Books that made you want to become a writer

What a great idea for a thread.

I don't know what book it was. It was a mixture, I guess. My childhood was absolutely inundated with books, books, and more books. And when they weren't books, I was learning the value of a decent story told in a movie, or on television, or in theater. So it's hard to pinpoint.

I can remember the first books that floored me, that really just knocked me off my feet (A Stitch in Time) and I can remember the first book that I pointed to and said "I want to write THAT. I want to do THAT for a living." (it was, ironically enough, a Star Trek series of stories summarizing the original series' three seasons, by James Blish. I have the volumes around here somewhere, slowly turning into pulp.)

It wasn't a particular book or books that made me want to become a writer -- seems to me I'd always wanted to be one. But the writer I wanted to be was J.P. Donleavy. The man can make words dance and paint and tickle.

Nope, didn't make it. Not even close. But he inspired me to get as far as I have.

When I was younger, I always really wanted to be A.C. Crispin. I thought he was such a cool guy.

Sheesh.

I can't remember not wanting to write. My mom still has stories I wrote before I knew how to write them in cursive, so it's hard for me to say what started the whole mess. I do know that feeling, though, of closing a book and thinking, "That was glorious. I could never be good enough to do that. I have to do that."

What's terrible is that the first time I recall thinking that was with a book whose title I no longer remember. I was a staunch conservative Limbaugh-worshipping teenager and about as far from a tree-hugger as you could get, but I stayed up hours past my parent-enforced bedtime to finish this book in bed. When I closed it, I found myself weeping over the demise of a tree that got cut down by evil loggers. I had just enough self-awareness to realize that this book had made me sympathize with a cause I didn't remotely support. So, once the tears dried, I was blown away suddenly, not by a sudden conversion to tree conservation, but by the idea that an author could move someone else so profoundly using mere words.

If study, hard work, and perserverance can allow me to do that, I'll keep trying because I have to do that.

Anne of Green Gables

I can't remember a time I didn't want to write, either.

But if we're talking about books which made childhood magical, there's only one for me - C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I always wanted to write, it was just those above books that gave me direction on what I could do with writing.

lfraser said:

These were books I found so wonderful that I asked myself whether I could do it too....Anyone else remember a book or books that inspired them to become a writer?

Click to expand...

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I found the paperback on the shelf of the bookstore that employed me at the time, and read it in about a day. I realized then that I wanted to make readers feel the way that book made me feel, to draw in a reader as I had been.

The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming. Not what most consider high literature, but he painted such vivid pictures. I first read it when I was eight or nine, and that got me started.

I have no idea if I ever wanted to write when I was young. I have no memories of it, other than the typical stuff, like writing a Safety Poster in class. I was very disappointed when I submitted mine, "Don't walk from between parked cars, or you'll get some mars" and the teacher said, "kids might think they'll get a candy bar."

Thanks for squelching my creativity.

And I remember having a toy printing press. You had these metal bars in which you'd insert backward rubber letters to make your sentences. Then these bars were placed on the press and you could create newsletters by turning it. I think I had my own newspaper.

But wanting to write? Having the desire to be a writer? That didn't come until I read my first Tarzan and Conan books. When I read those it was like handing me the key to a door that had been hidden from me all my life, a door that opened upon this vast wonderful new world of heroic adventure. And that's when I thought, "hey, this is what I want to do."

Mein gott, I had one of those printing presses. I made such a mess with it. And I put out....stories. And tried to sell them to people for a quarter each.

Yup. The Chronicles of Narnia and Anne of Green Gables did it for me too. I know they weren't the first books I ever read, but they are the first ones I remember reading and at that point I wanted to be a writer.

It's taken me a long time to get there. Well, technically, I'm not sure I'm there yet, but at least now I'm making an effort.

I can't pinpoint exactly what made me want to write, but I think it was a decision being subconsciously made over a period of years. I didn't like math and science required math.

The first time I ever consciously decided I wanted to write was when I was about 12 or 13. But I had been writing stories since I was about eight or nine. After I made that first conscious decision to write, I quit hating school so much and decided if nothing else I was going to keep my English and History grades up.

Huck Finn, Mark Twain
The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
The October Country, Ray Bradbury

caw

Sometime in college I wanted to write SF, as I was reading a lot of it, and for the first time the idea of writing fiction was something I seriously considered. Asimov occasionally wrote about writing in his editorials in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (now just ASF, and R.I.P. IA), and Heinlein told of writing and selling (!) his Very First Story "Lifeline" in his book of essays and short stories "Expanded Universe" (and likewise R.I.P. RAH). But I think I knew even back then that it was very unusual (!) for an author to sell the very first story he writes and submits.

The next book to give me the idea of writing was "The Bridge Across Forever" which I read years later, and I described in this thread shortly after I found the AW Water Cooler, here:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=968686
After over two months and four FF challenge pieces later, I'm still here, so maybe there's some promise.

When I was much younger it was comic books and anything by John Bellairs

It was a book of my mom's and when she caught me reading it, I was in BIG trouble... of course I found and finished it: The book Sybil written by Flora Rheta Schreiber was so graphically there for me at age 12.
I wanted to be able to give shivers to readers as she did to me. Still do.

There have been many books which compel me to write, but none more so than the book I just finished.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Damn.

I always loved to read, but the book that made me want to write was A Wrinkle In Time

The book Inkheart made me really want to become an author. Mainly because the idea of something I've written coming to life just struck me as the most amazing thing in the world. That someday maybe people will fall in love with one of my stories and just not be able to put it down.

This is a great topic, I wish I'd thought of it.

I was a bit of a picky reader growing up, and it wasn't until I started reading the Harry Potter books that I realized how powerful and fun books can be. Say what you will of her adverb use, etc. J.K. Rowling knows how to tell a story, and while I was always writing, it was reading her books that made me want to share stories with others too.

Aside from the Harry Potter series, my other favorites include A Rat's Tale by Tor Seidler, The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, and Blondes have more Felons by Alesia Holliday.

There are many more, but these are some of my top picks.

Book

There was no book that made me want to be a writer, but I do clearly remember the first book that taught me how powerful fiction can be. It was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. There was blood on the deck of the Nautilus, and I almost jumped out of my seat when I realized I actually smelled the blood.

It wasn't a book...it was a story in my head that drove me crazy until I put it on paper.