Modeling

[emeraldcite]

No, I'm not talking about the runway.

No, I'm not talking about a Mod how meddles.

Modeling is important in getting those younger and less experienced than you are to behave in a respectable, acceptable way. If you want your children to not break any laws, you have to model positive, legal behavior.

That said, what writers do you choose as your models? Why do you choose them?

[scribbler1382]

Dan Simmons. Why? He's just a writer; not a horror writer or a sf writer or a thriller writer, but just a writer. And yet, he writes them all. More than that, in each arena he knocks it out of the park. My kinda guy. :)

[Jamesaritchie]

No, I'm not talking about the runway.

No, I'm not talking about a Mod how meddles.

Modeling is important in getting those younger and less experienced than you are to behave in a respectable, acceptable way. If you want your children to not break any laws, you have to model positive, legal behavior.

That said, what writers do you choose as your models? Why do you choose them?

Actually, Louis L'Amour was my first model. In many, and very real ways, the characters in his books were more than my role models, they were almost surrogate fathers. I was on my own at age fourteen, and much of what I learned about how a man should behave came from those novels.

Then there was Mark Twain and Jack London, Faulkner and Hemingway, etc. But Louis L'Amour was first, and came along at exactly the right time for my years and experience.

One of the first Louis L'Amour novels I read, Radigan, opened with a scene that was almost identical to one I'd just lived a week before. It nailed the way it really was in every way, and I strongly suspected L'Amour had lived through enough real life adventure to put it truthfully into his books.

[eskkar]

I actually modelled my writing (historical fiction) after three of my favorite authors:

Tom Clancy (strong plots with complicated action)
Bernard Cornwall (strong main character(s) with lots of action)
C. S. Forrester (deep character development).
Of all of them, I think Forrester (The Horatio Hornblower Series) helped me the most, by showing me how to get inside the hero's head and make the reader care about what happens to him. And if Forrester seems dated, remember Horatio Hornblower was the role model for Captain Kirk.

Anyway, it worked for me. My novel, Dawn Of Empire, will be published in September '06, by HarperCollins.

eskkar

[emeraldcite]

Congrats eskarr!

I've found quite a few models, all of various genres. I think one of the greatest influences comes from T.S. Eliot, oddly enough. His display of the intricacies of language and meaning are astounding. Hemingway is also an influence for conciseness, Faulkner for sentencely indulgence, Stephen King for story and capturing the feel of a small town, and Chabon for sheer skill and beauty in prose. That man can put two words together and make it sound like rain.

I think modeling is important and style is born of these wildly divergent imitations. Attempting to form a style that is born of Hemingway and Chabon is nearly impossible, but the challenge of doing so can really create some interesting results.


Ultimately, I've watched my style grow and evolve as I try to apply lessons from reading to writing. The way I write fiction is becoming more defined and mature, which I'm sure is a part of growing older, but is also partly from reading and practicing.

[zornhau]

Edgar Rice Burroughs. Wrote himself out of a #### job as a pencil sharpener. Was known to change genres three times in one novel. Lived a long and happy life, supported by writing fantastic yarns. Still fires the imaginationand has fans over half a century after his death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs

[WerenCole]

I use Steinbeck as a model, along with F. Scott Fitzgerald because I like the character development and the craft of language they both used. In contemporary literature I have been on a recent crusade to read all of the National Book Award winners and Pulitzer Prize winners in the last fifteen years as a research tool to see what kind of writing wins those types of awards. What I found was most interesting, for instance in the last couple of years we have had two very different books win the Pulitzer: 1776 (David Maculloch) and Empire Falls (Richard Russo), so for what is happening these days there is a wide range of models that achieve the highest level of success.

In these terms though my heart is with Russo because he is not only one of the best character developers in the last thirty years but he is also very funny without losing that sense of drama. Recently he has been my model, (along, as always with my very best friend Steinbeck). . . not that I am trying to emulate him though, I do not need to lean on another writer to create my own art, but in terms of inspiration I am trying to balance the humor with the drama and I note how he is able to do it, just to see that such a thing is capable of being produced. . .

W

[Garbarian]

1776 and Empire Falls certainly are different: 1776 is a non-fiction history, and Empire Falls is fiction.

they aren't even in the same category, so comparing them is useless.

[WerenCole]

It was not much of a comparison that I made. . . there was no point v. counterpoint between the books. . . the only point I made was that as models they can both be used to see what kind of genre's and writing are viewed by contemporary literary standards to be of quality in the eyes of those who determine such awards. . . As Pulitzer prize winning books of whatever content they are both well written and worthy of commendation and to serve as role models for writers who wish to achieve such success. . . please do not miss the point. . . thanks

[Garbarian]

but you missed my point. the two books won prizes in different categories: fiction and non-fiction.

you said: "What I found was most interesting, for instance in the last couple of years we have had two very different books win the Pulitzer: 1776 (David Maculloch) and Empire Falls (Richard Russo)"

this implies both a comparison and that there is only one pulitzer, which is false. i mean, of course the two books are very different. that was my point. no big deal.

[KTC]

First off, let me say flat out that Hemingway scares me. I think his books are beautiful...absolutely. But I couldn't attain that kind of magic. He wrote these luxuriously long sentences...I am stunned every time I read The Old Man and the Sea. That passage about the Man of War especially comes to mind...it was about half a page long. He's like the prize fighter of words. I'm in awe of him but don't try to model myself after him. That would be too impossible a task.

My models.

Michael Chabon...because he is a brilliant story teller.
JD Salinger...because he does with dialogue what Cezanne did with paint. His dialogue is simply perfect.
Stephen King...because he creates characters to a tee. They are fully alive and I want to attain that degree of character detail.

[SusanR]

Writer models, hmmm.

I can't say that I pattern my writing after any particular author. I'm sure I'm influenced by every book I've ever read in my life.

Diane Gabaldon, author of the OUTLANDER series, is an inspiration to me. Why? She wrote her first novel while up to her neck in raising children. I have two teenagers, one with special needs, so a lot is asked of my Mom-self.

She has a scientific/technological background. I'm a physician.

She has a significant presence in a Compuserve forum and comes across very "real." I'm as real as a bran muffin.

She wasn't certain she could write a successful, commercial novel when she began. Neither am I. :)

I keep tellin' myself, "If she could do it, I can do it."

SusanR

[goatpiper]

My models...hmmm...there are many, and I've not read all of any of their works...still more to discover.
Twain - wit wit wit wit wit...I lack wit and strive for it.
Dylan Thomas - yes, he's a poet, but have you read his stuff? If my prose could have a gram of the flavor of his poetry, I'd be one psyched monkey.
Neal Stephenson - I'm a geek, he's a geek, he's a better and much more educated geek than I.
Michael Chabon - perfect combo of great language and great storytelling.
James Joyce - inventive, obsessive, adolescent. His writing was like bleeding-edge technology. Some people hate him, some people love him. I love him.