Stylists From Whom You Draw Influence From

quincyk

.............in your writing, obviously.




For me it tends to vary. At the moment, it's JG Ballard.



At other times, it can range from Douglas Coupland to Buckowski.

Insect Overlord

Nobody in particular at the moment. Plath, Kavanagh and Yeats were among the poets I was reading when I started writing (Leaving Cert...) , so probably them.

Phototoxin

I try not to copy styles, I dont think about styles much but there are styles I consciously try to AVOID like a diseased cat!

One style I hate is

"John is a man.
But he once was a woman
Infact he still has his breasts"

its out to contradict you and shatter any single ideas, its irritating and yet I find that people love a 'semi casual' style. I've encountered it here and there and it wreaks my head like a hammer-drill through the skull!

Statement A, statement B almost contradicting that.
Its also.
All in Staccato.

Linguo

Tolkien is the most influential for me personally, I also love how Brian Keenan writes (An Evil Cradling) and I like Cormac McCarthy (the road is a great book)

Antilles

I try to develop my own style rather than immitating anyone elses. There are lots of writers who's work I admire, but if I was to let their style influence my own, my stuff would be twice as hard to write and half as enjoyable to read.

Made me think of the below, btw

Derice: You know, when the Swiss want to ge....[Team groans]
Sanka: Ah, will you shut up about the damn Swiss! I mean, it was all that eins zwei drei nonsense that got us all nervous in the first place.
Derice: Hey man, look here, I'm just trying to get us off on the right foot.
Sanka: Well the right foot for us is not the Swiss foot. I mean come on Derice, we can't be copying nobody else's style. We have our own style.
Derice: Kissing an egg is no kind of style. It's the Olympics here, it's no stupid push-cart derby. [Long pause]
Sanka: Let me tell you something rasta, I didn't come up here to forget who I am and where I come from.
Derice: Neither did I, I'm just trying to be the best I can be.
Sanka: So am I, and the best I can be is Jamaican. Look, Derice...I've known you since Julie Jeffreys asked to see your ding-a-ling and I'm telling you as a friend if we look Jamaican, walk Jamaican, talk Jamaican and IS Jamaican, then we sure as hell better bobsled Jamaican.

Insect Overlord

There's a difference between inspiration and imitation though.
I remember reading a bit of Elizabeth Bishop's stuff a few years ago, hating it, and trying to create something in a similar style but to greater effect.
I didn't copy her style exactly, I took it and tried to improve on it.

Antilles

An File wrote: »

There's a difference between inspiration and imitation though.

I would certainly draw inspiration from certain writers, but I'm not sure how you could draw inspiration from their work in terms of your own creative effort without it becoming imitation.

I do know that if I read a lot of a certain style, my own stuff starts to take on aspects of that style, and its usually pretty low quality. That's why I try to vary the sort of stuff I read