"Which author (famous or not) is your greatest writing influence?"
That's the question I stumbled across when I was scrolling through Facebook recently. (Yes, I know I should have been writing and not wasting time scrolling!) I paused to think…
I went and stood in front of my bookshelves and gazed at the familiar titles, remembering scenes and characters from many of them fondly.
After a few minutes, I realised that I can't single out just one author's name in order to answer the question.
I drew up a list.
Here it is along with my reason for choosing said author.
Paulo Coehlo -for his encouragement via The Alchemist to chase my dreams.
Stephen King – for his encouragement to be a "storyteller" first and foremost.
Anita Shreve – for showing me the importance of a good house in the story. She has written several novels set in the same house at different points in time. Great books.
Diana Gabaldon – for teaching me that a story will be as long as it will be and a series will last as long as it needs to in order to tell the whole story.
John Irving – for teaching me its ok for your characters to have flaws, obsessions, bad habits and personality quirks. Love his books!
JRR Tolkien- for showing me the beauty of the use of language itself to tell a story. Lord of the Rings is the best written book I have ever read.
Kathryn Stockett- for inspiring me to write and develop characters you can hear in your head as you're reading. If you've read The Help, hopefully you'll have heard Aibileen talking to you.
There are countless others whose word has touched me in so many ways. At the heart of this creative path I'm walking is my fundamental love of books and a good story with good characters.
One other author I would mention here is Gregory David Roberts, for reminding me to persevere with writing the story, to keep going no matter what adversity you face and not to give up on yourself. If you've not read his debut novel Shantaram, I'd encourage you to add it to your "To Be Read" list. It's a tome at around 900 pages but it's a fabulous read! I first read it about 15 years ago and am currently re-reading it, something I rarely do with books.
If the books you've read haven't inspired you or touched your soul yet, perhaps you've just not stumbled across the right storyteller. Keep searching. Keep reading. Or even better, try writing.
The world needs more storytellers.
And , yes, I know my bookshelves are chaotic! Ha Ha
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