Everyone has their influences and teachers. These are some of mine:
From J. R. R. Tolkien, I learned about sub-creation.
From Orson Scott Card, I learned that a world is only as good as its characters.
From George R. R. Martin, I learned that every character should have a name. From Masashi Kishimoto, I learned that every character should have a story.
From Chris Avellone, I learned that a well-designed character, no matter how complex, is definable in one interesting sentence.
Also from Orson, I learned that cliche is not a bad place to start, but a terrible place to stop.
From Chris Baron, I learned that revision can make anything better. From George Lucas, I learned that it is possible to revise too much.
From David Mack, I learned that writing is like exercise - the hard part is sitting down to do it. On my own I figured out that, most of the time, I don't actually want to write; I just want to have written.
I'm still working on that last one.
1 comment:
Excellent post. I've never really thought about why my influences influenced me and what they actually gave me other than the fact that I enjoyed the way they write. Ambrosia for the mind.
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