How similar is my own writing to that of the authors I like?<\/p>\n
Right off the bat, I was not a fan of this question.\u00a0 It really turned me off.\u00a0 Maybe even pissed me off a little.<\/p>\n
I was all like, \u201c[BLEEP] you, voice on high\u201d (otherwise known as the Caf\u00e9\u2019s editors).\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t write like anybody.\u00a0 My style is my own.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019re the ones who are a bunch of derivative mother-[BLEEP]ers.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not going to lie.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t pretty.\u00a0 I went on like that for a good, solid five . . . days, but really who\u2019s counting? \u00a0The point is I had this immediate protective reaction for not only the stories I create but the way I create them.\u00a0 The thought that this voice I\u2019m trying to cultivate might have its origins with someone else was upsetting and disheartening, and it sent my brain spiraling into what I can only describe as a mental hissy fit.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the freak-out fog began to clear, and I could hear the voice of reason again.\u00a0 I try to keep a sliver of rationality on a shelf in my office in case things like this come up, and as that little nugget of non-crazy began to whisper to me in that low, soothing tone it has, it dropped some serious knowledge on me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re being a dumbass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simple, I know.\u00a0 I have no idea how this hasn\u2019t found its way into a fortune cookie yet.<\/p>\n
Hidden inside the humble packaging of this message is a broader truth: we are all influenced by the things we read (and watch and hear and so on and so forth).\u00a0 You don\u2019t have a choice.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 End of discussion.<\/p>\n
For writers, the tricky part can be trying to incorporate the things you like without sounding like a knockoff of your favorite author.\u00a0 I think most inexperienced writers will fail at this, but I also think that\u2019s part of the learning process.\u00a0 To quote Dr. Hannibal Lecter, \u201cAnd how do we begin to covet . . . we begin by coveting what we see every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you are moved by a story and you desire to create something that will touch someone else in a similar way, you will begin your writing path by imitating what you saw.\u00a0 I know for a fact that my early work was almost entirely derivative.\u00a0 I have the as-of-yet-unburned manuscripts to prove it.<\/p>\n
As a teenager drunk on my own literary potential, I wrote the beginnings of a story that absolutely proved (to me at the time) how bright my future would be.\u00a0 It was eerily similar to The Gunslinger<\/em> by Stephen King.\u00a0 When I completed my first novel in college, a sci-fi story about a civil war between the Earth and the moon, I was reading Robert Heinlein for another class.\u00a0 Guess which author was suspected of traveling forward in time to rip off some poor, defenseless undergrad?<\/p>\n My Ed McBain phase had me believing I should write straight-up crime novels, and my manuscripts were almost entirely made up of short, simple sentences.\u00a0 In an effort to strip away unnecessary prose, I would often toss out things like setting, description, and internal motivations.\u00a0 If you liked disembodied voices on a green screen, then I was your author.<\/p>\n Thankfully, things have gotten better.\u00a0 These days, rather than imitate styles, I tend to study an author\u2019s approach to his or her story.\u00a0 I still enjoy a good Stephen King novel, but now I focus on why I like his characters.\u00a0 I think his strength in storytelling stems from his ability to make a reader care about what happens to both the heroes and the villains.\u00a0 I love Tana French\u2019s books for the same reason.\u00a0 Her characters are often obsessed to the point of self-destruction, but I want to be there when their worlds come crashing down.\u00a0 I am angry about their life choices, but I care enough about them to be there at the end.<\/p>\n On a lighter note, Christopher Moore gives me the courage to be silly.\u00a0 Anyone who can write a story in which a B-movie starlet pleasures a sea monster with a weed whacker deserves a little study.\u00a0 He\u2019s also not afraid to let some of his characters be offensive because you know what?\u00a0 Those people, they walk among us.<\/p>\n I also think you can pick up a few storytelling tricks from other media.\u00a0 I love it when TV shows like Family Guy<\/em> talk directly to the audience.\u00a0 A well-timed aside can be comedy gold.\u00a0 I know some people hate breaking that invisible wall between the author and the reader, but I\u2019m not one of them.\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m trying to create a two-part illusion here.\u00a0 First: that we\u2019re just a couple of people hanging out in your living room, even if one of us is always invisible.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t worry.\u00a0 Just keep taking your meds and it should pretty much stay that way.) \u00a0Second: that you want to hang with me.<\/p>\n As a guy whose mom used to dress him in western shirts with imitation pearl-button snaps, I understand my desperate need for cool points.\u00a0 If you\u2019re willing to carve out a little time for me, it\u2019s probably because I\u2019ve made you chuckle.\u00a0 And who doesn\u2019t think the funny guy is cool?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How similar is my own writing to that of the authors I like? Right off the bat, I was not a fan of this question.\u00a0 It really turned me off.\u00a0 Maybe even pissed me off a little. I was all like, \u201c[BLEEP] you, voice on high\u201d (otherwise known as the Caf\u00e9\u2019s editors).\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[187,325,384,489,545,953,1056,1084,1111],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-influence","tag-christopher-moore","tag-ed-mcbain","tag-family-guy","tag-hannibal-lecter","tag-influence","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-stephen-king","tag-style","tag-tana-french"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}