The writer who made you want to be a novelist

[popmuze]

As much as I'd love to say Thomas Pynchon or JD Salinger, for me it was probably Max Shulman, author of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," "Barefoot Boy with Cheek," "Rally Round the Flag Boys," and others. Pynchon and Salinger are in there too, of course, but I think my style is still 90% Max Shulman.

[gerrydodge]

William Faulkner. When I read The Sound and the Fury fro the first time, I said: Please, God, let me write like this. Alas...

[Siddow]

Dean Koontz.

[ChaosTitan]

LM Montgomery. "The Story Girl" and "The Golden Road" are two of my favorite books. I read them over and over in my teen years, falling in love with the setting and the characters each time I revisited them. Those books made me want to be a novelist. I wanted to do what she did to me: make someone cry with one, single line of prose.*



*no, not because it's a terrible line! Sheesh...

[JoNightshade]

Ray Bradbury. No question.

[Don Allen]

Jack London, but as a kid Grimm's fairy tales... I still pick them up and read the bremen town musicians.

[wyntermoon]

Shirley Jackson

[Andre_Laurent]

Don't remember the gal's name. But when I finished that book....I knew I could do better. Yep. Knew it for a fact.

[Ol' Fashioned Girl]

Poe, first. Then Twain. I couldn't resist after their one/two punches.

[Alexandra Little]

No one remotely literary, but YA fantasy author Tamora Pierce. Her heroines are so kick-a$$ and the stories are far from cliche. I love her.

[Joni Holderman]

This is an embarassing admission, but... Beatrix Potter. When I was 3 or 4, Peter Rabbit was my favorite story. (A simple saga with a theme of unbridled gluttony...something I can relate to. It helped that like me, Peter had 3 idiotic younger sibs.)

I taught myself to read because I loved that book so much. Even then, I knew I wanted to be on "the other side" of the page.

I can remember quizzing my Mom on the author. "Who wrote Peter Rabbit? What was his name? How did he do it? Did he draw the pictures, too?"

I was THRILLED to learn that the author was female. (Until that point, I assumed that I'd have to be the first woman writer in human history.) My mother really didn't know much about Potter, but I was satisfied.

I found Hemingway when I was in junior high because I was checking out the school library shelf where my novel would go, if I ever published one. Over the years I've also been inspired (and sometimes driven to despair) by Pearl Buck, Agatha Christie, Ursula Le Guin, Toni Morrison and VS Naipaul. But Beatrix was my first love.

[Don Allen]

That's cool, if she lit the fire that's all that counts.

[thepainpasses]

JK Rowling. A bit cliche for a teen writer, I know, but she really did. I grew up on her books, and I'd always loved to write (although my stories when I was 6 had absolutely no plot, but the characters should had a wealth of conflict), but she was the one that really made me go "I could do this".

Especially when I heard her story of being rejected by publishers and then I saw what she became. And I read her books and they don't seem so high over my level of writing (they are, certainly, but not impossibly so) and they're in a genre I love and it just says to me that I can do it, too.

I dream big. I never let myself think I'd be a mediocre writer. When I start writing, I picture the interviews of actors who play my characters when it's made into a movie. I imagine the interviews I'll give, what people will say when they analyze my books after my death. And JK Rowling, to me, was the first example I ever related with where my dreams were actually a reality for her. She got the movies, she got the millions, everything I dreamed of getting, she had, so it made it possible for me.

[althrasher]

Barbara Kingsolver and Laurie Anderson (I may have misspelled both their names.)

[reigningcatsndogs]

This thread really made me think about why I do this. I am obviously odd man (?) out here!! I never read when I was growing up. My whole family devoured books, and I hated watching them all read. In school, I wrote all my exams with the help of Coles notes, but I still have a book I wrote when I was in Grade 5 -- a whole notebook, every line of every page, and it took me a full year to write, but that was what I did when I was supposed to be doing math!!! I hated reading, though. When I got the best high school english teacher in the world for Grade 10 English, I started to really love the mechanics of writing and learned more from her in one term than I did in all the other years of school combined. I think I wrote because I needed to compete with all the authors that the rest of the family talked abou, and because I wanted a story that no one would ruin the ending of for me (every time I started to read a book, my sister would tell me how it ended and I would throw the book in the corner). Now, I have a library in my house with hundreds of books in it, and I love every one of them. Go figure. Now I'm really confused about this!!!

[Death Wizard]

John Updike ... specifically, Rabbit Run. To this day, it blows my mind.

[blacbird]

Kurt Vonnegut.

Mark Twain and Ray Bradbury gave me some serious inspiration to write fiction. But I had the remarkable luck to be able to talk one-on-one with Vonnegut for about an hour, back in 1967, when he was working on what would become Slaughterhouse-Five, and that gave me the kick-start into the idea of writing novels.

So I did. Alas, it hasn't worked in any successful way. Perhaps that's best for the welfare of Western Civilization.

But I still revere that man.

caw

[plaidearthworm]

Mark Twain and Douglas Adams taught me about humor, both sly and slapstick, and Ayn Rand showed me how to get totally lost in a story. I get inspired every few years by different authors; I'm wowed by Jennifer Cruisie's seemingly effortless genius for romantic comedy, and Billie Letts' talent for creating characters that sound like they stepped right out of my own hometown. But the first one who really turned on that switch was Neil Simon. As a teenager, I checked out a book of his plays, devoured it, and started a novel that thankfully has never seen the light of day since.

[blacbird]

Don't remember the gal's name. But when I finished that book....I knew I could do better.

Did you?

Can you prove it?

caw

[BlueTexas]

I can't pick just one.

Judy Blume taught me to love reading. Stephen King's books always have something in them that make me stop and realize how true said something rings. Wallace Stegner inspires me.

But I think I've always wanted to write, and can't really say where it came from. If there was one person, it would have to be a non-author, my 10th grade English teacher.

[Pike]

I feel like such a dweeb. Some of you folks have read and been inspired literary greats that I've never sat down and read. Call me lazy. Someday I'll read the Great Gatzby or maybe Of Mice And Men, but for now it's genre fic all the way.

BTW - It was R.A. Salvatore that sparked it for me. I'd been playing D&D for years and never envisioned the terrain as well as he laid it out. Even cried when I though he killed one of my favorite characters.

Pike

[reenkam]

I'd have to say my sixth grade English teacher...who actually is an author, though she writes non-fiction. But we had "writing workshops" in her class and that's when I wrote my first stories and started my first novel (not finished & terribly written...good story, though :Shrug: ) and she kind of inspired me by telling me my strengths and weaknesses and really making me want to write long-term.

[zpeteman]

Frederick Buechner and Wendell Berry

[Varthikes]

J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5), Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern), and Alan Dean Foster (Humanx Commonwealth) were my inspirations. :)

I was already writing when I came across their works, but they helped me improve tremendously.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

As much as I'd love to say Thomas Pynchon or JD Salinger, for me it was probably Max Shulman, author of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," "Barefoot Boy with Cheek," "Rally Round the Flag Boys," and others. Pynchon and Salinger are in there too, of course, but I think my style is still 90% Max Shulman.


The writer who made me want to be a novelist was my father. He never published that I am aware of, but he had some pretty good insights into my abilities as a child. When I was 9 years old, he told me I could be a good writer if I worked at it.

However, my style comes partially, I think, from Robert Louis Stevenson. When I first read Treasure Island, the writing style hooked me like no other author's style ever has. Having very fond memories of Treasure Island, when I was fairly young, I adopted much of what I thought was his style when writing my first attempts at novels.

[kristie911]

Stephen King.

Though I started writing before I started reading his books. But after I read Pet Semetary I knew writing was something I wanted to do.

[WordGypsy]

My first memory of wanting to write is of me sitting on my grandma's lap. She would read me Winnie the Pooh when I was REALLY little, the one where he eats too much honey and has to lose weight to fit back out of his house. One day, she had to go to the bathroom and I just started reading where she left off. I'd memorized the whole book. But I remember thinking even then how much I loved words.

Stephen King is way up there on my list. I DEVOURED King when I was younger. And, though I'll never admit it in public VC Andrews. I had to get special permission from my mom to read Flowers in the Attic. I read it in two days. That was in third grade :) The librarians used to yell at me for taking out a whole series- that I would never finish them by the time I needed to return them. I always had them back early :D

[popmuze]

For pure inspiration, let me add Bob Dylan.

[jodiodi]

Well, I have so many ...

First would probably be Lewis Carroll then L. Frank Baum. I love the Alice stories nd have always had stories in my head to tell.

When I started school i started reading these old Gothic Romances my mother and grandmother had, so probably someone like Victoria Holt, Dorothy Eden, Barbara Michaels. I was also greatly influenced by Daphne Du Maurier, Charlotte & Emily Bronte, Edgar Allen Poe. For more modern influences, I'd say Stephen King and Bertrice Small.

It was Ms. Small's characterizations of strong heroines who weren't idiots or ridiculously perfect that made me realize I might could write the kind of stories I liked to read.

I'm rambling. Too many influences, I guess.

[triceretops]

Poul Anderson really rocked my boat first, followed by Allen D. Foster.

Peter Benchley was a great surprize.

But it's Poul all the way.

Tri

[Scrawler]

Walter R. Brooks

[Zoombie]

All of them.

[Cassiopeia]

As much as I'd love to say Thomas Pynchon or JD Salinger, for me it was probably Max Shulman, author of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," "Barefoot Boy with Cheek," "Rally Round the Flag Boys," and others. Pynchon and Salinger are in there too, of course, but I think my style is still 90% Max Shulman.


I have always wanted to write since I was 11. Way too many years ago to say how long ago that was but I was greatly intrigued by writers like Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind), Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo), Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy, based on the life of Michaelangleo), James Michenor (Hawaii). My mother was big on those authors and encourage me to read them. But perhaps they influenced me the most because of my 20th century American lit class I took in high school.

:)

[Nakhlasmoke]

A combination of Tanith Lee and Diana Wynne Jones.

I named my daughter after Tanith Lee, is that sad or what?

[Selimthegrim]

I'm not sure which specific author it was that sparked my desire to write. I was obsessed with books, and it didn't particularly matter to me whether it was fiction or non-fiction. The author that probably influenced me the most is Harry Turtledove. I loved his alternate history and fantasy stuff growing up. I blame him for my love of the Byzantines.

[Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX]

Xx|The ones that come to mind first, though some of them might even be embarrassing:

Anne Rice, Susan Kay, Tanya Huff, Meg Cabot, whoever wrote the Animorphs series, Eoin Colfer (I still mean to read The Opal Deception), and... probably a few others I can't think of right now.

But it was never the writing, really, nor the subject matter; always the characters. Lestat, Armand, Louis, and Marius; Rachel and Tobias; Artemis; dear, beloved Erik...

From The Vampire Chronicles, Animorphs, The Artemis Fowl series, and Phantom, respectively. I still remember Rachel and Tobias, and crying when Rachel died, even though I read Animorphs way back in... 3rd and 4th grade, I think. Sadly I forgot the name of the alien centaur, but I know I loved him and that book. I've adored Phantom (of the Opera, that is) since I watched the '04 (or is it '05?) movie at least 5 times in one day on PPV. I looked into the books and could never get into Gaston Lereux's original Phantom. But Susan Kay's Phantom... I've read it around 3 or 4 times and have it sitting by my bed to this day, picking it up and reading random parts regularly. As for Anne Rice, I've yet to finish Queen, but I know the characters got me.

It's the characters, always, who intrigue and inspire me. I love characters.

But reading alone, although it can often inspire me in the moment, did not make me want to be a writer. No, that was my 3rd grade teacher. Ms. Schuff.

Everyone was leaving school on the last day. As she did everyday of the year, she stood by the door and hugged us on the way out. She told me that I should become a writer, that I had a real... gift, talent, knack--whatever you wish to call it--for it. I was flattered, but scoffed at the idea. Back then, writing was schoolwork. But if it wasn't for her encouragement, at the time or looking back on it, I probably wouldn't be writing. Then of course my 6th grade co-op instructor, as I started homeschooling in 4th grade and we joined our former church's co-op for 6th and 7th, told me about the same and kind of encouraged me in that, along with many other artistic areas. She taught me piano, and unlike most teachers, she saw my progression and let me skip ahead, or go back, as I needed, as apposed to keeping to the books, lesson by lesson. She was actually almost a pretty good friend, I daresay, though it seems strange to apply that term to her. I almost more enjoyed talking to her than my co-op-mates, her grandchildren.

I just don't read much, though. I have to be in the mood, and often, my writing moods and my reading moods just don't strike at the same time. They're usually next to each other, but rarely at the same time. So when my reading mood strikes, it gives way pretty quickly to a writing mood because I've been inspired. And then the writing mood lasts a long time, sometimes. Like now. Plus, I'm a pretty picky reader.

And so, that's my story. I didn't mean to make it so long. :o|xX

[MelodyO]

I've read many of the books mentioned on this thread, and loved them all...but the author who made me want to write a book? Anne Rice. Hee.

I had a rather primal reaction to Interview With the Vampire, and to this day I want to inspire the same kind of reaction in my readers. Plus, I still have a thing for broody vampires. But that's a whole other thread. :D

[Zoombie]

MelodyO! I am shocked, shocked and appalled. It has been clear that they prefer to be called the Living Impaired. Vampires, really. It's like calling an African-American a niggra.

[Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX]

Xx|Oh good! Another Anne Rice inspiree*. And a vampire lover. Goody.

Haha, Zoombie, thank you! I'll have to add that in my story. Living impaired fits right into the politics surrounding vampires*, and works with the vampire concept. Haha. I love it.

*Protip: "Inspiree" is not a word.
*2Or "vampyrs", as is the Danish spelling, and the one I use|xX

[Cassiopeia]

Xx|Oh good! Another Anne Rice inspiree*. And a vampire lover. Goody.

Haha, Zoombie, thank you! I'll have to add that in my story. Living impaired fits right into the politics surrounding vampires*, and works with the vampire concept. Haha. I love it.

*Protip: "Inspiree" is not a word.
*2Or "vampyrs", as is the Danish spelling, and the one I use|xX


Could you possibly use a bigger font? I have trouble reading your posts. :(

[Zoombie]

In my story, they're more like daemonic touched people than vampires. They have horns, red eyes, smell faintly of brimstone and all their teeth are sharpened, making their grins and smiles very creepy. Add they suck souls instead of blood, cry blood and can warp time and space on a local level. A stake through the heart does nothing, and really the only way to finish them off is to burn them. Flamethrowers work best.

Of course, killing Living Impaired willy nilly will get you sentenced for murder. They have quite a political lobby, see.

And yes, please use a bigger font Xx. Right now.

[Selimthegrim]

In my story, they're more like daemonic touched people than vampires. They have horns, red eyes, smell faintly of brimstone and all their teeth are sharpened, making their grins and smiles very creepy. Add they suck souls instead of blood, cry blood and can warp time and space on a local level. A stake through the heart does nothing, and really the only way to finish them off is to burn them. Flamethrowers work best.

Of course, killing Living Impaired willy nilly will get you sentenced for murder. They have quite a political lobby, see.



Indeed. I've seen the protest signs myself. "Undead rights now!" They're usually marching right behind the zombies.

[Zoombie]

Zombies don't protest. They'd be too busy eating the other protesters. Zombies are for extermination. Living Impaired and other sentient undead tend to be better voters than mindless automota with a regrettable taste for human flesh.

[Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX]

Xx|Oh, sure. Is this okay? I get that sometimes. I'm starting to wonder if I have my browser's default font size set to high, because it never looks that small to me. I actually wasn't applying a size, so it's the default TNR size of the site. I think it's basically 10pt. So I'll up it to 12 (or, well, 3, with the site's scale). Thank you for telling me.

That sounds interesting, Zoombie. XD

I do want to bring some humor in on the political parts of it (though that doesn't become a big issue until later). Insisting on being called "Living Impaired" is just too great. I could go into detail about it, but I fear this isn't quite the place... XD|xX

[J. Weiland]

I remember reading a book when I was a teenager and thinking I could do it better.

Of course, that remains to be seen.

[scarletpeaches]

Mrs Perry read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the class during storytime and I nagged for my own copy to find out what happened next. My mother just threw me off with, "We can't afford it," but my dad said, "Why don't we take her to the library?"

Hmm, library? Strange places...they let you choose books? For free?

And when I walked in...oh, boy. I could have cried with joy.

So I found my copy of LWW (using Lewis-fans' shorthand there).

My parents used to go into town once a fortnight to get the shopping in, so a few months passed, school holidays, what to do with Nichola? I tagged along. They took me to the central library (I'd heard of these strange places that were EVEN BIGGER than the city's branches) and my head nearly exploded. It was huuuuuge! Bearing in mind Birmingham is England's second city, so I'm not just talking about the impression given to a tiny six-year-old. This place was monstrous.

And it was there I discovered The Twits, by Roald Dahl.

So all of that is a roundabout way of saying, CS Lewis and Roald Dahl.

I don't write in their style, but they are two names to still make me smile. :)

[Atlantis]

No writer really made me want to be a novelist. I'd already been writing and telling stories to myself for years before I decided one day, mostly out of boredom, to get published. The two writers that have been the most influental to me though, were JK Rowling and Christine Feehan. I fell in love with Harry Potter immdiately, it had a childish wonder to it that drew me right in and helped to flourish my love for fantasy. Christine Feehan's books were radically different; they were dark, passionate and violent. My writing has improved so much since reading her work.

[rwam]

Peter Straub.

[sadron]

Anu Holopainen, a finnish novelist. I don't really have one.

[aadams73]

Enid Blyton, Mary Stewart, and Stephen King.

[Ol' Fashioned Girl]

Poe, first. Then Twain. I couldn't resist after their one/two punches.

And for the knockout: Shakespeare. How could I forget Shakespeare?

[Jamesaritchie]

I could name a hundred novelists I loved, some from very early on. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jack London, Jules Verne, Hemingway, Faulkner, on and on. I loved these, and a hundred others, to death, but no writer made me want to be a writer. Money made me try, and enjoyment made me continue.

[Andre_Laurent]

Did you?

Can you prove it?

caw
Yes. I do not write page after page about what people are wearing....in minute detail, LOL. No kidding, the book was nothing but descriptions of what these high society folk were wearing. At this point, I KNOW I write better. But she still has one up on me....she got published. ;)

[aruna]

A.A. Milne when I was very young.

Then, Mary O'Hara's Flicka books made me realize the power of a story and the joy of getting lost inside a book. Later. It was Charlotte Bronte who made e yearn to write stories that affected others the way she affected me.
Last of all: Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls.
That did it - after that I HAD to write!

[Azure Skye]

Lucy Maud Montgomery.

[shakeysix]

i was going to say somerset maugham, but you know, schulman was an artist and an underated one. i think because he was popular. critics can be so snobby--if everyone likes it, it must suck!

booth tarkington's "penrod" stories were another inspiration. penrod's "detective novels" were so close to what i was writing myself at eleven, that somehow i knew that booth tarkington must have written like that as a kid, so there was hope for me. any other fans of the gentleman from indianna?--s6

[wyntermoon]

And for the knockout: Shakespeare. How could I forget Shakespeare?

I knew I was in trouble as while in high school, I chose Shakespeare for an English term paper. There was a required five page limit -- I did 15 and had to stop myself.

[Cassiopeia]

When I home schooled my youngest boy for the last three months of his sixth grade year, (yeah don't ask...bloody public schools), I had him interpret the last scene of Taming of the Shrew into modern day language.

He said it was the most fun he had all year. His nine grade middle school teacher commented to me that it isn't often he sees someone "getting Shakespeare".

Taming of the Shrew is my ALL TIME favorite of his work.

ETA: I was told there was a metaphor in that for me. ;)

[Death Wizard]

Stephen King.

Though I started writing before I started reading his books. But after I read Pet Semetary I knew writing was something I wanted to do.

I loved Pet Semetary too. But Salem's Lot is what really got me going.

[Inspiewriter]

Francine Rivers

[Joni Holderman]

(every time I started to read a book, my sister would tell me how it ended and I would throw the book in the corner).

Okay, I'm sorry, but that should count as child abuse.

I think you showed great self-control by not throwing your sister into the corner!!

[shakeysix]

wow--"the city boy"! great book--all blue--hardback. someone who didn't read gave it to us. i read it in the summer, in small town kansas, wondering what he was talking about half the time. had to look so much up that it took most of the summer but it was so exciting i could not put it down! later i married a city boy from the bronx! --well, he was born there. grew up on the guyland--s6

[Toothpaste]

Shakespeare is my god. But Douglas Adams is my patron saint. He made me see writing from a whole new perspective as a kid, truly a light bulb moment.

[Anonymisty]

I have two different impressions of the question, so I'll answer twice. Tim Powers is my idol - I wanted to write novels after I read The Anubis Gates because I wanted to explore stories the way he had done. I still don't think I've attained the level of complexity he does, but I'm continuing to try. He made me WANT it.

There was also a writer through whose actual efforts I became a novelist. I was a short story writer years ago, sending out my work to small-press mags and occasionally getting acceptances. Then I joined a writing critique group and met Faith Hunter. She pretty much badgered me to try my hand at writing novels, even though I'd never imagined I could. She MADE me want it.

[Ann D]

Toni Morrison. She uses language the way a great artist uses paints or clay. She takes me to truths I've always known but never recognized before. She writes with power, beauty and simplicity, giving no impression of pretense or contrivance. She's my hero.

[MelodyO]

Shakespeare is my god. But Douglas Adams is my patron saint. He made me see writing from a whole new perspective as a kid, truly a light bulb moment.

See now, if Shakespeare and Douglas Adams were actually deities, I might rethink this organized religion thing.

[Kaytie]

I don't know that there was one writer who made me decide to write, but the writer who spurred me to start the novel I recently finished is Tom Robbins, and the book is Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates.

[Manderley]

Carolyn Keene. I loved Nancy Drew as a kid, and was utterly impressed that the writer always figured out who the bad guys were.


Then I was mortified when I many years later discovered that Keene was not a writer, but many writers.

[Esopha]

There wasn't an author, for me. I stumbled across NaNoWriMo and thought, 50,000 words in 30 days? I can do that! After I finished my novel, though, everything else seemed kind of pointless.

Which is not a good thing when you're only 15, dammit!

[WriterInChains]

Chuck Palahniuk.

I've been writing my whole life (and there are many writers/novels that deeply inspired me) but thought becoming a novelist was only for the upper classes &/or the highly educated. He didn't make it sound easy, but he made finishing/publishing a novel sound like something I mightcould actually accomplish. (The jury's still out, but I probably have a few years left in me. :D )

At a small reading for Lullaby, my daughter asked what advice he'd give to new writers & he said (heavily paraphrased): Finish 200 pages, and make them 200 damn good pages, then send them to someone.

[MMcC]

I have been writing for a living all my adult life, but never had any interest in being a novelist. Terry Pratchett made me want to write humor, but I stuck to a few shorts.

Then I read Elizabeth Moon's Pakesnnarion trilogy and simply HAD to write something in longer form. I don't care that much for her sci-fi, but that fantasy series will forever stay on my re-read list.

[Joe Unidos]

While all the greats from Shakespere to Poe to Faulkner made me want to read, the cats that made me want to write are, without question:

Pynchon
Vonnegut
King

[yesandno]

For me, it was series of specific novels that made the urge fall into place.

First Dhalgren, by Samuel Delany; then Steel Beach, by John Varley; then Cancer Ward, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; then Pale Fire, by Nabokov.

It wasn't until I'd finished all of these that I began to get the idea that I might be able to distill all of the things I love into my own voice which doesn't resemble any of these writers, but is somehow still a product of reading them. I'm probably leaving some other works that had influence out of my list, but I think it was this particular combination that made me go from being a reader to being a writer.

[badducky]

ME!

I'm the writer that made me want to be a novelist. I figured that of all the writing that I could do, that was probably the one I'd enjoy the most.

*scanning up thread*

Wait, what? Oh. Um. Nevermind.

[TheKnightWhoSaidNi]

My three favorite writers have all been inspirational in some respect;

Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and George R.R. Martin.

[popmuze]

wow--"the city boy"! great book--all blue--hardback. later i married a city boy from the bronx! --well, he was born there. grew up on the guyland--s6


As a city boy myself, from Brooklyn, NY, I can tell you that Wouk's 1930s are timeless. (I tried to put this in a rep point, but I was foiled by the system). Plus, he's my friend's cousin.

[edwardcullen13]

Lynsay Sands, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, and Stepehnie Meyer

I love their writings SO much...

[shakeysix]

is he anything like herbie's cousin cliff? --s6

[BardSkye]

Isaac Asimov and Alastair Maclean.

[Shadow_Ferret]

No one ever made me want to be a novelist. I started out as a short story writer and I always thought novels were beyond my ability, and considering my luck so far, they probably still is.

That said, the writers that made me sit up and go wow! and turned me into a voracious reader, and inadvertently a writer, were Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

[Pamster]

For me it was VC Andrews, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz and John Saul. They wrote awesome books and then I found King, so I have a lot of the same influences as many of you. Maybe a bit different too. ;)

[grommet]

Like some others have said, I think it was the writers who turned me into a voracious reader who inspired me the most. In the beginning it was Beverly Cleary all the way (man, I wanted to be Ramona Quimby), followed by Judy Blume. Later, there were pivotal books that just amazed me like The Sound and the Fury (the hat trick of telling the story from so many different perspectives astounded me) and Crime and Punishment (I continue to this day to be amazed that D could make a murderer so sympathetic and human).

Grommet (http://www.kathrynmillerhaines.com)

[Azraelsbane]

Wilson Rawls. It's sad but true. I started writing after reading Where the Red Fern Grows in 2nd grade. By 3rd grade my dream was to become a writer, and now I'm 24 and still chasing that dream. It's practically the only thing I've remained passionate about for more than a few months, and I have 2 coon hounds and a scrawny boy to thank for it. :D

[popmuze]

Thinking it over, as much as Pynchon and Salinger got me in love with words and Max Shulman showed me a writer could succeed in the style in which I wanted to write...I'd have to say (as I did in another thread) that John Hawkes (The Blood Oranges) made me a writer, through his incessant criticism during the graduate school course I took with him. I may have hated the man, but he forced me to focus on each sentence.

[traveller]

Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, captured my imagination at an early age. Later, it was Terry Brooks and Stephen R Donaldson. I love being transported to foreign worlds.

[shakeysix]

caught me too. the characters more than the plot. i didn't catch on to the abstracts behind the villain so that part was never that scary. now i wonder how much that message "all you need is love to neutralize the star killer" influenced my generation--s6

[maddythemad]

My daddy.

[sunna]

C.J. Cherryh, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Clive Barker, Mary Doria Russell, Stephen King....I'll just stop there.

I always loved to write (and had to write), but I didn't really think in terms of other people reading it until I was almost out of high school. I think the first thing I read that made me go damn, I want someone to feel like this when they're done reading what I wrote was Raymond Carver's Cathedral. Then Ginsberg's Howl, and Thomas' Fern Hill.

[shakeysix]

i avoided it like fire ants when i was a kid. when i went in the hospital to have my second, i forgot to pack the book i was reading. (we stayed three or four days back then.) the hospital library was godawful. the only appealing book was GWTW. i thought i was going to die of boredom. it was great! margaret mitchell had a gift for characters and her facts are straight. the stories she told are the stories she heard growing up from the people who had lived it--s6 i think the fact that it is so easily lampooned proves it is a classic. love that carol b. skit with the curtain rods in her shoulders!

[Harper K]

Like some others have said, I think it was the writers who turned me into a voracious reader who inspired me the most. In the beginning it was Beverly Cleary all the way (man, I wanted to be Ramona Quimby), followed by Judy Blume. Later, there were pivotal books that just amazed me like The Sound and the Fury (the hat trick of telling the story from so many different perspectives astounded me) and Crime and Punishment (I continue to this day to be amazed that D could make a murderer so sympathetic and human).

I could have written your post, grommet! All of those authors were huge influences on me and my writing dreams, too.

Faulkner came to me as an inspiration before I had even read any of his books. When I was about 14, my mom and I watched a documentary about Faulkner on PBS. It talked a lot about his writing process and how he'd created a detailed map of the fictional county where all his novels were set. This excited me so much -- I had a map of my fictional Southern locale, too! That summer, my mom and I read As I Lay Dying together. A couple years later, I read The Sound and the Fury for the first time, which was full of sorts of revelations for me about character, narrative techniques, stream-of-consciousness, etc.

[narnia]

I was lucky enough to have attended a tiny private school (teensy classes with excellent teachers, thanks Mom & Dad!) until seventh grade, and the principal tells me I still hold the record for most times checking out the Chronicles of Narnia (by C.S. Lewis :tongue ), every single book! I don't remember how old I was when I started reading them, but I do know that they seemed to settle in my soul. I loved the idea of escaping to another world and more than that, creating another world that was your secret, and some day I was going to create worlds of my own. I don't know why I put the dream aside for so long, perhaps the fire was not burning bright enough or maybe this is how it was supposed to be. I've read so many different authors, some I've loved (Elizabeth George in recent years) and some not so much (will not name names!) over the years that I cannot name them all, but I do have a dirty little secret... I usually read the end first and then read the book from the beginning to see how the writer got there.

One thing that surprises me is how often friends and relatives comment on why it took me so long to finally get serious - "You used to always say you were going to be a writer when you grew up!". Where has that person been all of these years? It's a mystery!

[Tourneeee]

I would have to say George Lucas. Watching his movies just inspired me to create my own stories. I would always think, I love that, but I would have done this instead.

I've never been the same since watching that crawl go up the screen.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...a writer was born.

[MidnightMuse]

Alastair Maclean.

Wow.

I haven't thought of him in YEARS - but dang if I didn't eat up every novel he wrote when I was young. I loved them. Then I hit Anne McCafferey and got hooked (then, later, got annoyed) but I figured I could do just as well and in some cases better (we all gotta dream) and started writing more seriously.

But I'd been writing less seriously since I was 5. (give or take) :D

[shakeysix]

this is pretty stupid, but i'll bet i'm not the only one who tried to find narnia and banged into reality. my great grandmother had a very strangely shaped closet. it ended almost in a wormhole. more than once i squeezed to the very back of it thinking i would find narnia or wonderland. no luck--just a rude bump and boxes of old clothes. i did find a fox jacket that she wore to the rosebowl in 1917.--s6

[BlueTexas]

I would have to say George Lucas. Watching his movies just inspired me to create my own stories. I would always think, I love that, but I would have done this instead.

I've never been the same since watching that crawl go up the screen.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...a writer was born.

You know who inspired George Lucas? Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces is well worth reading if you haven't. It'll give you a whole new insight into Star Wars, promise.

[Pamster]

I forgot to mention Piers Anthony. His work was fun to discover in the late 80's. :)

[Alexandra Little]

You know who inspired George Lucas? Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces is well worth reading if you haven't. It'll give you a whole new insight into Star Wars, promise.

I should have mentioned Joseph Campbell myself--I have so many of his books and whenever I'm in a slump I just pop one open and I'm inspired again. His work is brilliant.

[popmuze]

My daddy.


I could also say My Kids. There was a time, when both of them were young and everything was hectic that I said to myself, "I don't want my daughters growing up saying 'My father used to be a writer.' So I kept on keeping on.

[Robyn]

Christine Feehan without a doubt. She also steered me in the right direction with loads of information about the business.

[Penguin Queen]

I dont think it was anybody other than me. Ive always written stories. I wrote a novel when I was about 13. And Ive always really really really really wanted to get published.

[CheshireCat]

Georgette Heyer.

[Spiny Norman]

Originally I thought it was Neil Gaiman, but I'm starting to realize that I have little in common with his writing.

Now that I look back on it, the two that affected me most were Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger, and maybe Raymond Chandler.

That's right. Hooray for American disillusion.

[ccarver30]

Kat Martin
Lisa Kleypas
Stephenie Meyer
and of course, Alexandre Dumas

[Amiton]

I honestly can't cite anyone creating a desire in me to write. There have been lots of authors who inspire me, and probably just as many that could be called influential, but the desire to write came from an internal desire to express stories in my head. Once that materialized the goal grew to include improving my ability, but I still can't say that the desire to write is external at all.

Amiton.

[jordijoy]

It wasn't a writer that made me what to write, it was a reader, my sister. She and I were big fans of Johanna Lindsey back in the day. We would alway break down the stories and I was fun of creating alternate plots and such. One day my sister said 'you should write something'. I've been trying to write something ever since.;)

[shakeysix]

what amiton sez. i always had a story playing in my head. i used to hear a narration that went with everything i did. "here is the fearless cowgirl at adobe walls. she is firing her trusty rifle at the charging commanche. quanah parker wheels in his horse and salutes her courage." never mind it was a bb gun and pop bottles behind my grandma's chicken house. on the down side, many in my family have done asylum time. that is no joke. imagination is just one card from insanity. either you harness it or it takes you down.--s6

[eric11210]

My inspiration was my third grade English teacher who loved a short story I wrote so much that she forced me (against my will!) to read it to the class. After that, I wanted to write for a living. Well, maybe someday I will ;).

Oh, but authors who I find inspirational and whom I hope to emulate in the quality of writing? L. Ron Hubbard and Robert A Heinlein. And, dare I say it? J.K. Rowling.

Eric

[III]

Orson Scott Card - I wanted to write about noble characters like he does.
Carol Berg - Computer programmer who started writing in her spare time and writes great Fantasy.

[JoNightshade]

I agree with those that say they were inspired by an internal desire to tell stories. I grew up hearing my parents tell stories around the dinner table; stories are just the format my family uses to communicate. Rather than just saying "This happened to me today," my dad would always craft an event into a kind of short-story narrative. So instead of conversing directly, we trade stories. I was always much more introverted than he was, and I read constantly. Writing turned out to be the one way I could really express myself, even when I was too shy to tell my stories out loud. I was fine around the dinner table, but apparently not everyone grew up this way. Many many people get bored and/or frustrated with this type of conversation, because it demands that you listen rather than just react! I also have a hard time following those conversations that bounce all over the place. Anyway, stories are just the way I think.

[underthecity]

Stephen King.

The first book I read by him was Christine, and was among one of the first "adult" books I read (I read Christine when I was in 7th grade because a friend shared it with me). He made writing look easy, and I wanted to try to do it, too. The Shining came next, and I was hooked after that.

At that early of an age, I really sucked at writing horror. Hopefully, I don't suck like I did then.

allen

[apmom]

I've been inspired by many, but the name that jumped into my mind when I saw the this post was Laura Ingalls Wilder. I never wanted to write her type of stories, but I wanted to be a writer the way she was.

[shakeysix]

my family was like this. great stories from the time i could remember. even the funerals were fun. when i married my husband i ran into a stone wall with his family. they never told stories. they talked about where you could buy what the cheapest. or whose kid did what the best. or what the neighbors had. they had no details but prices and locations. they never knew the names of flowers, creeks, trees and birds. my sister in law was showing me her garden once. i asked the name of a spectacular flower. she looked at me like i was an alien and said 'red perennial'. what a boring crew--s6

[underthecity]

Now that I think about it, even earlier than Stephen King was, would you believe, Snoopy in Peanuts. I started reading Peanuts books when I was 5 and liked how Snoopy was always trying to be a novelist, typing away on his typewriter on top of his doghouse. At an extremely early age I tried the same thing, with pretty predictable results.

Stephen King came years later.

allen

[The Grift]

My guess is Terry Brooks.

I'd always been a voracious reader, but around 5th grade when I read Sword of Shannara is when I started WRITING for fun. So maybe it was a coincidence, but it seems like something in the book must have made me say "Hey, me too!" I wouldn't even list him as one of my biggest influences (although he probably is subconsciously) but something in his writing got me to put pen to paper (or fingertips to keys).

Hmmm...thinking back on it... maybe it's just because we got our first computer then...

[Bo Sullivan]

Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Thomas Hardy and Thomas Hardy every time.

Barbara

[Begbie]

Bukowski.

[TrainofThought]

John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany. There are topics in this book that made me read with an open mind America vs. Canada, Pro-Nam vs. Anti-Nam and a flawed protagonist that I loved. The plot/character building and Owen’s sacrifices left me in awe crying and cheering for him at the end. It was the first powerful book I read and wanted my audience affected the same way.

[AJ Clare]

I've read a lot of books since then, but I'd have to say the one who first made me think "OH, I want to do THAT," was Roald Dahl.

[Memnon624]

Robert E. Howard.

[JaidaJones]

James Thurber (perhaps most notably The 13 Clocks); Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet; and Mishima Yukio (especially, especially, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea and Forbidden Colors).

[Vandal]

Clive Cussler. I used to love those Dirk Pitt adventures.

Now, James Patterson puts the bug in my ear.

And David Baldacci, too.

[rugcat]

John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee)

I was re-energized by a very successful writer who shall remain nameless--after reading a few books (which I liked) I thought, "Hey, I can do that, and better."

[EriRae]

Sesame Street :) Loved the book The Monster at the End of this Book. Comedians, like Bob Hope, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams. My dad always says comedians are some of the smartest people in the world, so I wanted to be funny to prove I was smart. I'm too shy for stand-up, so I write. Other notables: Steven King, Peter Straub, Fitzgerald, Pearl Buck, Alice Walker. And my Great-Aunt Edie, who willed me her writing desk when she passed. She used to write plays for fun, and she and my grandma and their other nine siblings would act them out. Too bad they didn't have a video camera-I bet they were hilarious.

[Cassie]

Italo Calvino
and
D.H. Lawrence

[raydad]

Mark Twain and James Thurber

[The Messenger]

Ed Lee and Jack Ketchum

[EelKat]

okay, I know this is going to sound weird, but it was Dr. Suess and his book Green Eggs and Ham. I was three years old and it was the first book I had ever read start to finish without any help from anyone at all. I was so proud, and my first goal in life was to write a book as great as Dr. Suess had written. My only prob was, though I was reading I was not yet writing, so I took a ball point pen and some church programs my mom had saved, and I practiced writing, by copying word for word the book Green Eggs and Ham over and over and over again, until I could write them from memory without looking at the book.

I can't remember very much of my first 5 or 6 years, but this one event I have never forgotten, as in my mind there was nothing more important in the world than being able to create books.


Since than other books and other authors have changed my views and goals on book writing, but in the beginning it was Dr Suess that started it all.

[Viral]

K. A. Applegate. I loved the Animorphs series.

[triceretops]

I'd like to add that a little later I found Joseph Wambaugh (sp?), and surprisingly enough, Peter Benchley had a profound effect on me, with Jaws and The Island. I thought the The Island was one of the most underated books of all times, for it's brilliant research about the life of pirates. And it was a truly unique premis.

Tri

[Inky]

Laurie McBain: Chance The Winds of Fortune
Kathleen Woodwiss

[donroc]

Sabatini, Costain, Shellabarger, Yerby, and Hemingway.

[ckastens]

This will sound doubly cheesy, but...

I started "writing" stories when I was about four years old, using a tape recorder. So I'd have to say it was my parent's fault for reading me all those damn books!

The inspiration to start publishing (in my early thirties) came from my wife. She's published about a hundred papers and a book (all technical), so I thought, "why don't I publish some fiction?"

Two very different things.

[ckastens]

And when are we going to see people citing AW members on this list? :eek:

[Toastermoo]

Oe Kenzaburo and Kurt Vonnegut.

[BlueLucario]

The writer who inspired me when I started writing again? J.K Rowling. She wrote books that made kids read, instead of watching T.V. Back when I was around 12, everyone was talking about how great it was, they discuss it with others and they even play pretend in their backyards. According to this research study I saw somewhere, kids who read harry potter are 6 times more likely to be sucessful in school, than kids who don't read. Kids who read H.P are 30% less likely to become obese than kids who don't read. They get better self-esteem and they do well in college.

So I thought, maybe I should write a book like that. I want to be well-known and admired for my talents(Not just writing). I want to be famous. Make myself useful in life. So that's how I went back to writing, I copy J.K Rowling's style when I started the story.

[HeronW]

Yes Dr Seuss! Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, all those favorites. I didn't know who whote them but I adored the Greco-Roman myths my sister read to me when I was 5-6. In my teens I discovered my brother's SF stash, hiding his Playboy stash, and I devoured Asimov, Bradbury and Clarke. Then I found Andre Norton, Vonda McIntyre & Anne McCaffrey and they pretty much clinched it for me.

[Cranky]

For me, it was Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House on the Prairie books. That's how my mother got me to read in the first place...telling me I had to finish those horrid Dick and Jane books before I could tackle Little House.

I wanted to write something that swept me up the way her books did. I "wrote" little stories much younger (like 2-3) but the thought of actually writing a book never really gelled for me until I was about 9 or so, and that was still years after I'd read the series. Still, credit where credit is due. :D

[jst5150]

Two Michaels: Moorcock and Royko.

[HourglassMemory]

J.K. Rowling actually got me reading books without pictures, PERIOD! And she did influence me to start writing. And to see how popular she got with a story of fantasy, I started thinking of my own story of fantasy with the components I always wanted to see in a story.
Then it was seeing my friend writing his own book that got me thinking of my own story, also.

[IThinkICan29]

Author: Nikki Turner
Book: The Glamorous Life

She's the author of quite a few street-lit/urban lit novels. I was so disappointed in her storytelling that I think I caught a small case of "had had-itis". ICK! The writer in me screamed to be released after reading her books.

[Pantsonfire]

R.L Stine was my inspiration at the beginning. I started my first book at about age nine. I love Steinbeck, McBain, Crais, Lehayne. The books I enjoy the most are the ones that make me laugh. Tim Dorsey makes me laugh out loud and my style is more like his, but not as offensive.

[Nari]

Two or three come to mind, but the first was Lewis Carroll. The surreal adventures of Alice brought such a vision to my mind, that I have thought in terms of story and luminous worlds since childhood. When I am feeling dead space in any WIP, I go to the poetry of Christina Rossetti. I usually discover a portal of inspiration through some line of her poetry for the novel. Go figure.

Respectfully,
NiNi

[KTC]

Although I always go on and on about JD Salinger, I have to pick 3 other writers for this question. I didn't find Salinger until I was about 11 or 12. The writers I found early on who made me pine to be a novelist are: Mark Twain, Roald Dahl and Charles Dickens.

[akiwiguy]

Oddly, I think I recall at quite a young age becoming a bit infatuated with a romanticised image of novelists as being rather mysterious, adventurous geniuses, and I think the likes of Hemingway played a bit of a part in that. Somehow the details such as death at own hands by shotgun seemed to elude me. But quite honestly, I do recall the allure of some image I had of writers as being significant. Pity it's actually about having to sit down and write!

[Danger Jane]

Well, I can't quite remember. When I was about nine, I was trying to write a novel about a girl, her dog, and an archaeologist. Who knows where that one came from.

Tamora Pierce got me trying to write a novel again when I was around twelve.

Now, Virginia Woolf, mainly. It's a pretty high standard to hold myself to, and I tend to do best when I entertain some delusions of grandeur. Grimm's and Anderson's fairy tales and Classical mythology make me want to write, too. But ideologically...Virginia Woolf.

[DWSTXS]

This will probably sound bizarre.............I don't even know who the author was. I was in the second grade, and the book was 'Lad - a Dog'.........
I remember that years later, I found out that Lad the dog was the dog that parented Lassie (I think)
At any rate, that was the book that made me a reader, and put something into the back of my mind, that it was possible to be a writer.

As an adult, I read Stephen King, and Jack London.
In my opinion, as a pure writer, Jack London is the best.

[TrickyFiction]

Laurence Yep.
I was eight or so, maybe younger.
I wanted to make a villain people would cry for, like he did.

[DWSTXS]

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis? Wow, that brings back some memories. Gilligan before he was Gilligan. Maynard G. Krebs.

wow. I am getting old.

[Alvah]

Thornton Burgess when I was very young.
Somersert Maugham when I was in my late teens.

[Alvah]

Also, Thomas Costain's Below the Salt,
and Albert Payson Terhune's books about collies.

Another book I liked when I was a boy was "Beautiful Joe"
It's a maudlin, Victorian story about a dog, but I liked it back then.

[Englishmaid]

Carolyn Keene, "author" of Nancy Drew Mysteries, AKA Mildred Benson, Harriet Adams, James Lawrence, Walter Karig, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller, Margaret Scherf, Susan Wittig Albert, to name several who actually penned the mysteries capturing my heart.

[KTC]

This will probably sound bizarre.............I don't even know who the author was. I was in the second grade, and the book was 'Lad - a Dog'.........
I remember that years later, I found out that Lad the dog was the dog that parented Lassie (I think)
At any rate, that was the book that made me a reader, and put something into the back of my mind, that it was possible to be a writer.

As an adult, I read Stephen King, and Jack London.
In my opinion, as a pure writer, Jack London is the best.


Lad: A Dog is by Albert Payson Terhune.

[IdiotsRUs]

The authors that made me want to write?

The ones where I throw the book down after 10, 20, 50 pages with the thought 'Damn it I could do better than that!'

I thought I'd better put my money where my mouth is :)

[juneafternoon]

I began writing fanfiction for Meg Cabot's books--that was the first thing I ever finished and that made me look into writing seriously. However, I've been writing ever since I knew how to spell 'ball', when I was two.

[Dreamer3702]

My whole life I've been making up stories to entertain my younger siblings. In high school, I did the same thing for friends, but it was more like comedic scenarios or how things would pan out if something happened. Needless to say, I was never board and neither were the people around me. Someone finally turned to me and asked if I ever wrote any of my stuff down. Then it occured to me that should. I've been hooked ever since.

[SherryTex]

Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Song Series, Madeline Engel, Sigruid Undset, C.S. Lewis, Chesterton, Tolkein, Austen, Greek Myths and Epics and Plato

[shakeysix]

thinking about somerset maugham lately. i think his description of being shy in "of human bondage' had something to do with the decision, although i cannot think of a time that i did not want to be a writer. i was in ninth grade when i read it--yeah, i was precocious--and i identified completely. i am exactly that shy. it seemed to me that if someone that shy could write a book then being shy might not be that much of a handicap---s6

[KTC]

thinking about somerset maugham lately. i think his description of being shy in "of human bondage' had something to do with the decision, although i cannot think of a time that i did not want to be a writer. i was in ninth grade when i read it--yeah, i was precocious--and i identified completely. i am exactly that shy. it seemed to me that if someone that shy could write a book then being shy might not be that much of a handicap---s6


On Human Bondage is one of my favourite books. I forget about it all the time...I don't know why I under-rate him. When I think about it, I just have to pick it up and re-read it. When I try to think of perfect books, this one always comes to mind. It's so great. And the shy description...so dead on.

[shakeysix]

he was a strange little man. did you ever read "cakes and ale"? he could slice and dice a soul. --s6

[KTC]

Yes, I have read cakes and ale. I don't recall a lot about it, but that it cut to the quick. Wasn't it also called Skeletons in the closet or cupboard or something? I should read him again.

[shakeysix]

yes-- walpole was alroy kear and driffeld (sp?) was thomas hardy. supposedly maugham had boffed hardy's wife and then had the nerve to write a novel about it because walpole was planning to do the official biography on hardy. it is a gem--short, sharp and slippery. almost no one reads maugham anymore. his ashenden books are based on his war experiences. for no bigger than he was, he was one brave little bastard. i am his last fan --s6

[lkp]

L.M. Montgomery. All her heroines wanted to be writers and I wanted to be them.

[shakeysix]

my grown daughter and i were snowed in w/out electricity or heat and the only book we could agree on was 'anne of green gables '. we had to read to each other because we couldn't waste batteries. one would bundle up, the other would read with gloves and hat on. when we got the electricity back we rented the movie.--s6

[mada]

Jacquelyn Mitchard, although I didn't know it at the time. I have a blog post from yesterday about how "A Theory of Relativity" impacted a difficult time in my life and once I got back into writing, I knew that I wanted someone to have the type of connection to words I have written that I had to words she has written.

[Shweta]

Ursula Le Guin did it for me. Partly with her fiction, but partly with her essays, which made writing seem much less mysterious and much more like something I could learn to do.

[caromora]

Johanna Spyri, L.M. Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Louisa May Alcott.

After reading Heidi, I wrote my first story--about a girl who's abandoned by her mother and goes to live on a mountain with her grandfather. :) Except in my version, there were gun fights and ninjas.

I loved the Anne books by L.M. Montgomery, but it's the Emily books that really did it for me. In them, the title character wants to be a writer. I identified so intensely with that character that by the time I finished the three books in the series, I knew that writing was what I wanted to do, too.

ETA: Lots of us inspired by L.M. Montgomery, huh? :)

[Devil Ledbetter]

Kurt Vonnegut.

[Janeo]

The writers that inspire me are:

Octavia Butler
Tanith Lee
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Samuel Delaney
Victoria Holt
Orson Scott Card

and many more.

[RJK]

Sandford's Prey series with his MC Lucas Davenport is the author I aspire to.
The authors (or screenwriters) who convinced me to start writing were the hacks who turn out some of the trash coming out of Hollywood. To be sure, there is a great deal of quality entertainment out there, but some of it is just plain bad. I know much of the blame can be placed on the director's, and some on the actors but, I can't believe that people are peing paid for some of that stuff.