I thought I would share some thoughts on people who inspire me to write. There are three popular choices here and two Stephens. However perhaps the reasons I like them is a little more unusual than most:
Stephen King
Ironically, I’ve never really read any of his fiction books. I’m not a horror fan so I’ve avoided those and the other genres that he has dipped his toes into sit on my shelf waiting for a rainy day.
Because of this, you would think it would be difficult to draw any inspiration. However besides his huge success (which would be nice) I have carefully read his semi-instructional book “on writing”.
Besides highly recommending it as a good read, it also informed me that I approach writing in pretty much the same way that he does. I write from an idea, rather than a plot and then see where the characters take me. It isn’t the only way to do things and to date I wouldn’t say this has exactly worked out for me. But knowing that it could work is really important. It helps me hope that when I lock myself away to write, I’m going down a path that can lead to something great (even if there is only a 0.00001% chance of that).
J K Rowling
I don’t think of her as a great writer, perhaps not even a good one in a technical sense. But what she I draw from the Harry Potter books is that you can worry all day about grammar, or deep characters or coherent plot devices. All those things are certainly nice. However none of them is as important as being creative and just telling a ripping good story. I get more out of running through those books then slogging through any number of more complicated fantasy novels. I get what I get out of them through sheer enjoyment and that should never be discounted.
I hope too that my work can be enjoyed even if it doesn’t come close to matching up against the literary gods. A great story is just that, great and I want to keep striving to find one inside me to tell.
Stephen Donaldson
Taking the opposite approach is old Stephen Donaldson. Nowhere near as famous as the previous two, I know him best as the author of the Thomas Covenant series of books.
In a direct contrast to something like Harry Potter these books are long, complicated and filled with boring or unlikeable characters. There are long stretches of time when nothing of importance happens for chapter after chapter. The plot gets lost amidst a confused message and I never quite wrapped my head around the unnecessarily obtuse language.
I really didn’t enjoy reading his books at all. But yet? I still love them and often want to read them again. Why? God knows really, but somehow it just works for me. The inspiration then is that no matter how hard it is to dig into a novel that I write, I’m hoping somebody will be able to take the effort to get in there. Even if they don’t? They might somehow still enjoy the journey anyway.
Three very different writers there with very different inspirations. The lesson as always with writing is that it is just as important to read and from a wide selection.
Who inspires you to write?
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