What book inspired you to be a writer?

MDavis · Apr 5, 2006

The inspiration to write can come from any direction, but I suppose that at some point we all encountered something that made us think: "Hey, I could write a book."

For me (and I know some of you hated this book, but give me a break, I was 13

) that book was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery. I actually remember thinking "Hey, I could write a book" when I finished it.

How about you? What first turned you in the direction of writing? If it was a book, which one? Was it something else?

I'd really love to know, thanks!

RobCurtis · Apr 5, 2006

It was in school, when I wrote a descriptive piece for an exam. I was so pleased with it, I thought then that I should try to write seriously.

Sadly, I think it remains my best piece. If only I still had it.

janetbellinger · Apr 5, 2006

MDavis said:
The inspiration to write can come from any direction, but I suppose that at some point we all encountered something that made us think: "Hey, I could write a book."

For me (and I know some of you hated this book, but give me a break, I was 13

) that book was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery. I actually remember thinking "Hey, I could write a book" when I finished it.

How about you? What first turned you in the direction of writing? If it was a book, which one? Was it something else?

I'd really love to know, thanks!

I became inspired to write a book in 1990 or 91, after doing the family myth writing exercise in John Bradshaw's The Homecoming. I spent the better part of a day writing the myth, and when I finished it, I thought perhaps I really could write, had some creative talent in me. Before that, I thought I didn't have a creative bone in my body.

maestrowork · Apr 5, 2006

Nicholas Sparks' Notebook: I could write crap like that. That was 1998, and I went and took writing classes...

For pure inspiration that "I can be a writer": Ba Jin's Home. I had to do a book report on it when I was 12, and I loved it. Wonderfully written, literary, and I thought one day I wanted to write like that (although it's in Chinese).

September skies · Apr 5, 2006

By sixth grade I knew I wanted to be a writer. But as an ad ult when I read The Bridges of Madison County (I know, some of you h a t e it) I KNEW all over again and this time, did something about it. I went and enrolled in a class.

ETA: ever since putting cybersitter on here, i can not type certain words, including - , - and - s -- the words do not come out. So odd! I can't seem to fix it. So, if my posts seem odd or like they are missing a word, they probably are.

Christine N. · Apr 5, 2006

Well, there was the creative writing thing we did in HS... my short story (which was supposed to be 5 pages, but wound up being 10) garnered me a 98 for two small grammatical errors. The teacher asked me if I'd ever thought of being a writer. "No," says I. I put it aside, playing around with it once in a while.

The book that propelled me to the gotta-write-do-it-now phase of my life was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". Not so much the book (as wonderful as it was) but the story of JKR; realizing that I didn't have to have a degree of writing of somesort, but that anyone could try. It WAS the book that made me say "I can do that."

Akuma · Apr 5, 2006

I've written for as long as I can remember.

But I think I finally realized that it was what I wanted to do when I read The Pilgrim's Progress.
Not sure why that certain story inspired me, but I guess it was the ancient taste of good versus evil that finally won me over.

veinglory · Apr 5, 2006

Mercedes Lackey's Herald mage trilogy. Enjoyable but accessable--I thought I could do it...

Danger Jane · Apr 5, 2006

Hmm...probably something of Tamora Pierce's. But I've always loved writing. My ability has grown with my taste in books...I sure pidgeonholed myself way back when.

(Hey, it really WAS a long time ago...like four years...that's a whole quarter of my life, after all.)

Akuma · Apr 5, 2006

Mdlle. Nancy said:
Hmm...probably something of Tamora Pierce's. But I've always loved writing. My ability has grown with my taste in books...I sure pidgeonholed myself way back when.

(Hey, it really WAS a long time ago...like four years...that's a whole quarter of my life, after all.)

Growing up is gonna suck. Better believe I'm invincible while I still can.

But I'm determined; if my ear hair is gonna grow to great lengths then, dammit, my talent in writing will too!

Elwyn · Apr 5, 2006

What, me write?

To Wonder Woman;

I'm a published author - for technical stuff. And, I've written tons of procedures and policies for industry.

I watched the movie The Lord of the Rings and, being the critic I am, always asked how such-and-such could have happened. Then I heard about the success of Rowling with Harry Potter, so I read a couple of her books. What? I thought, this can't be so hard. Then I remembered how much I liked to write stories way back in second grade.

So, I had (and have) the opportunity to try this "non-technical" writing, and just finished a 99,000+ word novel and sent it to a publisher. Now, we'll find out if the grammar refresher course I took did me any good. I still wrestle with grammar - and spelling. Tech writers don't have to worry about grammar as much as making sure what's written is clear and understandable.

Here's the strange part - I think I've become addicted. I want to put down on paper the strange movies that go through my head. The second novel is underway. Now I'm going go after some non-technical magazine editors and see if I can do any good there.

Thanks for asking.

majiklmoon · Apr 5, 2006

For me, there wasn't any one book. I've always been a reader. I read everything and anything growing up, and still do. To me, writing was the next logical step.

MadScientistMatt · Apr 5, 2006

For me, it was another "I could do better than that!" moment, and it wasn't a book, but a movie. Namely, The Fast and the Furious. It had some fun chase scenes, but they botched so many techincal details it was like a gearhead's Plan Nine from Outer Space. I thought I could write a better screenplay. So I sat down at my computer and started banging out a script, with no clue how a real script was formatted, no idea what I was doing, and no real expectations that I'd sell it. I got more than halfway through, but I did start to think, "Hey, I can write a story."

Later, as the moderator at CarReview.com, I found myself answering a lot of identical questions about performance cars over and over from people who wanted to modify their cars but had no idea where to begin. So I thought maybe I'd write a book to answer all their questions.

Right now I have a second draft of that on my hard drive. I plan to revise it after I get my Dodge Dart running, and see if I can find a publisher.

emeraldcite · Apr 5, 2006

Stephen King's The Waste Lands from the Dark Tower series did it for me. I was probably 12 or 13 at the time.

I do recall writing a short story before I read that. It was about people bringing back dinosaurs to fight a war (hey, I was probably 12). It was a cool story, as far as 12 year old's stories go, and I was really proud of it.

Then my friend called and told me about this cool trailer he had seen for this movie. Yeah, Jurassic Park.

Damn Crichton beat me to it...

Of course he did it years before when he wrote the novel, but I didn't know that. But I still want to be a writer

expatbrat · Apr 5, 2006

Inspired by crap

The year of living stupidly, EXPAT and Spanish Lessons – all crap, crap, crap. My passion is non-fiction written as a novel. After reading these crappy true stories I said “self, your story is so much better than any other these, and you can write,” so I started writing (I’ve published hundreds of fitness articles for magazines and papers – this is my first novel).

I was going to write a fitness book but one of my fitness mentors said “write about your experience personal training all over the globe, it will be a best seller.” That was a few years ago. After reading so many crappy true life books I decided I can do better, much, much, much better. I took mentors advise and thus far am 118,000 words into my 60,000 word novel (plenty of room for editing out fluff there huh…).

I have ideas for two more books once this is done - not sure if I will continue writing after that?

alaskamatt17 · Apr 5, 2006

For me it was in second grade when I read Jurassic Park. I wrote a forty-eight page "book" about dinosaurs (the pages had, at most, three sentences each) terrorizing New York, and that was when I was hooked. I went off on a kick writing fantasy for a while after I read The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. The first full-length novel I wrote was in junior high, and was probably inspired by, of all things, the Drizzt Do'Urden books by R.A. Salvatore.

Most of my stories from the pre-high school years read like Goosebumps with the grammar sucked out.

triceretops · Apr 5, 2006

Poul Anderson's Virgin Planet, along with Alan Dean Foster's Ice Rigger.

Tri

Birol · Apr 5, 2006

There was no one book, but I do remember the moment.

I was always an avid reader. Everyone in my family was. One day, when I was 11 or 12, I was lying in my bedroom floor, staring up at the shelves mounted on my wall, with my cherished books and adolescent knickknacks, and it dawned on me that a real live person had actually created those stories I loved so much. And, I realized, I could do the same thing.

That was the moment.

HourglassMemory · Apr 5, 2006

I didn't need a book for me to think "I can write a book too." I started thinking about writing a really big novel( I always liked the look of those 800 page books, I know weird.) When I was around 12 or 13....My friend was wirting his own book about this story with him included and me and all of us having all these powers, so then I thought...."If he's writing, I can write one of my own. I haven't seen my "perfect" story on the shelves yet so... I'm going to put it there."
So then I started thinking about this REALLY big story with only 6 characters. And It developed into situations that I could have never imagined when I was 12. The characters grew for themselves, with the help of music too. There's still a lot of things they have to go through. I have no idea if I should make this a "Brick Novel" or "Normal Size Books"... divided into volumes. I'll ask that to someone...If I can even publish it.
And the books I saw on the bookstores were always about the same thing...so I thought... I'm going to write about something completly different. No wizards or elves. No depressed teenagers or profecies. No crime scenes or weird names.
Just something new. But yes, it all started with me looking at my friend.

LightShadow · Apr 5, 2006

Green eggs and ham. Serious. When I was in the first grade half a century ago when all the boys were saying they wanted to be a policeman, or fireman, or racecar driver, I was telling everybody that I was going to be an author. A Wrinkle in Time convinced me a little more a few years later, and Fahrenheit 451 clinched it. Thing is, once life got a hold of me, I never did more than write for fun. It's only been the last few years that I've made a real push for publication.

Anya Smith · Apr 5, 2006

I always read a lot of sci-fi. I don't remember which books exactly, but one summer I read about four that were really bad. I thought I could do better than that.

omega12596 · Apr 5, 2006

No one book. I've always written. The push to get PUBLISHED however, was a book.

Namely LKH's Cerulean Sins. When I finished I said, "Screw this s***. I'm gonna write about a kick *** heroine who isn't a damn WHINER!"

And so I did.

moblues · Apr 5, 2006

When I was 18, I was a runner at the Chicago Board of Trade. One of the old phone clerks gave me Deathbird Stories by Harlen Ellison as a Christmas gift. It was a collection of short stories. It completely blew me away.

After this, he told me about Bradbury, Assimov, Heinlein ... the list could go on and on, but Deathbird Stories got me hooked.

Mike

expatbrat · Apr 5, 2006

Inspired by a book to do something else.

I read "Dove" and decided I wanted to sail around the world discovering new places. So I did a sailing course, and realised I get sea sick. Bummer huh. Now I fly (in planes).

Pat~ · Apr 5, 2006

What book inspired you to be a writer?

Actually, my book inspired me to be a writer. I had an experience several years ago (clinical depression), and I felt led to write a book for other women who were experiencing the same. While writing it, I took some writing courses, and slowly the writing-for-publication bug bit. I now write articles, devotionals, and poetry for publication--but the book was what started it.

What book inspired you to be a writer?

The Brunette She-Ra

Fear the Death Ray

cloud watching

haz a shiny new book cover

Rare Writer Pokemon

volitare nequeo

Rare Writer Pokemon

Empirical Storm Trooper

Art is Resistance

Look what we made:

Around and About

defender of the blahs!

House Dragon

New kid, be gentle!

Look what we made:

Luftmensch Emeritus, A.D.D.