Vonnegut is certainly a key part of my own literary DNA. I've never found a way for him to really manifest in my screenwriting, but he's always there when I write fiction. Brilliant author.
My early model was Arthur Ransome, and he can still teach us a thing or two. If you can write for children in a way that’s still satisfying for adult readers, you’re doing something right.
As an adult, my primary inspiration is Ursula K Le Guin.
The SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS sequence is among my frequent rereads. My grandmother had the whole collection at her holiday home at the Rangitata rivermouth, and I used to look forward to spending summers there because I could reread Arthur Ransome. I think WE DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA is probably my favorite. And of course, the first three books of EARTHSEA by Le Guin are right up there with the best.
Jack London. Not just his writings; his incredible life, his unwillingness to be straight-jacketed to formulas or conventionalities, and his amazing ability to interpret the thoughts of animals. Just not the alcohol and drug addictions that killed him.
His willingness to see people and the parts of life that others were ignoring/overlooking is extraordinary too. The People of the Abyss is an incredible work, as it highlights the treatment, the systems, the classism towards, the sadness and humanity of those experiencing homelessness or a life of economic insecurity.
Pratchett. Conveys complex moral ideas in memorably, understandable fashion and is fun and funny to boot. I want to write like Pratchett when I grow up.
Stephen King - love his writing, characters, and stories, but the one thing that has really stuck with me is that in a story, there's really never one monster.
Flannery O'Connor. I have to say Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Henry James, too, but O'Connor nudges them all out for top spot. She dove into the darkest yet the simplest parts of human nature and shared them in ways readers connect with - whether they want to or not.
O'Connor, yes! Yes to all these picks. You're clearly a super-fan of James, though, judging by your Substack. Introduce your obsession to my readers and share your Substack with them if you want!
Margery Allingham. As a young teen, when I first read her I was aware there was a level of her writing I was missing out on. I still enjoyed the books but I needed a few years more maturity to appreciate her delicate touch, implying details and context without shouting them out loud.
I've read so many novels that it's often easy to pick out the dropped clue hidden in plain sight in books and on the screen in the early stages of a story that proves decisive. Allingham's beautiful conjuring of a sense of awe and mystery still delights me and I still enjoy rereading her writing.
I wrote this above: If an author under 50 tells me Stephen King didn't leave his mark on them, I grow very dubious of said author. (Same goes for screenwriters of any kind.)
I don't know about prose style, but for me, the essays in Spider Robinson's _Time Travellers Strictly Cash_ were an excellent example of thinking in public. From an early column of criticism (which he describes in retrospect as, at one point, "the amateur playing the bloodthirsty"), a tribute to Robert Heinlein ("You can’t copyright ideas; you can only copyright specific arrangements of words. If you could copyright ideas, every living SF writer would be paying a substantial royalty to Robert Heinlein.") and his tribute to the community of fandom ("Web Of Sanity") it's a nice balance of someone finding their own voice in dialogue with a broader world.
It makes me a little sad that most of them are not available online.
Yes, it's one of the oddities of the substack interface. I commented and checked the box "share as note" (which becomes a restack) and I think you ended up replying to the note.
On a completely unrelated topic, I'll share this video with you that I've just been finding fascinating -- because you're interested in the working lives of artists. This is an interview about the process of writing / producing a song (in this case the title track from an album they had just released) and all of the steps in the process.
I don't know if you have any interest in music recording, but it's such a cool idea for an interview, it seemed like something you might either enjoy or have reason to pass along to someone else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ5EvvUHWGw
Actually, I've just had a look at this YouTube link. I haven't listened yet, but it does look like what the Song Exploder podcast is also doing. Check that out if you haven't!
Thanks for sharing, Nick. I've saved it at YouTube to watch later. As for Substack's interface quirk, yes, it's odd. You would think me commenting on your restack of anything I wrote would show up at the source...but alas.
I think the greatest influence on my writing has been Sue Monk Kidd. The warmth of her prose, the way sentences parse, the subtle imagery, the careful attention to the sound of the words and the deep affection for the human soul. But there are several close seconds as influencers. Anne Tyler, Ann Patchet, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Ondaatje, Julie Myerson and A L Kennedy have all impacted my style. Perhaps something these writers have in common is an understanding that language is music and music can take you on a journey.
I would say Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, The Long Way Down, About a Boy) for infusing wit and dark humour with heartfelt epiphanies of connection. Also Joseph Heller (Catch-22) for a similar reason. His prose is loaded with puns, alliteration and repetition that is equally satisfying and memorable.
Heller was a huge, huge influence on my writing...but Hornby also arrived at a point in my life when I needed him most and showed me how to be both literary and entertaining outside of genre. I love him for that.
Oh man. There is no single one and I’m about to over-answer, ha.
It’s a cliche but my mom put Jane Austen in my hands when I was in 4th grade and I still feel it all the time. Both for novels as a means to examine people and behavior, and certain things about humor and cadence of sentences.
Madeleine L’Engle, my childhood favorite, for all kinds of things about thematic and emotional richness. It’s less about style, and more about the kind of profound and difficult truths novels could depict in relatively straightforward terms.
Elena Ferrante in adulthood for how to write unflinchingly about female experience, and also because of how much momentum she could generate through the ferocity of a first person POV.
But honestly my biggest crash course in fiction, particularly the mechanics of narrative, was actually my first couple of years as a script reader. Learned more about writing stories from that than I did from my entire formal education. Also how I learned to write dialogue, and certain things about how to be effective with descriptive detail. And I’m not a screenwriter, I only write prose. Maybe that’s kind of cheating the question, but it’s true! And I tell this to prose fiction writers *a lot.*
It's actually frightening how influential Austen has been on my life -- not just as a storyteller. I think her passion for English culture and the countryside made me fall in love with the country to such a degree I couldn't stop myself from moving there later in life. When my UK agent said, "What do you want to write most?" I said, Jane Austen adaptations. She said some version of, "That's interesting, but we already have a few screenwriters who do that and nobody else is going to get hired to do the same in this country until they're dead." Luckily, I'm patient...
I have never been to the English countryside and between Austen and the Brontës I basically regard it as a holy pilgrimage, ha! I took an entire course on Austen when I was at UMich (you also went there, no?) and it was amazing.
I can’t pick just one. When I was in high school, I read every book written by Hemingway and Faulkner that I could get my hands on. I simply loved their books but I couldn’t find more divergent styles if I tried. I loved the crispness of Hemingway and the lush, sweeping poetry of Faulkner. My teachers wanted me to write more like Hemingway, but I fell into the emotion of Faulkner. My own style is somewhere between the two. I think I have always had my own style because I admired two such divergent writers.
Couldn't pick one, so... The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera). Cold Comfort Farm (Gibbons). The Portrait of a Lady (James). Praiseworthy (Wright). Angel (Taylor). The Collector (Fowles)
Hi all - with Cole's kind permission, I would love to invite you to It's All About Henry James, where I talk about, you know. Henry James, in different ways than you might expect. I also post cat photos with James quotes in my Notes almost every day: https://itsallabouthenryjames.substack.com/
Kurt Vonnegut. Simple, direct prose with a loopy (and justifiably cynical) outlook on humans.
Vonnegut is certainly a key part of my own literary DNA. I've never found a way for him to really manifest in my screenwriting, but he's always there when I write fiction. Brilliant author.
I felt his influence in one episode of Chernobyl. The one with the pets. I asked Craig Mazin if he was a Vonnegut fan and he said, “Who isn’t?”
My early model was Arthur Ransome, and he can still teach us a thing or two. If you can write for children in a way that’s still satisfying for adult readers, you’re doing something right.
As an adult, my primary inspiration is Ursula K Le Guin.
Great authors - but I was especially influenced by Le Guin, so I really appreciate seeing her name show up here.
The SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS sequence is among my frequent rereads. My grandmother had the whole collection at her holiday home at the Rangitata rivermouth, and I used to look forward to spending summers there because I could reread Arthur Ransome. I think WE DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA is probably my favorite. And of course, the first three books of EARTHSEA by Le Guin are right up there with the best.
Jack London. Not just his writings; his incredible life, his unwillingness to be straight-jacketed to formulas or conventionalities, and his amazing ability to interpret the thoughts of animals. Just not the alcohol and drug addictions that killed him.
Loved CALL OF THE WILD. It got me going on other books like Richard Adams' WATERSHIP DOWN and SHARDIK.
His willingness to see people and the parts of life that others were ignoring/overlooking is extraordinary too. The People of the Abyss is an incredible work, as it highlights the treatment, the systems, the classism towards, the sadness and humanity of those experiencing homelessness or a life of economic insecurity.
I've never read THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS, but you've really sold me on it, Susan. Thank you.
This is not an author I expected to be cited here. I appreciate seeing his name.
Pratchett. Conveys complex moral ideas in memorably, understandable fashion and is fun and funny to boot. I want to write like Pratchett when I grow up.
Do you have a favorite Pratchett novel? I feel like you've cited one before here...
Its hard to nail down just one, but Night Watch, Small Gods, and Feet of Clay all hold special place in my heart.
Stephen King - love his writing, characters, and stories, but the one thing that has really stuck with me is that in a story, there's really never one monster.
If an author under 50 tells me Stephen King didn't leave his mark on them, I grow very dubious of said author.
Flannery O'Connor. I have to say Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Henry James, too, but O'Connor nudges them all out for top spot. She dove into the darkest yet the simplest parts of human nature and shared them in ways readers connect with - whether they want to or not.
O'Connor, yes! Yes to all these picks. You're clearly a super-fan of James, though, judging by your Substack. Introduce your obsession to my readers and share your Substack with them if you want!
Thank you - not sure how I would do that? Just here?
Yeah, absolutely. You can just share a link, but maybe a few sentences about what your Substack is about to inspire people to click on it!
Ray Bradbury for sure. Stephen King. Raymond Chandler.
What a trifecta of influences.
Margery Allingham. As a young teen, when I first read her I was aware there was a level of her writing I was missing out on. I still enjoyed the books but I needed a few years more maturity to appreciate her delicate touch, implying details and context without shouting them out loud.
I've read so many novels that it's often easy to pick out the dropped clue hidden in plain sight in books and on the screen in the early stages of a story that proves decisive. Allingham's beautiful conjuring of a sense of awe and mystery still delights me and I still enjoy rereading her writing.
I've never read Allingham, but I love this description of her work. Thank you.
Stephen King. No other writer comes close.
I wrote this above: If an author under 50 tells me Stephen King didn't leave his mark on them, I grow very dubious of said author. (Same goes for screenwriters of any kind.)
I don't know about prose style, but for me, the essays in Spider Robinson's _Time Travellers Strictly Cash_ were an excellent example of thinking in public. From an early column of criticism (which he describes in retrospect as, at one point, "the amateur playing the bloodthirsty"), a tribute to Robert Heinlein ("You can’t copyright ideas; you can only copyright specific arrangements of words. If you could copyright ideas, every living SF writer would be paying a substantial royalty to Robert Heinlein.") and his tribute to the community of fandom ("Web Of Sanity") it's a nice balance of someone finding their own voice in dialogue with a broader world.
It makes me a little sad that most of them are not available online.
We discussed this elsewhere. Thanks for the tips!
Yes, it's one of the oddities of the substack interface. I commented and checked the box "share as note" (which becomes a restack) and I think you ended up replying to the note.
On a completely unrelated topic, I'll share this video with you that I've just been finding fascinating -- because you're interested in the working lives of artists. This is an interview about the process of writing / producing a song (in this case the title track from an album they had just released) and all of the steps in the process.
I don't know if you have any interest in music recording, but it's such a cool idea for an interview, it seemed like something you might either enjoy or have reason to pass along to someone else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ5EvvUHWGw
Actually, I've just had a look at this YouTube link. I haven't listened yet, but it does look like what the Song Exploder podcast is also doing. Check that out if you haven't!
Thanks for the reminder; I should check out Song Exploder.
(In this case I found the video because I've just been into that song right now).
Thanks for sharing, Nick. I've saved it at YouTube to watch later. As for Substack's interface quirk, yes, it's odd. You would think me commenting on your restack of anything I wrote would show up at the source...but alas.
I think the greatest influence on my writing has been Sue Monk Kidd. The warmth of her prose, the way sentences parse, the subtle imagery, the careful attention to the sound of the words and the deep affection for the human soul. But there are several close seconds as influencers. Anne Tyler, Ann Patchet, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Ondaatje, Julie Myerson and A L Kennedy have all impacted my style. Perhaps something these writers have in common is an understanding that language is music and music can take you on a journey.
"Perhaps something these writers have in common is an understanding that language is music and music can take you on a journey."
I love this description of language/literature.
I would say Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, The Long Way Down, About a Boy) for infusing wit and dark humour with heartfelt epiphanies of connection. Also Joseph Heller (Catch-22) for a similar reason. His prose is loaded with puns, alliteration and repetition that is equally satisfying and memorable.
Heller was a huge, huge influence on my writing...but Hornby also arrived at a point in my life when I needed him most and showed me how to be both literary and entertaining outside of genre. I love him for that.
100% Heller for me. Catch-22 broke my young brain in exactly the best ways.
Oh man. There is no single one and I’m about to over-answer, ha.
It’s a cliche but my mom put Jane Austen in my hands when I was in 4th grade and I still feel it all the time. Both for novels as a means to examine people and behavior, and certain things about humor and cadence of sentences.
Madeleine L’Engle, my childhood favorite, for all kinds of things about thematic and emotional richness. It’s less about style, and more about the kind of profound and difficult truths novels could depict in relatively straightforward terms.
Elena Ferrante in adulthood for how to write unflinchingly about female experience, and also because of how much momentum she could generate through the ferocity of a first person POV.
But honestly my biggest crash course in fiction, particularly the mechanics of narrative, was actually my first couple of years as a script reader. Learned more about writing stories from that than I did from my entire formal education. Also how I learned to write dialogue, and certain things about how to be effective with descriptive detail. And I’m not a screenwriter, I only write prose. Maybe that’s kind of cheating the question, but it’s true! And I tell this to prose fiction writers *a lot.*
It's actually frightening how influential Austen has been on my life -- not just as a storyteller. I think her passion for English culture and the countryside made me fall in love with the country to such a degree I couldn't stop myself from moving there later in life. When my UK agent said, "What do you want to write most?" I said, Jane Austen adaptations. She said some version of, "That's interesting, but we already have a few screenwriters who do that and nobody else is going to get hired to do the same in this country until they're dead." Luckily, I'm patient...
I have never been to the English countryside and between Austen and the Brontës I basically regard it as a holy pilgrimage, ha! I took an entire course on Austen when I was at UMich (you also went there, no?) and it was amazing.
Yes, I did go there -- though I took my Austen studies class at the University of New South Wales, which I also attended.
I can’t pick just one. When I was in high school, I read every book written by Hemingway and Faulkner that I could get my hands on. I simply loved their books but I couldn’t find more divergent styles if I tried. I loved the crispness of Hemingway and the lush, sweeping poetry of Faulkner. My teachers wanted me to write more like Hemingway, but I fell into the emotion of Faulkner. My own style is somewhere between the two. I think I have always had my own style because I admired two such divergent writers.
These are such difference authors! I mean, really. I can't imagine two more polar opposite writers to learn language from.
Couldn't pick one, so... The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera). Cold Comfort Farm (Gibbons). The Portrait of a Lady (James). Praiseworthy (Wright). Angel (Taylor). The Collector (Fowles)
But they're brilliant picks!
Hi all - with Cole's kind permission, I would love to invite you to It's All About Henry James, where I talk about, you know. Henry James, in different ways than you might expect. I also post cat photos with James quotes in my Notes almost every day: https://itsallabouthenryjames.substack.com/