Experiences What influenced your writing style?

[mother of sorrows]

hey everybody! i was recently talking with a friend about their art and which artists inspired them the most, and it kind of got me thinking about the same question regarding writing!

i'm curious about what you guys would say affected the way you write the most; be it a specific book, an author, any irl experiences or a genre. or all of that! ^^ i'd love to hear about it since everyone has such a different style they prefer and a different intention.

for me personally, i've probably been influenced the most by slavic (mostly south) realism and social realism, since we read that a lot in school. this might be why i don't often write overarching characters,, but it definitively is the main influence! for the last two or three years ive also been really obsessed with more minimalistic yet impactful writing like a small good thing by raymond carver and early 20th century short stories. ^^

what about you guys??

 

[DragonSlayer57]

There were two fanfictions i stumbled across one day. The first one was viridescent, an Mha fic. And the second, was traveler. I owe both of those fanfictions to inspiring me to first rp, and influencing my writing style. I just loved the way they took the character, and made them realistic. Like he could be sitting next to me, reading along. The action scenes were what i loved. It was like watching a movie, described frame by frame, until you got to the end with an explosive finish! I also loved the way they took descriptives and would sneak them in whenever possible. It was honestly perfect! So I basically Made a combination of the two styles, added my own fling here and there, and TA DA!!!

 

[midnightwreken243]

to be honest this may sound silly but actually write with flow ut the most of the time im inspired by diffrent people i like to make my own ideas with out plagrism and copyright becuase well whats the point of doing that if you cna just be creative your self

 

[midnightwreken243]

also undertale au fanfiction my fav

 

[.quietus]

My partners, tbh. I'm a patchwork of everyone I've ever loved writing with

 

[MANICPANIC09]

My mother writes, and she is probably my main inspiration. Her characters are so loved and so creatively written. With flaws that show human emotion. And with words that provide the right feeling in the actual writen work itself.

I only found her writing about a year ago. Ever since, I've been trying to reach a level where I can show her and be proud of myself. I'm working towards that goal every day.

 

[Daisie]

I'm the weirdo that writes, but doesn't really read books. I've given it a shot in the past and I haven't been able to get into it since I was a kid reading Magic Treehouse, lol. So nowadays my writing is inspired by the massive amounts of TV I watch, as well as my partners!

It probably isn't the most efficient way to improve your writing, but I like to think I'm doing okay.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I think most of my inspiration has to be fanfic. It’s a good way to see how you can take an edtabilished world and flesh it out beyond what was in the original source material.

 

[GojiBean]

Hoyo!

Initially, when I started online roleplaying in 2009 I didn't really have a writing style. I had never done creative writing before and just jumped into the deep end kicking and flailing my way through everything. It was quite the spectacle. Lol.

Over the years, however, my writing style was influenced by several things including information I'd attained from reading books such as John Truby's: The Anatomy of Story, Robert McKee's book: Story, and others. I was also influenced by the writing of tv shows and films like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Inglourious Basterds, and more. Quentin Tarantino especially has influenced by mental approach by always thinking about ways to stretch the tension of whatever scene I'm working on until it finally breaks and something significant happens.

These days I've slowed down with seeking inspiration and instead feel like I've landed on the style I'm going to keep for the forseeable future. But time will tell.

Cheers!

 

[Idea]

For a start, I was a big bookworm when I was a kid, and I had this childish sense of pride in reading 'difficult', thick and 'adult' books (by which I don't mean erotica. Game of Thrones and the Origin of Species are the kind of thing that comes to mind). As someone who quite enjoyed writing early on, I do think my reading had an impact in how I write and even how I write outside of fiction. Indeed, my reading combined with my education and my general mentality are a big part of why I have a tendency to write in such a clinical/methodical way (though this doesn't necessarily imply the actual contents are, more the form I suppose). Speaking of my education, many habits and rules of how I write are notably present in both how I write and what I expect from others as well. To this day one of the irritations I have with a lot of people is their insistence in putting dialogue in the middle of paragraphs.

There is one more way I think my education influenced how I write, and that's specifically the way I learned English. My education was focused on British english, but I actually got most of my learning through American media, and specifically through World of Warcraft as the need to understand something does help push a person to learn. As a result I do feel I was left with a wider range in how I use English, but on the other hand I have a harder time telling American and British english apart aside from some more obvious examples.

When I actually started roleplaying proper, one HUGE influence on me in how I write, how I think about writing and plots etc... Was the Writing Excuses podcast with Brandon Sanderson and others. I used to listen to that podcast while I played WoW and other games, and I can't stress enough how much what I learned back then still impacts me today.

As I gained experience in roleplay the people I interacted with, particularly those who impressed me had a certain degree of influence, though I wouldn't say very great. Mimicking others has always been a little anathema to me.

Lastly, I would be remiss to mention that anime & manga has likely had a big impact on me, the kinds of characters and stories I go for and other things. I say that I consume industrial amounts of those things, and that kind of habit does inevitably impact how one goes about their creative expression.

 

[falcora]

hey everybody! i was recently talking with a friend about their art and which artists inspired them the most, and it kind of got me thinking about the same question regarding writing!

i'm curious about what you guys would say affected the way you write the most; be it a specific book, an author, any irl experiences or a genre. or all of that! ^^ i'd love to hear about it since everyone has such a different style they prefer and a different intention.

for me personally, i've probably been influenced the most by slavic (mostly south) realism and social realism, since we read that a lot in school. this might be why i don't often write overarching characters,, but it definitively is the main influence! for the last two or three years ive also been really obsessed with more minimalistic yet impactful writing like a small good thing by raymond carver and early 20th century short stories. ^^

what about you guys??

I would say i haven't ever fully gotten 'inspired' by anyones writing. Contrary to popular experiences on here i actually don't like reading books, or fanfics all that much. If i do choose to read something it'll likely be writing of the person i actually roleplay with as it feels more sentimental in a way and is something i can interact with when prompted, creating an original story with them. I feel like contrast is important rather then ripping off someones style or their characters personality in anyway (since let's be real being inspired off of someone else when most things they do is write about their own characters can come off as taking inspiration from their characters, too). I feel like rather then having my style be 'inspired' off of someone elses, it rather evolved to this point by my roleplaying experience throughout the years and the people i did roleplay with. I am pretty passionate about writing in general though and i feel like movies or the response i might get motivates me to do it, too. As i age i feel like it's getting a bit harder to find people i'm compatible with, especially since i look for a respectable amount of effort in return.

 

[riwole_]

J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter. I first stumbled upon the first Harry Potter book, then started writing based off of it. It was really bad at first, yes, but now? I'm a writer and a roleplayer, I write 2 paragraphs minimum and like, 7 maximum. my stories are detailed and extremely long, and I like cooking up rich plots with dark materials-

I was a famous roleplayer in another website, also a famous writer. my account was banned due to some problems, and I'm yet to decide whether to go back or not. that site had great vibes of friendliness all over the place, so it's a 70% chance I'll be there by a week or so..

Anyway, also a great lot of credits to the mha fanfic called bloodthirst over at that website, it was extremely inspiring and it grew my passion for writing!!

 

[Jannah]

Not a specific style per se, but a specific genre. Initially it was my love of fantasy like Harry Potter that got me interested in writing. However, these days a lot of the themes in my writing have deviated far from my fantasy origins.

 

[BuggaBoo]

Hi!!

Number 1 for ya girl is movies cuz some scenes, intense action or profound lines just stick with me ya know? Oh and just letting myself get all sucked into the yt algorithm is where it's at!

Next up is cravings. I go thru all sorta phases like: big, Muscular badass, skater punk, dancer, edgy witch, sneaky sneaky, big mouth little impulse control lol. Rn it's going all snow white and animal whispering.

And lastly I'd say irl issues and my gf, fam n friends. Soooooo much to drama to draw from there lol

 

[natsukashii]

I couldn't write for shit when I first started. I was as bad as forum roleplayers get, so just writing with people who, at the time, were signifcantly superior to me in every possible way when it came to writing helped a great deal. In time, I found myself being a pretty decent writing and was able to find SOME sort of style, though I don't know if I have that necessarily.

Books, shows, movies, etc were also a big inspiration. Specifically, Kingdom Hearts. One of my very first forums was a Kingdom Hearts fan site, so naturally my love for that crazy confusing series contributed to some of my RPing origins.

Over time, I think I found myself at a neat spot where I can write fairly well. I know some who are still vastly superior to me, but I've been writing since I was 17 and I'm gonna be 33 next month. Suffice to say, I think I'm doing alright for myself.

 

[beenjinxed]

Hmm, I wouldn't say any one specific thing influenced my style. I guess just a lifetime of exposure to a variety of writings and authors, whether it be a formal novel or other roleplayers. I would say the biggest influences would be reading anything that elicits a strong emotion for me--writing that can really make me attach to the character and feel their joy or their pain or their turmoil. And that's what I try to follow in my writing--bringing a character to life through those minute details that had no real bearing on anything except who this character is, how they feel, how they see themselves. I try to put raw emotion into my writing to make it easier to connect with and enjoy a character, whether they be a good guy, a bad guy, or somewhere in between.

 

[Hakaider]

Novels and comic books essnetially got me to frame out an internal voice

 

[A Sparkling Zombie]

1. Stephen King - I was into horror as a teen 'cause it made me feel edgy, and I tried to mimic some of the descriptive word choices I saw. That and how a POV character would influence word choices if not also sentence structure.

2. Armistead Maupin - Kind of. I already realized my style was pretty minimalist before reading Tales of the City, but he helped to reinforce the idea that a writer can still be effective and successful without dedicating paragraphs to character perspective.

3. A roleplayer who was good at transitions between character actions. Not saying I'm perfect at it, but at the time, I was often explicit every time a character walked across the room, looked somewhere else, etc. With this particular player, it just kinda hit home that it is possible clean up those actions without being jarring to the reader.

4. Probably other roleplayers and authors who I just can't remember anymore.

5. The show Euphoria in terms of what I want to mimic more of. It really highlighted how to make characters deeply flawed without resorting to the overly dramatized backstories.

 

[snicker_sage]

Playing video-games is my main source of inspiration.

I think.. the Professor Layton franchise helped the most first, that and the Sly franchise too.

 

[caramelisedbrownsugar]

I don't think my writing has a solid source of inspiration, but its definitely a quilt sewn together from many different sources!

I think reading a lot of novels, fanfiction, and dabbling in writing when I was younger certainly played a part, and it eventually grew to be one of my favourite hobbies that I devote my time to!

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Honestly? Time and better RP'ers. I used to have terrible grammar, run on sentences, etc. When I first started this hobby some 20 odd years ago, I was pretty bad. I was not happy with my performance and always strived to improve it. To a point, I'll never be a novel sized poster, just doesn't fit my spirit of RP.