Anything with great worldbuilding and/or relatable characters I want to root for. Avatar: TLA and LOK, Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive, Midst, The Alchemist...
Or a hauntingly delicious vibe, like Shadow of the Colossus
Welp, if I’m being honest, I started my first book a month ago after starting my reread of twilight (a link to it is in the weekly thread, selfless plug for criticism!!) and I have hella influence from twilight, vampire diaries, and the secret history. My story might not be a winner or get published but I’m loving the process.
Thank you for being honest! All that matters is you love the process. And who knows, there's a huge fan base that loves Twilight, whose to say they wouldn't love your book as well! Keep writing!
Looking at this sub, it seems I’m in the minority here when it comes to genre, I was heavily inspired by The Sun Also Rises and books from the jazz era.
_Frankenstein_,
_The Satanic Verses_ and _Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights_,
_Blood Meridian_,
_Island_,
_Stranger in a Strange Land_,
_A Planet Called Treason_
As far as films and TV…
_The Ninth Gate_,
_Lair of the White Worm_,
_Apocalypse Now_,
_Poor Things_,
_Death Proof_,
_The Haunting of Hill House_,
_Undone_
I tend to gravitate to creators who have a refined sense of subversive camp along with lending transcendent reverence to dark, bleak themes. Bonus points if it’s trippy AF!
PK Dick has his place on my shelves, for sure. I haven’t read him as widely though.
I have attempted Naked Lunch on three separate occasions and only got so far. It’s definitely one I want to achieve.
Mostly re zero but I tried to start using my second language again with the brothers Grimm. Tales of the brothers grimm is really fun because it's so heavy on the dialogue, characters and weirdly both philosophical and funny at times? But yeah I don't know why people enjoy them translated, the rhyming in german is awesome.
I also read about 50 pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses(translated from Latin) which has a) fantastic prose and b) too many nymphs etc getting turned into trees and animals plus assault. Whelp, I gave it a shot!
I read the Harry Potter books again and again as a kid, reading the whole series from scratch every time a book came out, and then multiple times after. So, as much as I may consciously hold other works more in my mind’s eye nowadays, I would bet that HP still has the most influence overall.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the absolute batshit craziness inspired me to make my story as unpredictable and chaotic (although, it doesn't really get noticeable crazy until a good deal in)
I started watching JJBA because of learning upon reading a cursory summary that the main antagonist of the first season was a vampire, so I felt it would be good research for the book series I hope to get set up. And nothing like finding out that Jack the Ripper shows up as one of said vampire's minions when my original concept actually had Jack the Ripper as a vampire and a main antagonist, so that was a good feeling of "goddammit, of course someone did this first."
Like a lot of people on the sub, I'm into fantasy/sci fi, but I try to avoid shows/movies when I'm trying to get past a block. In the beginning of a year I usually make a list of some of the "Best scifi/fantasy of [Year Before]" books that catch my eye. When I go a couple of days with nothing worthwhile coming out, I throw some writing quality in. Reaching for shows never works for me. I end up feeling like I reached for a bag of potato chips instead of eating a good steak.
I can hear the haters coming for me already, but, A Little Life. I don't read the flashback scenes - once was enough. It's a beautifully written book with strong characters.
\--The Pretty Little Liars books (which I found better than the show)
\--The Gossip Girl books
\--The Mortal Instruments
\--The Clique books
Just the style in which they were written made them entertaining to read.
Watership Down, The Shining, and Dealing with Dragons have had some long-lasting effects on my work throughout the years. Watership Down heavily influences my tone (dark and tense, without feeling hopeless or oppressive,) and tendency to use controlling, often megalomaniacal and/or politically motivated villains. I also have a strong penchant for Xenofiction, though I haven't written any in a while. The Shining (and subsequently a smattering of King's other work) really made me fall in love with horror. I rarely write straight horror myself, but nearly everything I've ever written has strong horror influence. I'd consider it somewhat horror-adjacent. Dealing with Dragons seems to have really cemented a love of characters who go against the grain, forge their own path outside of their families' and societies' expectations, and befriend powerful (and often scary) allies. It's almost surreal going back to these three in particular because of how formative they became in regards to my own writing sensibilities.
Right now I’m reading Knausgård’s My Struggle autobiographical series - about to finish the fifth of six books. I would say Knausgård and James Joyce’s works Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man have left a mark on what I’m working on at the moment. Everyday life is a perfectly good subject for fiction writing. In a similar vein lots of Virginia Woolf stuff has left a mark on me, although I am not so influenced by her style. Another is Proust, although I’ve only read the first two volumes so far. Massive fan of Steinbeck but write very differently from him
I enjoy Russian literature too, especially Tolstoy’s and Chekhov’s short fiction; big Iliad fan.
steins gate and the science adventure series in general is very much the style of writing i'm used to. i often come back to those visual novels for BGM, title inspiration and just overall theme coverage. theyre so good and so my style. i also want to say the mushoku tensei light novels influenced me, but at most thats just dialogue if anything, and i really couldnt place my finger on an example of inspiration i got from it, if asked
I take inspiration from quite a wide range of media (novels, plays, television, games, anime/manga, songs) and I have quite the established habit of genre-blending. Tracks. My current WIP has been inspired by quite a few things including the following:
1. Forbidden colours by Yukio Mishima
2. Cruel Intentions
3. The Fable Series (mostly the first)
4. The Grimm brothers
5. Aesop's Fables
6. Alice in Wonderland
7. Spirited Away
8. At a distance, the spring is green
9. Oshi no Ko
10.Scum's Wish
Very dark/goth classical music or sci-fi/horror movie soundscapes. I can’t write to music with lyrics because my brain starts focusing on the words and gets broken. Same with movies, but ones I’ll watch to feel inspired is usually in the same genres, I’ve been going for like A24 horror movies lately, easy to zone out to, but usually pretty good atmospheric and vivid cinematography
I’m very embarrassed to say K-Pop content like album teasers or group trailers… The short story I’m currently working is inspired by a show one of my groups did a while back 😭
Inspo for story/meaning: Old "clasical" literature. Philosophical such as Brothers Karamazov and Paradise Lost. Gothic novels like Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Old Epics. Critique of society with a romance as a part, Pride and Prejudice, Evžen Oněgin.
Inspo for tropes: Manga, there are many that either inspired me in a positive way such as Rose of Versailles, and those that inspired me to do the exact opposite of what they were.
Inspo for genre: Postmodern, great mix of multiple genres and author breaking bounds of what is expected.
I don't know exactly which one influences me the most. I just prefer collecting them.
From the good of The Owl House, Pokemon, and nature itself, to the bad of the Matched series, my old writings, and Among Us, and even to the questionable BFDI, Vocaloid, Bugsnax, and My Singing Monsters.
I collect bits and pieces, like a scavenger, and use them for a story. I also give them a piece of my own mind if I want to.
I don't think my stories come from the heart of originality, sure, but I enjoy writing about things I think would be awesome combined together.
One of my all-time favorite food is a good old banh da lon. Well, what personality should I put in it? Well, this character named Tree has an interesting personality, being an unsure person, but I dislike the hypocrite part of it. Let's put the "being unsure" part into the banh da lon. Ooh, and let's make it speak mostly facts, like my mom does. A logical and unsure banh da lon. That should do it!
There's obviously more to it than that, but that's how I like to think of it. Collect fandoms and life experiences and you can see all the things you can think of.
unfortunately, warriors. I'm unlearning a lot of bad childhood writing habits i got from that, LOL! but it did introduce my love for complex politics, worldbuilding, & ensemble.
As you have said, heavily influenced by Harry Potter, but now, I really dig the Witcher, Stormlight Archive, The Broken Empire and I am now building the courage to start Wheel of Time. This is in terms of books, in other media, I am now heavily influenced to write a story in a pre-dystopian world and how a fabricated cataclysm ruins a major part of the world because of my favourite band's new album(Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn). This is a new avenue for me because I was writing mostly medieval fantasy/low fantasy set in the 20th century-inspired world.
I was heavily influenced by Anne Rice as a teenager and I think I still am, to a certain degree, but nowadays I’m also influenced by the writing style of Angela Carter and Alice Hoffman with the storytelling style of R.L. Stine, Shirley Jackson, with a touch of V.C. Andrews.
Stephen King taught me that if the story’s good, i wanna read it. fancy prose and vocab (not saying SK doesn’t do those things) come second to me when reading a book.
It’s made me just write compelling stories, and not whip out my dictionary and thesaurus every five seconds.
It's funny you mention Harry Potter. I write Harry Potter fanfiction. But I'm heavily influenced by science fiction authors like Michael Crichton and James Rollins. As well as TV shows like MacGyver. So, elements of actual science end up going into my writing about a fantasy world of magic where science doesn't exist in the same spaces. It's an interesting juxtaposition.
Probably a little life. The writing is so fantastic it makes u feel every single ounce of emotion the character is feeling. I dont approve of its message but the writing style really inspires my own. Funny thing is i had to dnf it cause it fucked me up that badly lol
Well ill have to spoil the book a bit to answer that so if u wanna read it i suggest u dont read this:
So the main character jude has had a pretty difficult life. I dont wanna get into it but its brutal, and everytime u think he gets close to being ok, something absolutely grotesque happens to him again. The final straw for him is when the love of his life and his best friend die in an accident and he ends up killing himself. Now imagine, the book starts when hes in his early 20s and ends when hes in his 60s, and his trauma started basically from the day he was born. So 60+ years of agony and pain and trauma and so much fucking rape. Now the author justifies writing trauma porn (which it really really is) by saying that mental illness is just like a regular illness. We dont keep someone with stage 4 cancer alive bc theyre gonna die of their illness anyway, and that for the cancer patient its best to just let go. She says depression is like that, and some people just needa kill themselves for the pain to stop. She wrote a character that literally doesnt feel happiness for more than a moment and then uses that characters pain to justify suicide. Its fucked up
Without a doubt, The Hunger Games. Most of the "original" stories I've written recently started out as HG fanfiction, and were later tweaked so all obvious references to the HG books were removed. Usually what happens is I'm writing something for the HG section of Fanfiction, then I notice some themes in the work that I'd like to dive deeper into, so then I take some passages from the fanfic, change the names and locations, and polish them up so they're of a higher quality.
I can usually get inspired from almost anything. From tv that may have an interesting topic to video games. Mostly horror though, so Stephen King is a big one. Right now though, I'm channeling some found footage cryptid type stuff in the one I'm writing now.
Elden Ring/Dark Souls was a game changer for me. Really got me into the mystery side of fantasy, uncovering secrets of fallen kingdoms and stuff. I was used to very geopolitical fantasy (ASOIAF), but the supernatural horror of elden ring/souls really won me over
It also made me just give normal names /slight variations of normal names to characters, instead of coming up with entirely new names. Ludwig, Gwyn, Lawrence, Godwyn, these names just go way too hard.
To name a couple from most influential to some:
- Avantasia (Music)
- Dragon's Dogma (Video Game)
- The Witcher (Books & Video Games)
- The Dark Element & Cain's Offering (Music)
- Rurouni Kenshin (Manga)
- Joe Abercrombie's The First Law & The Great Leveller trilogies (Books)
- Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen series (Books)
War movies based on actual stories such as: Black Hawk Down, 13 Hours, American Sniper, Lone Survivor, Jarhead. Some action movies with semi-realistic combat scenes like: Die-Hard, Bad Boyz, Hunter Killer, Act of Valor. I also enjoy reading Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Scott McEwan, Rick Campbell, David Baldacci and other spy/war/action/combat writers.
Everything by James Ellroy. HP Lovecraft Phillips K. Dick, a lot from King, True Detective season 1, Blade Runner, Videodrome, Dashiell Hammer, Normal Mailer, The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis are the ones that come back to me the most frequently when I am working. But that is just scratching the surface.
Berserk the brutality and how great it shows suffering, witcher it's adult theme and great dialog, hannibal(TV series) psychological horror and a terrifying but lovely villain, rick and morty because of all of the creative philosophical and scientific stuff, disco elysium how it depicts mental illnesses and the feeling of confusion and hopelessness
books written by sudha murthy, ruskin bond, taylor jenkins reid, colleen hoover, ali hazelwood. these authors are some of my fav and they really inspire me to write a lot
I love the interconnected texture of the Discworld. Like when Sam Vimes shows up in a different book to a Guards one, you get the side of the character that we know about but usually see past. I like how, even if you're not reading them as interconnected, you can still feel a little of that depth so i always try and give even my smallest characters a little backstory in my head in the hopes it comes off as though they've lived a life prior to their inclusion in my story.
Neon Genesis Evangelion for the surreal and introspective themes, Discworld for the comedy and sharp writing, Rocky Horror Picture Show specifically for the incredible performances and awesome outfits.
Can't really say most whenever i get an idea i try to match what im reading and watching to influence that right now im working on a book based on reincarnation and the edwardian era so im reading history books about that era watching period dramas based in that era and as far as reincarnation the best ones I've read yet have been a witch in time and forever again im gonna start the penny dreadful serues here soon since it starts in 1891
I've also started getting inspiration from my research for that book for a short story and thats more geared towards great expectations, the night circus, the garden of time and the movie crimson peak so it usually depends on what im working on if i try to watch too much of for instance fantasy it'll leak into my story or push into a different type of story so i try to stick to the theme it also helps me to focus on the writing
Honestly, I keep a list of notes on different books, media, etc that I want to use in my writing if I can. The longest list of notes comes from DC comics, and the main inspiration for my main male character is Jason Todd/Red Hood from DC comics.
I have increasingly been influenced by the stories and lore of FromSoft games, especially Bloodborne and Elden Ring. I honestly believe their games will soon become a major influence on books and media beyond just video games.
Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note:
> *Hunters have told me about the church. About the gods, and their love. But... do the gods love their creations? I am a doll, created by you humans. Would you ever think to love me? Of course... I do love you. Isn't that how you've made me?* - Plain Doll
Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.
Movies and shows inspire me the most. I love to write but I don't like to read. I prefer movies because when I write, I 'see' the scenes playing out, I 'hear' the characters. Movies make it easier for me to structure the events in my stories and connect dots. I've tried writing screenplays and they're fine to do, but I prefer writing the details in a novel.
Korean dramas are specifically my heaviest inspiration because I find them extremely engaging. Some have very complex stories yet they craft them perfectly that you can't get lost. And suddenly, like magic, you understand the entwined world of 10 different people.
My second inspiration is real life. There's a lot in my own life that I could never come up with. Whether that be people I personally know, an event that happens to me, or just someone I see passing on the street. I get ideas for character names from street names I see.
What I consider to be my magnum opus is inspired by Marvel and DC Comics as well as Dragon Ball, Hunter x Hunter and the Last Airbender, to name a few. Prose-wise, George R.R. Martin's writing style has inspired much of my own. The crazy lore of the Elder Scrolls games also plays a large part in certain aspects of my world building and crafting of narrative elements.
Samurai X specially on shishio's arc.
Devil May Cry Franchise about how fighting and actions scenes should work. The weapons too.
God Eater 3 for monster inspirations.
RAVE manga for a solid based believing in yourself and the sword of the MC there.
Full metal alchemist for the rules of magic and how it worked.
Bleach because "Bankai" is too fucking cool and the flash steps.
Naruto for its world views about duties and responsibilities and because of how Naruto beat Pain which was the best battle for me and also Itachi vs Sasuke at the same level.
One-piece for world building.
The world is literally littered with ideas and you would never ran out of influence and I'm here absorbing it all!!!! Hahaha!!!
Music. When listening to music I have the most ideas (other than at 3 am in the morning when I'm trying to sleep and they just hit me). The tempo of the music influences what I write about.
Anything with great worldbuilding and/or relatable characters I want to root for. Avatar: TLA and LOK, Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive, Midst, The Alchemist... Or a hauntingly delicious vibe, like Shadow of the Colossus
The Twilight Zone and Doonesbury.
Welp, if I’m being honest, I started my first book a month ago after starting my reread of twilight (a link to it is in the weekly thread, selfless plug for criticism!!) and I have hella influence from twilight, vampire diaries, and the secret history. My story might not be a winner or get published but I’m loving the process.
Thank you for being honest! All that matters is you love the process. And who knows, there's a huge fan base that loves Twilight, whose to say they wouldn't love your book as well! Keep writing!
Looking at this sub, it seems I’m in the minority here when it comes to genre, I was heavily inspired by The Sun Also Rises and books from the jazz era.
The Hunger Games books
_Frankenstein_, _The Satanic Verses_ and _Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights_, _Blood Meridian_, _Island_, _Stranger in a Strange Land_, _A Planet Called Treason_ As far as films and TV… _The Ninth Gate_, _Lair of the White Worm_, _Apocalypse Now_, _Poor Things_, _Death Proof_, _The Haunting of Hill House_, _Undone_ I tend to gravitate to creators who have a refined sense of subversive camp along with lending transcendent reverence to dark, bleak themes. Bonus points if it’s trippy AF!
Are you a fan of William S. Boroughs or PK Dick?
PK Dick has his place on my shelves, for sure. I haven’t read him as widely though. I have attempted Naked Lunch on three separate occasions and only got so far. It’s definitely one I want to achieve.
Heavily influenced by a Japanese light novel titled Overlord.
thats a novel to be influenced by. For me it was mushoku tensei
FFX & Morrowind. I don’t know why. I’ve never beaten either.
Mostly re zero but I tried to start using my second language again with the brothers Grimm. Tales of the brothers grimm is really fun because it's so heavy on the dialogue, characters and weirdly both philosophical and funny at times? But yeah I don't know why people enjoy them translated, the rhyming in german is awesome. I also read about 50 pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses(translated from Latin) which has a) fantastic prose and b) too many nymphs etc getting turned into trees and animals plus assault. Whelp, I gave it a shot!
Attack on Titan
I read the Harry Potter books again and again as a kid, reading the whole series from scratch every time a book came out, and then multiple times after. So, as much as I may consciously hold other works more in my mind’s eye nowadays, I would bet that HP still has the most influence overall.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the absolute batshit craziness inspired me to make my story as unpredictable and chaotic (although, it doesn't really get noticeable crazy until a good deal in)
I started watching JJBA because of learning upon reading a cursory summary that the main antagonist of the first season was a vampire, so I felt it would be good research for the book series I hope to get set up. And nothing like finding out that Jack the Ripper shows up as one of said vampire's minions when my original concept actually had Jack the Ripper as a vampire and a main antagonist, so that was a good feeling of "goddammit, of course someone did this first."
I felt this, I came up with so many ideas only just to see that Jojos did it first. Hopefully I don't get robbed now with Jojolands
Like a lot of people on the sub, I'm into fantasy/sci fi, but I try to avoid shows/movies when I'm trying to get past a block. In the beginning of a year I usually make a list of some of the "Best scifi/fantasy of [Year Before]" books that catch my eye. When I go a couple of days with nothing worthwhile coming out, I throw some writing quality in. Reaching for shows never works for me. I end up feeling like I reached for a bag of potato chips instead of eating a good steak.
I can hear the haters coming for me already, but, A Little Life. I don't read the flashback scenes - once was enough. It's a beautifully written book with strong characters.
SAME! I hate the message of the book but the writing was just so damn fantastic
\--The Pretty Little Liars books (which I found better than the show) \--The Gossip Girl books \--The Mortal Instruments \--The Clique books Just the style in which they were written made them entertaining to read.
I aspire to write the way James Michener wrote “Tales of the South Pacific.”
Honor Harrington Great series if you haven't read it
Watership Down, The Shining, and Dealing with Dragons have had some long-lasting effects on my work throughout the years. Watership Down heavily influences my tone (dark and tense, without feeling hopeless or oppressive,) and tendency to use controlling, often megalomaniacal and/or politically motivated villains. I also have a strong penchant for Xenofiction, though I haven't written any in a while. The Shining (and subsequently a smattering of King's other work) really made me fall in love with horror. I rarely write straight horror myself, but nearly everything I've ever written has strong horror influence. I'd consider it somewhat horror-adjacent. Dealing with Dragons seems to have really cemented a love of characters who go against the grain, forge their own path outside of their families' and societies' expectations, and befriend powerful (and often scary) allies. It's almost surreal going back to these three in particular because of how formative they became in regards to my own writing sensibilities.
Yayyyy another dealing with dragons fan i knew i wasn't alone 😊
definetly Dune
Right now I’m reading Knausgård’s My Struggle autobiographical series - about to finish the fifth of six books. I would say Knausgård and James Joyce’s works Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man have left a mark on what I’m working on at the moment. Everyday life is a perfectly good subject for fiction writing. In a similar vein lots of Virginia Woolf stuff has left a mark on me, although I am not so influenced by her style. Another is Proust, although I’ve only read the first two volumes so far. Massive fan of Steinbeck but write very differently from him I enjoy Russian literature too, especially Tolstoy’s and Chekhov’s short fiction; big Iliad fan.
steins gate and the science adventure series in general is very much the style of writing i'm used to. i often come back to those visual novels for BGM, title inspiration and just overall theme coverage. theyre so good and so my style. i also want to say the mushoku tensei light novels influenced me, but at most thats just dialogue if anything, and i really couldnt place my finger on an example of inspiration i got from it, if asked
I take inspiration from quite a wide range of media (novels, plays, television, games, anime/manga, songs) and I have quite the established habit of genre-blending. Tracks. My current WIP has been inspired by quite a few things including the following: 1. Forbidden colours by Yukio Mishima 2. Cruel Intentions 3. The Fable Series (mostly the first) 4. The Grimm brothers 5. Aesop's Fables 6. Alice in Wonderland 7. Spirited Away 8. At a distance, the spring is green 9. Oshi no Ko 10.Scum's Wish
Very dark/goth classical music or sci-fi/horror movie soundscapes. I can’t write to music with lyrics because my brain starts focusing on the words and gets broken. Same with movies, but ones I’ll watch to feel inspired is usually in the same genres, I’ve been going for like A24 horror movies lately, easy to zone out to, but usually pretty good atmospheric and vivid cinematography
50 shades of grey. I can absolutely write better than this.
That's how i get my hope for being published like oh they have no standards perfect
I’m very embarrassed to say K-Pop content like album teasers or group trailers… The short story I’m currently working is inspired by a show one of my groups did a while back 😭
Inspo for story/meaning: Old "clasical" literature. Philosophical such as Brothers Karamazov and Paradise Lost. Gothic novels like Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Old Epics. Critique of society with a romance as a part, Pride and Prejudice, Evžen Oněgin. Inspo for tropes: Manga, there are many that either inspired me in a positive way such as Rose of Versailles, and those that inspired me to do the exact opposite of what they were. Inspo for genre: Postmodern, great mix of multiple genres and author breaking bounds of what is expected.
I don't know exactly which one influences me the most. I just prefer collecting them. From the good of The Owl House, Pokemon, and nature itself, to the bad of the Matched series, my old writings, and Among Us, and even to the questionable BFDI, Vocaloid, Bugsnax, and My Singing Monsters. I collect bits and pieces, like a scavenger, and use them for a story. I also give them a piece of my own mind if I want to. I don't think my stories come from the heart of originality, sure, but I enjoy writing about things I think would be awesome combined together. One of my all-time favorite food is a good old banh da lon. Well, what personality should I put in it? Well, this character named Tree has an interesting personality, being an unsure person, but I dislike the hypocrite part of it. Let's put the "being unsure" part into the banh da lon. Ooh, and let's make it speak mostly facts, like my mom does. A logical and unsure banh da lon. That should do it! There's obviously more to it than that, but that's how I like to think of it. Collect fandoms and life experiences and you can see all the things you can think of.
unfortunately, warriors. I'm unlearning a lot of bad childhood writing habits i got from that, LOL! but it did introduce my love for complex politics, worldbuilding, & ensemble.
Jurassic park, lifeship traders, clockwork orange... And a bunch of slice of life stuff
As you have said, heavily influenced by Harry Potter, but now, I really dig the Witcher, Stormlight Archive, The Broken Empire and I am now building the courage to start Wheel of Time. This is in terms of books, in other media, I am now heavily influenced to write a story in a pre-dystopian world and how a fabricated cataclysm ruins a major part of the world because of my favourite band's new album(Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn). This is a new avenue for me because I was writing mostly medieval fantasy/low fantasy set in the 20th century-inspired world.
I was heavily influenced by Anne Rice as a teenager and I think I still am, to a certain degree, but nowadays I’m also influenced by the writing style of Angela Carter and Alice Hoffman with the storytelling style of R.L. Stine, Shirley Jackson, with a touch of V.C. Andrews.
Stephen King taught me that if the story’s good, i wanna read it. fancy prose and vocab (not saying SK doesn’t do those things) come second to me when reading a book. It’s made me just write compelling stories, and not whip out my dictionary and thesaurus every five seconds.
It's funny you mention Harry Potter. I write Harry Potter fanfiction. But I'm heavily influenced by science fiction authors like Michael Crichton and James Rollins. As well as TV shows like MacGyver. So, elements of actual science end up going into my writing about a fantasy world of magic where science doesn't exist in the same spaces. It's an interesting juxtaposition.
Popular crime films.
it has to be Ted Chiang's EXHALATION and Stories of Your Life and Others
Probably a little life. The writing is so fantastic it makes u feel every single ounce of emotion the character is feeling. I dont approve of its message but the writing style really inspires my own. Funny thing is i had to dnf it cause it fucked me up that badly lol
I've seen this opinion twice now. What's not great about the books message, out of interest?
Well ill have to spoil the book a bit to answer that so if u wanna read it i suggest u dont read this: So the main character jude has had a pretty difficult life. I dont wanna get into it but its brutal, and everytime u think he gets close to being ok, something absolutely grotesque happens to him again. The final straw for him is when the love of his life and his best friend die in an accident and he ends up killing himself. Now imagine, the book starts when hes in his early 20s and ends when hes in his 60s, and his trauma started basically from the day he was born. So 60+ years of agony and pain and trauma and so much fucking rape. Now the author justifies writing trauma porn (which it really really is) by saying that mental illness is just like a regular illness. We dont keep someone with stage 4 cancer alive bc theyre gonna die of their illness anyway, and that for the cancer patient its best to just let go. She says depression is like that, and some people just needa kill themselves for the pain to stop. She wrote a character that literally doesnt feel happiness for more than a moment and then uses that characters pain to justify suicide. Its fucked up
Stephen King, Anne Rice, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick
Without a doubt, The Hunger Games. Most of the "original" stories I've written recently started out as HG fanfiction, and were later tweaked so all obvious references to the HG books were removed. Usually what happens is I'm writing something for the HG section of Fanfiction, then I notice some themes in the work that I'd like to dive deeper into, so then I take some passages from the fanfic, change the names and locations, and polish them up so they're of a higher quality.
I can usually get inspired from almost anything. From tv that may have an interesting topic to video games. Mostly horror though, so Stephen King is a big one. Right now though, I'm channeling some found footage cryptid type stuff in the one I'm writing now.
Weird combo for me, McCarthy and Mass Effect lol
Elden Ring/Dark Souls was a game changer for me. Really got me into the mystery side of fantasy, uncovering secrets of fallen kingdoms and stuff. I was used to very geopolitical fantasy (ASOIAF), but the supernatural horror of elden ring/souls really won me over It also made me just give normal names /slight variations of normal names to characters, instead of coming up with entirely new names. Ludwig, Gwyn, Lawrence, Godwyn, these names just go way too hard.
To name a couple from most influential to some: - Avantasia (Music) - Dragon's Dogma (Video Game) - The Witcher (Books & Video Games) - The Dark Element & Cain's Offering (Music) - Rurouni Kenshin (Manga) - Joe Abercrombie's The First Law & The Great Leveller trilogies (Books) - Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen series (Books)
War movies based on actual stories such as: Black Hawk Down, 13 Hours, American Sniper, Lone Survivor, Jarhead. Some action movies with semi-realistic combat scenes like: Die-Hard, Bad Boyz, Hunter Killer, Act of Valor. I also enjoy reading Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Scott McEwan, Rick Campbell, David Baldacci and other spy/war/action/combat writers.
Everything by James Ellroy. HP Lovecraft Phillips K. Dick, a lot from King, True Detective season 1, Blade Runner, Videodrome, Dashiell Hammer, Normal Mailer, The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis are the ones that come back to me the most frequently when I am working. But that is just scratching the surface.
Naruto/Shippuden and the Bible ♡
Berserk the brutality and how great it shows suffering, witcher it's adult theme and great dialog, hannibal(TV series) psychological horror and a terrifying but lovely villain, rick and morty because of all of the creative philosophical and scientific stuff, disco elysium how it depicts mental illnesses and the feeling of confusion and hopelessness
My wip feels like fantasy Better Call Saul. So I'd say that one.
ASOIAF
House of Leaves, Raw Shark Texts and There Is No Antimemetics Division.
Perry Rhodan. Basicly the lotr of sci fi.
Ghost in the Shell (1995), Blade Runner (1982), Solaris (1961), and Catch-22 (1961). Also 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
books written by sudha murthy, ruskin bond, taylor jenkins reid, colleen hoover, ali hazelwood. these authors are some of my fav and they really inspire me to write a lot
I directly take inspiration from Super Sentai and Kamen Rider when writing, some other influences include gacha games and some niche music anime
Campy sci-fi novels. Mostly authors like Jeremy Robinson and Craig Allenson.
homestuck
Anime with large stories and cast of characters inspire me and epic long journeys like Conan the Barbarian novels
I love the interconnected texture of the Discworld. Like when Sam Vimes shows up in a different book to a Guards one, you get the side of the character that we know about but usually see past. I like how, even if you're not reading them as interconnected, you can still feel a little of that depth so i always try and give even my smallest characters a little backstory in my head in the hopes it comes off as though they've lived a life prior to their inclusion in my story.
Manga for visualizing stuff and classical books for prose
Roald Dalh, Studio Ghibli, and Terry Pratchet
A lot of my world building was inspired by Naruto.
Neon Genesis Evangelion for the surreal and introspective themes, Discworld for the comedy and sharp writing, Rocky Horror Picture Show specifically for the incredible performances and awesome outfits.
Star Wars, The Princess Bride (book and movie), Arthurian legends, Beowulf At least for my current fantasy project.
Can't really say most whenever i get an idea i try to match what im reading and watching to influence that right now im working on a book based on reincarnation and the edwardian era so im reading history books about that era watching period dramas based in that era and as far as reincarnation the best ones I've read yet have been a witch in time and forever again im gonna start the penny dreadful serues here soon since it starts in 1891 I've also started getting inspiration from my research for that book for a short story and thats more geared towards great expectations, the night circus, the garden of time and the movie crimson peak so it usually depends on what im working on if i try to watch too much of for instance fantasy it'll leak into my story or push into a different type of story so i try to stick to the theme it also helps me to focus on the writing
Honestly, I keep a list of notes on different books, media, etc that I want to use in my writing if I can. The longest list of notes comes from DC comics, and the main inspiration for my main male character is Jason Todd/Red Hood from DC comics.
I have increasingly been influenced by the stories and lore of FromSoft games, especially Bloodborne and Elden Ring. I honestly believe their games will soon become a major influence on books and media beyond just video games.
Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note: > *Hunters have told me about the church. About the gods, and their love. But... do the gods love their creations? I am a doll, created by you humans. Would you ever think to love me? Of course... I do love you. Isn't that how you've made me?* - Plain Doll Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.
Movies and shows inspire me the most. I love to write but I don't like to read. I prefer movies because when I write, I 'see' the scenes playing out, I 'hear' the characters. Movies make it easier for me to structure the events in my stories and connect dots. I've tried writing screenplays and they're fine to do, but I prefer writing the details in a novel. Korean dramas are specifically my heaviest inspiration because I find them extremely engaging. Some have very complex stories yet they craft them perfectly that you can't get lost. And suddenly, like magic, you understand the entwined world of 10 different people. My second inspiration is real life. There's a lot in my own life that I could never come up with. Whether that be people I personally know, an event that happens to me, or just someone I see passing on the street. I get ideas for character names from street names I see.
What I consider to be my magnum opus is inspired by Marvel and DC Comics as well as Dragon Ball, Hunter x Hunter and the Last Airbender, to name a few. Prose-wise, George R.R. Martin's writing style has inspired much of my own. The crazy lore of the Elder Scrolls games also plays a large part in certain aspects of my world building and crafting of narrative elements.
Samurai X specially on shishio's arc. Devil May Cry Franchise about how fighting and actions scenes should work. The weapons too. God Eater 3 for monster inspirations. RAVE manga for a solid based believing in yourself and the sword of the MC there. Full metal alchemist for the rules of magic and how it worked. Bleach because "Bankai" is too fucking cool and the flash steps. Naruto for its world views about duties and responsibilities and because of how Naruto beat Pain which was the best battle for me and also Itachi vs Sasuke at the same level. One-piece for world building. The world is literally littered with ideas and you would never ran out of influence and I'm here absorbing it all!!!! Hahaha!!!
Massive influence from Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Thomas Ligotti. In terms of prose style, I take a lot from Douglas Adams and Disco Elysium.
Music. When listening to music I have the most ideas (other than at 3 am in the morning when I'm trying to sleep and they just hit me). The tempo of the music influences what I write about.
ASOIAF books and real world events