The Most Influential

[Brittany (gone-ish)]

What do you consider the most influential works you've ever read? Why is it important to you? Maybe it's a novel/poem/play/short story that first made you want to be a writer, something that you've tried to emulate in your own style, or a work that really spoke to you on a person level.

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I think there are two books that have been very influential to me as a writer.

The first is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, which I read for the first time when I was a freshman in high school. It's the book that really made me serious about writing for the first time. I'd always dabbled with creating stories (I have embarrassing illustrated ones from kindergarten still), but I wouldn't have considered it a serious hobby or even a passion. After I read Jane Eyre that all changed. I loved the decadence of Bronte's writing and went on to read more nineteenth century works and tried to emulate their description and techniques in my own writing as I started to develop my own style with a great deal of practice and patience. Jane Eyre also gave me an academic concentration once I enrolled in university.

The second book would be The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I've always been very attracted to the historical fiction genre because it marries my two loves-- history and literature--but she was one of the handful of historical fiction writers that distinguished herself from the thousands of other writers in the same genre. Even more impressive to me was the fact that she did so by writing about some of the most written about women in history. She made me realize that in historical fiction it is the originality of your approach to subject matter that really makes the difference. Today she is known as the "Queen of Historical Fiction" and has set the bar for her contemporaries; in fact, she reads and reviews many of the newest historical fiction novels that are published. I guess you could call her a role model for me and it all started because I read The Other Boleyn Girl years ago.

[Charlotte]

i loved jane eyre when i read it :3

there are two books that have really influenced me as a writer, both randomly found and discovered. these two books are some of the only books where i truly got lost inside of them the entire time i was reading. it's funny as they aren't well known books or considered neither a bestseller or a classic. they are a certain slant of light by laura whitcomb and a stir of bones by nina kirki hoffman. the second one is considered more of a simpler book but the description and such is just as magical as the first.

basically, i had all but given up on my writing and was pouring that hole in my life into devouring any and every book in my path. then i picked up one of those two gems - i wish i could remember - and it was like all of a sudden i understood. what i understood, i don't know, but i just got it.

i've never reread either of those books. i just can't bring myself to as i'm scared that they'll lose their magic. so they sit in their special place on my bookshelf, right near the hp series. :3

[Tiara]

Oh, I love A Certain Slant of Light! I've re-read it at least 5 times. It doesn't loose it's charm.

I think the most influential author for me is V.C. Andrews. Yes, she wrote about incest, and rape, and mother's killing their children. But to read her words, and description, there is just something there. Her characters all mess up, and have problems. They always seemed so real to me. Of course, I'm definatly telling you to NOT pick up any recent book with her name on it. She died in 1986, and a ghostwriter has written most of the books under her name. He doesn't try anymore, and the writing sucks. But to read Flowers in the Attic or My Sweet Audrina... Oh, how the words just seem magical.
I read her work tirelessly when I really started writing when I was 13. I devoured her words, and let them seep into my brain. Her characters becoming real people to me.

Now, my strongest writing is gothic-styled writing, similar to hers.