woo, does a really good job of blending some of Guanzhong's more exaggerated scenes with the more historically accurate ones. I also recommend watching the Extended Cut, if you have 6 hours to kill. It's a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be enjoyed fully.
7. Tad Williams
The first book I ever read by Williams was Caliban's Hour when I was around 16. I'll never forget that experience as long as I live. It took me years after to track down my own copy, and I ate up every word all over again.
Williams is more well known for his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and his Shadowmarch series, but Caliban is where it all started for me. Williams' way with characters and distinct voices is nothing short of amazing, and ever more mystifying is the way he managed to write a teenager in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Yes, other Authors have written interesting teenage characters over the years, but Williams is, so far, the only one who I've read that accurately described the thought process of a teenage boy. Which is almost nonsensical, by the way.
I could say more, but I think Jonathan already described Williams well enough in his video.
6. Peter Tomasi
A comic book writer on the list? Why yes, yes there is. And I promise you there's no other comic book writer more deserving to be on this list than Tomasi. He taught me, better than anyone, how to pace a story. He also taught me a lot about character interactions and how, sometimes, a character's tone and personality can change a bit, depending on their location and who they're talking to. Looking back now, it seems pretty obvious, but reading his Nightwing run was the first time it really dawned on me.
Even now, I consider him one of the best voices in the comic book industry. I just wish he could break away from the garbage that is DC's New 52 line. I'd like to see him do more original work like The Mighty, and if you can manage to track down those 12 issues, I highly recommend you do so. You won't be sorry.
5. Joss Whedon
Yeah, you knew he had to be on this list. Without Joss Whedon, my dialogue would be flat and uninteresting. I don't think you can find anyone in any industry right now that has a better grasp of dialogue than Joss Whedon. If you read a line of dialogue from any of his characters without any attribution, you'd still be able to tell exactly who was saying it.
In addition to that, I admire his willingness to mess with the formula. In the middle of a very serious season of Buffy, you'd come out with a fun, zany episode like Once More With Feeling. And somehow, it never felt out of place. That takes on awful amount of skill to pull off, and Joss has an amazing track record for pulling it off.
4. Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is the person I have to thank for my sense of wonder. Few people can manage to instill that sort of feeling in literature without it either feeling forced or idiotic, but he nails it in everything he writes.
I was first introduced to him, like a lot of people my age, through The Sandman comics. It amazed me how he was able to transition from a straight Horror comic to a beautiful Dark Fantasy unlike anything ever written.
In recent years though, he's moved primarily out of comics and into novels and screenplays. It impresses me how easily he's able to transition from stories like Sandman and American Gods to children's stories like Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls, among others. That's a rare talent, and one I envy.
3. Stephen King
For years when I was growing up, I thought Stephen King was a dime store Horror novelist with nothing else to contribute to the literary world (yeah, I was a bit of a literary snob as a kid.) Not only have I drastically changed my mind about Horror fiction since then, but I realized that Stephen King is so much more than a scare-junkie.
Stephen King transcends a lot of genres and styles, yet anything you read by him is instantly recognizable as his. He's written Horror, Fantasy, Pulp, Drama, etc. Yes, Horror is usually his best work, but even his Horror is unlike anything else on the market. His ideas are so "out there" sometimes that it's nearly impossible to figure out how his stories are going to end until you hit the climax. And the one thing you'll find out pretty quickly is that King isn't always afraid to end on an off note. He want you to keep wondering long after you've turned the last page, and that's something I've become really attached to.
2. Amy Hennig
While Amy's work is exclusive to video games, I consider her to be among the best writers of this generation. Not only is she a woman in what's always been considered a male-dominated field, she's easily the best writer in the video game industry, by a mile at least.
Here's a quote from the wikipedia article on Amy:
"Hennig believes that the creative direction of a script holds more importance than the graphics of the game. She has been called one of the most influential women in the video game industry by Edge magazine, and has been cited as an example of how more women are becoming involved in a previously male dominated field."
So yeah, you've got morons like Cliffy B in the industry praising their graphics and their chainsaw guns above actual story and gameplay, then you have someone like Amy, who likes to focus on the more important aspects of the game. In my old Characters post, I talked a lot about Raziel from The Legacy of Kain series. Well, my love for Raziel, and every other richly detailed character in that world, stems directly from Amy. She's the one that gave those characters their voices, and managed to craft a plot that was so engrossing that it still stand out, to this day, as the greatest vampire story ever told. But heck, even if you don't care for vampires and demons, there's still so much here to dig into. Hennig's story's are so meaty and full of life, you'll desperately devour every morsel until you reach the end, then you'll be begging for more.
Amy's sort of an oddball on this list, but she's had a huge impact on me. And I can say with confidence that she'd be number one on this list if it wasn't for....
1. Robert Jordan
Anyone who's known me for five minutes probably knew this was going to be the number one slot, and for good reason. Without Robert Jordan, I wouldn't be an Author. Are there other High Fantasy writers who've made a bigger mainstream impact? Well, yes, a lot of them in fact. Is it as marketable outside of literature as other Fantasy series? Not really. Does it have more heart than any other Epic Fantasy out there? You bet your sweet ass it does.
I still remember walking back from the library early in the week on day, a stack of books under my arm, eager to get back and crack open the first of them. You see, I was determined to branch out in my reading. At 11 I'd read The Odyssey and Hamlet for the first time, and Beowulf shortly after. Outside of Beowulf and The Odyssey, I hadn't found anything in the years after that captured my imagination quite the way those stories had. Don't get me wrong, I'd read some really god stuff, but none of it had the same magic. So at 15, I finally decided to grab a bunch of different books from different genres and see where things took me. One of those books happened to be The Eye of the World.
I'd had an odd fascination with The Wheel of Time for a good year or two at that point, but in the stores, I only ever found copies of the later books, with the cover for Book 7 really catching my eye. I can't tell you how many times I almost bought it, but with it being so late in the series, I thought I'd be too lost to get through it (and I was completely right.) So, that day at the library I saw some cover art that looked similar, picked up the book, and sure enough, it was the first book. I smirked, satisfied, and added it to my stack.
But, the tricky part came when I had to choose which book to read first. So, I decided to read the first chapters of all of them, then pick the one I liked best and go from there. I started with one of the Drizzt books, and it was good enough that I thought nothing was going to top it. But, just to be fair about it, I continued on and cracked open The Eye of the World for the first time ... and from the first page I was captivated. I carried all the other books back the next day and started ordering the next copies in the series that my library didn't have. These books were magic, with characters that I could relate to and a setting more diverse than any I'd ever read.
Another three books in, I realized that I wanted to be like Robert Jordan. I wanted a shot at giving other people the same joy he'd given me, and that day, I became a Writer. I didn't just want to write, I NEEDED to write. I needed to craft characters like Jordan's that lived, breathed and more importantly, changed as their world around them changed.
Nothing has ever captured my imagination like Jordan's work, and I doubt anything ever will.
****
Well everyone, thanks to the lot of you that made it this far, and I hope you enjoyed hearing these Authors ramble on about their influences. I'd like to think that some of you either found something insightful, or you'll at least have a couple of new books to check out.
I'd also like to take a second to remind everyone that you can currently find my first book, Electus, on Amazon, in both print and ebook format. Please, feel free to check it out and leave a review. Reviews help upcoming writers more than you know.
Also, a quick thanks to everyone who participated in this post. I appreciate the time you guys put in, and I look forward to maybe sharing more posts with you in the future.
Well, I guess that just leaves me. This is by no means an easy list for me to make, considering how many different writers have influenced me, literary or otherwise. That said, I'm gonna tackle this full-force, and we'll see where it goes. Now, for those of you who might have seen my Top 10 Authors of All Time list from last year, this isn't a straight repeat of that list. While I do consider that lot of Authors to be the best, not all of them have had the strongest influence on me like the ones in the list I'm making here. Now, here we go.
8. Luo Guanzhong
Guanzhong's way of taking prominent historical figures and making them larger than life had a big impact on me as a kid. Through Dynasty Warriors 4 on PS2 when I was 12 or 13, I was first introduced to Guanzhong's work. Granted, the games aren't 100% accurate, but it was my front door into the world of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
When I say Guanzhong's characters are larger than life, I'm not exaggerating in the least. Lu Bu, already a well-known and feared warrior in history, was turned into a practically unstoppable force on the battlefield that NO ONE could best in single combat. Then, moving on to his horse, Red Hare ... well, according to Guanzhong this horse to gallop a thousand leagues in a single day and not break a sweat. Yeah, I know, crazy....
More importantly, Guanzhong is one of the earliest writers I've found that managed to build standout characters. No two of them are the same, and it's really fun watching the way they interact with each other.
For anyone who wants to get an idea of the world, but doesn't want to dive into the dense text of Romance, you have another option. Red Cliff, a movie by John Woo, does a really good job of blending some of Guanzhong's more exaggerated scenes with the more historically accurate ones. I also recommend watching the Extended Cut, if you have 6 hours to kill. It's a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be enjoyed fully.
7. Tad Williams
The first book I ever read by Williams was Caliban's Hour when I was around 16. I'll never forget that experience as long as I live. It took me years after to track down my own copy, and I ate up every word all over again.
Williams is more well known for his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and his Shadowmarch series, but Caliban is where it all started for me. Williams' way with characters and distinct voices is nothing short of amazing, and ever more mystifying is the way he managed to write a teenager in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Yes, other Authors have written interesting teenage characters over the years, but Williams is, so far, the only one who I've read that accurately described the thought process of a teenage boy. Which is almost nonsensical, by the way.
I could say more, but I think Jonathan already described Williams well enough in his video.
6. Peter Tomasi
A comic book writer on the list? Why yes, yes there is. And I promise you there's no other comic book writer more deserving to be on this list than Tomasi. He taught me, better than anyone, how to pace a story. He also taught me a lot about character interactions and how, sometimes, a character's tone and personality can change a bit, depending on their location and who they're talking to. Looking back now, it seems pretty obvious, but reading his Nightwing run was the first time it really dawned on me.
Even now, I consider him one of the best voices in the comic book industry. I just wish he could break away from the garbage that is DC's New 52 line. I'd like to see him do more original work like The Mighty, and if you can manage to track down those 12 issues, I highly recommend you do so. You won't be sorry.
5. Joss Whedon
Yeah, you knew he had to be on this list. Without Joss Whedon, my dialogue would be flat and uninteresting. I don't think you can find anyone in any industry right now that has a better grasp of dialogue than Joss Whedon. If you read a line of dialogue from any of his characters without any attribution, you'd still be able to tell exactly who was saying it.
In addition to that, I admire his willingness to mess with the formula. In the middle of a very serious season of Buffy, you'd come out with a fun, zany episode like Once More With Feeling. And somehow, it never felt out of place. That takes on awful amount of skill to pull off, and Joss has an amazing track record for pulling it off.
4. Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is the person I have to thank for my sense of wonder. Few people can manage to instill that sort of feeling in literature without it either feeling forced or idiotic, but he nails it in everything he writes.
I was first introduced to him, like a lot of people my age, through The Sandman comics. It amazed me how he was able to transition from a straight Horror comic to a beautiful Dark Fantasy unlike anything ever written.
In recent years though, he's moved primarily out of comics and into novels and screenplays. It impresses me how easily he's able to transition from stories like Sandman and American Gods to children's stories like Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls, among others. That's a rare talent, and one I envy.
3. Stephen King
For years when I was growing up, I thought Stephen King was a dime store Horror novelist with nothing else to contribute to the literary world (yeah, I was a bit of a literary snob as a kid.) Not only have I drastically changed my mind about Horror fiction since then, but I realized that Stephen King is so much more than a scare-junkie.
Stephen King transcends a lot of genres and styles, yet anything you read by him is instantly recognizable as his. He's written Horror, Fantasy, Pulp, Drama, etc. Yes, Horror is usually his best work, but even his Horror is unlike anything else on the market. His ideas are so "out there" sometimes that it's nearly impossible to figure out how his stories are going to end until you hit the climax. And the one thing you'll find out pretty quickly is that King isn't always afraid to end on an off note. He want you to keep wondering long after you've turned the last page, and that's something I've become really attached to.
2. Amy Hennig
While Amy's work is exclusive to video games, I consider her to be among the best writers of this generation. Not only is she a woman in what's always been considered a male-dominated field, she's easily the best writer in the video game industry, by a mile at least.
Here's a quote from the wikipedia article on Amy:
"Hennig believes that the creative direction of a script holds more importance than the graphics of the game. She has been called one of the most influential women in the video game industry by Edge magazine, and has been cited as an example of how more women are becoming involved in a previously male dominated field."
So yeah, you've got morons like Cliffy B in the industry praising their graphics and their chainsaw guns above actual story and gameplay, then you have someone like Amy, who likes to focus on the more important aspects of the game. In my old Characters post, I talked a lot about Raziel from The Legacy of Kain series. Well, my love for Raziel, and every other richly detailed character in that world, stems directly from Amy. She's the one that gave those characters their voices, and managed to craft a plot that was so engrossing that it still stand out, to this day, as the greatest vampire story ever told. But heck, even if you don't care for vampires and demons, there's still so much here to dig into. Hennig's story's are so meaty and full of life, you'll desperately devour every morsel until you reach the end, then you'll be begging for more.
Amy's sort of an oddball on this list, but she's had a huge impact on me. And I can say with confidence that she'd be number one on this list if it wasn't for....
1. Robert Jordan
Anyone who's known me for five minutes probably knew this was going to be the number one slot, and for good reason. Without Robert Jordan, I wouldn't be an Author. Are there other High Fantasy writers who've made a bigger mainstream impact? Well, yes, a lot of them in fact. Is it as marketable outside of literature as other Fantasy series? Not really. Does it have more heart than any other Epic Fantasy out there? You bet your sweet ass it does.
I still remember walking back from the library early in the week on day, a stack of books under my arm, eager to get back and crack open the first of them. You see, I was determined to branch out in my reading. At 11 I'd read The Odyssey and Hamlet for the first time, and Beowulf shortly after. Outside of Beowulf and The Odyssey, I hadn't found anything in the years after that captured my imagination quite the way those stories had. Don't get me wrong, I'd read some really god stuff, but none of it had the same magic. So at 15, I finally decided to grab a bunch of different books from different genres and see where things took me. One of those books happened to be The Eye of the World.
I'd had an odd fascination with The Wheel of Time for a good year or two at that point, but in the stores, I only ever found copies of the later books, with the cover for Book 7 really catching my eye. I can't tell you how many times I almost bought it, but with it being so late in the series, I thought I'd be too lost to get through it (and I was completely right.) So, that day at the library I saw some cover art that looked similar, picked up the book, and sure enough, it was the first book. I smirked, satisfied, and added it to my stack.
But, the tricky part came when I had to choose which book to read first. So, I decided to read the first chapters of all of them, then pick the one I liked best and go from there. I started with one of the Drizzt books, and it was good enough that I thought nothing was going to top it. But, just to be fair about it, I continued on and cracked open The Eye of the World for the first time ... and from the first page I was captivated. I carried all the other books back the next day and started ordering the next copies in the series that my library didn't have. These books were magic, with characters that I could relate to and a setting more diverse than any I'd ever read.
Another three books in, I realized that I wanted to be like Robert Jordan. I wanted a shot at giving other people the same joy he'd given me, and that day, I became a Writer. I didn't just want to write, I NEEDED to write. I needed to craft characters like Jordan's that lived, breathed and more importantly, changed as their world around them changed.
Nothing has ever captured my imagination like Jordan's work, and I doubt anything ever will.
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Well everyone, thanks to the lot of you that made it this far, and I hope you enjoyed hearing these Authors ramble on about their influences. I'd like to think that some of you either found something insightful, or you'll at least have a couple of new books to check out.
I'd also like to take a second to remind everyone that you can currently find my first book, Electus, on Amazon, in both print and ebook format. Please, feel free to check it out and leave a review. Reviews help upcoming writers more than you know.
Also, a quick thanks to everyone who participated in this post. I appreciate the time you guys put in, and I look forward to maybe sharing more posts with you in the future.
