As a writer, who do you draw influences from?

Remember reading a beautiful novel or poem when you were a kid and realizing that words equaled magic, and pen equaled wand?

So tell me, who are your major influences? Whom do you credit for impacting your style of linguistic expression the most?


I'll start... I've personally been influenced by a multitude of people; most of whom were not necessarily writers. My earliest influences include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Shakespeare etc. And then a LOT of poets including Robert Frost, W. B. Yeats .... too many to name. I also like some of Dan Kennedy's work; he's a great copywriter.

More recently, I've developed a liking to fratire writers like Maddox, Tucker Max etc.
Maddox: thebestpageintheuniverse.com
Tucker Max: tuckermax.com
(Don't visit these sites if you're easily offended. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

By the way, did anyone read Maddox's 'The Alphabet Of Manliness'? It was cool; NYTimes best seller too.

I also have to credit many true hip-hop artists for teaching me how to express myself through rhyme. Of special mention are KRS-One, Rakim, Immortal Technique, Nas and all the other emcees doing real hip-hop.


Your turn.

 

Oooooooo! I love Kipling! Can we start an Analyze Kipling thread?

I have to say that while I enjoy literature, since most of my writing is tourism based the person who inspires me the most was the first director of our local tourist bureau.

This fellow promoted all facets of my area as a tourist destination and worked like the dickens (pun intended) to get it on the map. One way he managed this was to take photographs at the fishing docks when the charter boats would come in from a day’s fishing. He’d take a photo of the party and their catch and then send it to the fishing party’s local paper. Free publicity.

This guy was a master of marketing and self-promotion. He had his finger in every pie and on the pulse of everything at one time. He was well connected and was very successful of submitting stories and photographs to the Associated Press and having them run in newspapers across the US.

I’m doing a local blog about things to see and things to do and I often rely on the method this guy used, to be well connected and in the know.

Now back to Kipling. I think he might have inspired Dr. Seuss, but that's just my own opinion.

 

I'm a business writer, so I draw ideas from guys like Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Joe Vitale, Gary Bencivenga

 

I will be the oddball of the group. I don't like to read much fiction. The most in depth reading I have done is the Ender's series by Orson Scott Card. Other than that I haven't done much reading of novels. I instead read non-fiction particularly Greek and modern history. I didn't write much before a few years ago; my inspiration first coming while writing a eulogy of all things.

 

I try to read as little fiction as possible. I'll watch a lot of it though.

 

I think truely gifted writers are an inspiration, Enders Game would be in my top 5 books of all time, the ending was amazing and I never saw it comming.

Are there any professional comedy writers here?

 

Although it's a matter of preference, I usually recommend up-and-coming writers to read some good fiction from time to time because the way I see it, the more engaging and vivid a piece of literature is, the more the chances of you learning something from it. In your case however, marketjunction (I'm guessing you're a seasoned business writer/editor), I can see how fiction would be more of a hindrance than help.

For those of us that write on more casual subjects, I think short stories, poems, novels etc. can do us a lot of good, especially by recharging our creative juices... what do y'all think?

Of course, there does come a time when we all outgrow fiction but as busy as I am (writing 6-8 hours a day), never do I let 24 hours pass without reading some cool stories or poems or something that'll freshen me up.

Did I just change the subject of discussion here? Sorry if I did

 

Most of my business is informative web or publication content. I read dozens of articles a day from various professional sources. If you write novels having a large fiction background is a great tool to see how your peers write. For me, my peers are less finesse and more down and dirty. I recently wrote a series of articles on landscaping for which I spent a few days touring the city composting area, talking with landscapers, master gardeners, and nursery workers to find the hands on information I was looking for. I also reviewed a bunch of Paul James videos from HGTV and he was a bit of inspiration himself having only seen him on video.
For me, personal experiences make far greater impressions on my writing than simply reading someone else's work and following in their footsteps.

 

I do nothing all day but because of this new web thing I have to write a bit on my web sites every day between my first cup of coffee and last cup of tea. I wish all the writing on the web looked like poetry by e.e. cummings.