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Have any of you thought about who your writing influences are? I’m asking, because I was about to write a blog about my writing influences, and then stopped, unsure. I know plenty of authors whose writing I adore, including a fair few in this Den. But influences? I’d have to go further back, and then I’m not sure at all.
Most of the authors I loved when I was younger don’t write in anything like my style. J G Ballard, Angela Carter, Ray Bradbury, Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck, Raymond Chandler, Danny Abse, Bernice Rubens, Arthur Ransome and Anne Brontë, to name a few.
My style came originally out of storytelling, where no tale is told in the same way twice. One of my earliest tutors (pre WordCloud) was Tiffany Murray, and if I look at her books, there is a link: she’s interested in the everyday world of her characters, and is brilliant with telling details. But I guess the biggest influence was evolving my work alongside you folks, and especially working closely with Mandy Berriman over a period of years – we’ve influenced each other, particularly in the use of voice.
How about you?
I agree, John, this is a difficult one. I’ll have to think about it.
Some influence comes from writers whose style I don’t like. I make mental notes not to do things like ‘whoever’ (they’ll remain nameless :-))
Then there’s the memory of a feeling a book created at the time I read it. They include authors I couldn’t or don’t feel drawn to read now. Thomas Hardy’s prose, for instance, feels like an effort too far these days but like you I loved him when younger and I hanker after evoking place and tradition as meaningfully as he did. I still think of those novels frequently.
The only writer who I enjoy and where I can see similarities in style with my own, is Kurt Vonnegut. That’s not to say we write in similar ways. Vonnegut was a master of prose and I’m not drawing a comparison. However, he made an effort to keep his writing plain and clear and advised others to do the same. Certainly there are subtleties in meaning, but you do not have to work at understanding his sentences. I also attempt to write plainly and clearly. I don’t always succeed, but I try.
I wish I could write like William Golding; the technical skills of Zadie Smith and Margaret Atwood would be nice as well.
Yes, Kurt Vonnegut never hid behind ‘fancy’ writing. He’s a fabulous role model. Amongst contemporary writers, I would love Ali Smith’s way with words, and maybe Philip Pullman’s scope (mine is more like a microscope by comparison). I love the lightness and silly references in Philip Reeve’s children’s books. A lot of my favourite authors write for children.
Some more thought on influences. Every novel and short story I’ve enjoyed is an influence in a composting kind of way. That’s not very helpful here though.
Carys Davies’ short stories. I tried to improve one of my own stories this morning and for inspiration I once again looked at the openings of several of hers.
Katherine Mansfield. Same thing. The naturalness of her in media res beginnings when mine are so awkward.
D H Lawrence. The specificity of detail. The seriousness of tone. I forgive him the daftness.
Elizabeth Bowen. More details, especially domestic ones. And general brilliance of description. I have an ongoing note to myself: work on the important, telling detail. Bowen is often funny too.
Deirdre Madden. The coolness of her prose. So cool that in Molly Fox’s Birthday Molly never appeared and it didn’t matter.
Kevin Barry. When I’m being rubbish at the rhythms of my sentences I try to imagine what Barry would do with them – apart from ignore them.
Tessa Hadley. You can do what you want with adverbs and POV changes. Just get them right.
I give up on books that boast complexity of prose above character or hook to read on, which makes me lean more towards plain text. However I am a sucker for a clever turn of phrase or a descriptive which reads like a painting.
I used to wonder if my plainer style showed a weakness, and would never read it out during workshops, after others with more poetic prose had gone before me. That is, until a certain Andrew Wille introduced me to Alan Bennett, and though I would never compare my style with his, Bennett showed how simple could also be clever, and how character and local accent could make a piece stand out. So I suppose, while I have been influenced by the likes of Rachel Joyce, along with many others, including some personally known to us, I have to say Bennett has to take the biggest pat on the back for me.
Some years into my writing journey I began making a list of writers who, as I read them, immediately sent me to my current wip, recognising the breed of magic, of tone, I needed to add to mine. (No idea where that list has gone) I’m not at all analytical, so fail miserably at the ‘read like a writer’ exercises, but was mildly shocked, on re-reading ‘Gone with the Wind’, at how much I’d unconsciously picked up, in terms of sentence structure. Most recently, Louise Kennedy’s ‘Trespasses’ imposed an entirely new structure on my current wip. Needs much re-writing but fingers crossed has added much-needed impetus.
@ Libby – yes indeed to Tessa Hadley, and to ‘composting’.
I’m late to this – I seem to be late to a lot of stuff these days. Anyway, I have always liked the style of Patricia Highsmith. This is mainly, I think, because she does bad guys so deliciously. Her stuff is quite dark and sometimes the bad guy gets to win. It was because of her I set myself a challenge to write a story with absolutely no good guys. I managed a short story that went fairly well. I don’t think I could do a full length novel that way though.
I wrote a short story with an MC lacking almost all redeeming qualities. It didn’t go down too well, although I quite enjoyed writing it. Patricia Highsmith’s writing is wonderful. Tom Ripley is a work of genius.
Also, hello stranger. How’s it going?
Sandra, interesting you say that about unconscious influence from books you read years ago. I’m generally reluctant to specify my influences because I’m certain that I don’t know who all of them are. On more than one occasion I’ve reread something I read in my youth but had only the haziest memory of. And, to my horror, encountered something that reappeared in a book I’ve written that I thought was mine. Something stylistic, structural, in characterisation or plot. Never anything huge but clearly something that had burrowed its way into my brain and lain in wait. I can think of examples from Ray Bradbury, Derek Robinson, John Christopher, Tolkein, no doubt others I’ve forgotten again or just haven’t realised yet.
As for the writers I’ve tried to emulate in some way, or whose writing has prompted me to do or not do anythinf – the most prominent is James Salter. He taught me that prose could be simple and spare but also lyrical and poetic.
@ Daeds and Libby,
re James Salter, 2/3 years ago I read and was impressed by a short story featured in a newspaper. Eagerly borrowed ‘A sport and a pastime’ from the library and found it heavy-going. Couple of months ago I bought his ‘Collected Stories, but have yet to begin it, but hope to do so with an eye to his style.
I posted too soon. My comment may look as though I’m suggesting you don’t, Daeds, which I certainly didn’t mean! Your study of Salter brings a clarity and atmosphere to your writing which I’m sure it would have anyway. It’s interesting to think, in this influences process, how much we’re drawn to authors who provoke writerly neurones that we already possess buried away somewhere.
Of those big American writers from the second half of the 20th century, Salter is my favourite. Richard Yates, perhaps viewed as 2nd tier in comparison, is also great in Revolutionary Road. Much as I love Salter, Yates might be more of an influence on me if I think about it. I love the opening to R Road.
@sandra
The short stories are very good, Sandra. I liked a Sport and a Pastime but it can feel dated even though the writing was, for me, compelling. Salter can fall into the trap of his generation. Some of his writing about women can seem as if he didn’t ask the women around him how they thought and felt. On the other hand he’s also a very sensitive interpreter of people.
Salter is very much a writer of men. I was somewhat horrified by his treatment of women in All There Is (although there’s always a detachment to his writing that means it’s never entirely clear who his sympathies lie with). I find his earlier work rather tighter.
Salter is an author I’ve never read. 90% of my favourite contemporary authors are women, but that may be as much about genre as gender. I read very few thrillers or crime novels, and only occasional literary novels, although I do read SF, fantasy (particularly reinterpretations of myths, having a background in storytelling), horror, good romance, YA and children’s.
Yes, Salter’s detachment. Is that what makes his writing interesting? I think it may be – for me anyway.
John, I wouldn’t press Salter on you, or anyone, but his prose is an example of American spareness if you ever want to investigate same.
I think for me Salter stands out because the spareness is also lyrical. I find many ‘less is more’ authors to be a bit dull, but his prose manages to be as poetic as it is simple
Well, these last few posts sent me off on a chase, which I shall spare you the detail of. I have never read anything by Salter, but probably shall, now. For what it’s worth, I emerged from my chase with a greater respect for George Orwell (though perhaps not his earlier novels) and a suspicion that Will Self may have confused writing literature with the niche, but laudable pursuit of compiling cryptic crosswords.
I’m now almost halfway through Salter’s ‘Collected Stories’ and can understand how the short, sharp sentences make an impact, but I find most of his characters, male and female, seem a bit self-obsessed, and, for me, there is over-much description (as is often the case with American literature.) At least they are readable! Some time since I read Will Self. Probably not ‘literature’ but I have to say I find David Mark’s writing exciting at times.
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