By Len Lawson
It is
a crucial benefit for writers to discover the authors who have had the most
significant influence on their work. This revelation will help us to understand
what type of writers we truly are and in what direction our writing can and
should go. Without knowing who has influenced us, it remains difficult,
especially for beginners, to understand how we write. However, we do not have
to become the same authors as others who have influenced us. We should use this
knowledge as a door to greater awareness of our individual craft.
For
example, I first became interested in literature in high school. We read the
classics like Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and others, but the one author
we read who intrigued me most was Zora Neale Hurston. When we read her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, I was
overwhelmed with Hurston's diction and dialogue.
Reading
Hurston led me to my writing idol at the time Toni Morrison. However, when I
made the decision to become a writer, my words came out similar to Morrison’s
words with long sentences and many adjectives. When I first allowed others to
read my writing, its density confused them. Moreover, I discovered that
Morrison read much of William Faulkner’s and Virginia Woolf’s writing before
writing her own. Her works are really a combination of both their styles.
I
realized that if I were to become a serious writer, then I would have to
develop my own style. Nonetheless, my influences instantly came out onto the
pages because I had read so much of them. I channeled Hemingway’s use of
dialogue in a matter-of-fact tone. I disseminated Hurston’s African American
dialogue in some of my writing with Southern settings. Furthermore, yes, I did
use what I learned from Morrison’s uniqueness yet sparingly so as not to
confuse my readers. I incorporated the best of those authors fused with my own
creativity and paradigm.
The
result has been a style all my own. Critics might say that I am simply copying
other writers and pasting them into my work. I say that without reading a
variety of styles, writers cannot discover their own. I leave these tips for us
to discover who our writing influences are and to discover who we are as
writers:
- What
writers do you enjoy reading? What is great about these writers and their
works?
- What
can you detect in your own writing that resembles what you see in other
writers you have read?
- What
else can you learn about these writers that can better influence your
writing (i.e. their biography or autobiography, how they became writers,
what writers influenced them)?
- Which
of these writers’ works, if any, most resemble your own?
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