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Reading Influencing Writing: Common Tastes
Jodi who writes at the excellent blog Write Anything blogged about reading influencing her writing and this exercise that Holly West did from the book, Writing The Break Out Novel by Donald Maas.
I’m often fascinated by how consciously and unconsciously things influence our writing, particularly what we read, as well as TV and for me at least, the political ideas and debates I’m engaged in.
I thought I’d partake in the exercise myself.
What are your top three novels?
The Green Mile by Stephen King
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
I’ve read The Green Mile numerous times, the other two only once. But I read these from start to finish and quickly, which is a divergence from my usual habit of starting and stopping many books at a time.
What do they have in common?
At first glance, and even second and third glances, these three novels seem to be worlds apart. I really had to think hard about this. But all three are fairly heavy in themes. They all encompass everything. The Green Mile struck me because it was about life and death. Norwegian Wood was about life and so was Fight Club. Not just vague “life” but the meaning of life, the purpose. They all approach it a bit differently, but all are quite sad, melancholy or aggressively critical of our lives. And all tell the story from the Point of View of a narrator after that fact.
Oh and there’s the less cool commonality in that these are very male-dominated novels.
I’m not sure that a theme or trend in my favourite novels emerged quite as strongly as in Jodi’s case, but it’s there loosely.
What do you bring into your novel from your top three favourites?
This question kind of applies to my first few novel attempts.
I must say that my conception of my first novel is a bit ambitious and almost beyond me. I want to write something all encompassing with a deep theme. The Green Mile and Fight Club both portray a sense of injustice, in a socio-political sense. Norwegian Wood does have its own sense of injustice but it’s much more personal.
I think I took that sense of injustice mostly from The Green Mile, and well before I read Fight Club. I just found the idea of the death penalty so utterly chilling.
I took the personal journey type stuff from Norwegian Wood, the whole coming of age tale thing. That’s been part of a lot of my first novel attempts.
And Fight Club influenced me with the grit, the anger and rawness. It’s mostly a stylistic influence, though I loved the political, anti-capitalist element.
I found this task difficult and clarifying. I’m sure there are other novels with other influences, both common and different to these ones, but these ones I keep remembering.
What are your three favourite novels? How are they in common? Answer the above questions if you want, post them on your blog and leave a link in the comments section.
Technorati Tags: reading, books, writing, inspiration, influences
There are 6 Comments to "Reading Influencing Writing: Common Tastes"
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One of the things I enjoy most about your blog, Ben, is that you always give me something to think about.
I have several books I can safely call favourites, but I’ve never thought about what they have in common. I’m going to give this some serious thought and get back to you later in the week.
Carol´s last blog ..Workin’ On the Railroad
Thanks Carol. I love to make people think
I’d love to see what you come up with so be sure to leave a comment with a link when you’ve posted.
Can I just say I LOVE the viral aspect of the internet and blogging – andt the community of writers. I too look forward Carol to seeing what you write. I am a bit of an “influence junkie”.
I notice you mentioned injustice for all three of the books – so that would be a commonality between them also? Fight Club is one of those books I keep meaning to read but I have never physically written down a “to read” list. Perhaps that is something I should begin doing.
I am intrigued at you wanting to explore the deeper issue of “life” and “living” … what it means to be truly and genuinely alive.
This also reminds me that I need to get back blogging.
There’s a list of questions over on my blog Benjamin you might be interested in posting here to your blog and getting your readers to vote on for you to do a sharing … seeings we’re all in a warm fuzzy (hahaha) sharing mood. http://jodicleghorn.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/chinese-whisperings-questions/
I am going to be answering a few of the questions which didn’t make it into my “take Five” list for Chinese Whisperings. Love to see what others have to say – and what questions their blog readership votes for! (does any of that make any sense at all!!!???)
Jodi Cleghorn´s last blog ..Holiday Redux
I love the viral aspect of the net. And coincidently, the viral blog posts tend to pick up the most comments.
I guess injustice is a common thread but two of them, excluding Norwegian Wood have more of sense of injustice that’s systematic rather than in Norwegian Wood where it involves one person to another. And you must read Fight Club; I love it so much.
I’m subscribed to your blog so am eagerly awaiting another post.
That Chinese Whisperings things looks intriguing. I’ll have to post them up soon too.
You must be my only subscriber … and now the pressure – phew! To produce a new blog post. I tend to save up all my good stuff for WA and write drivel on my blog!
And on that note – totally devoid of ideas for what to write this week for next week. should stop procrastinating and go write SOMETHING!
Jodi Cleghorn´s last blog ..Holiday Redux
Okay guys, I chose my three and posted them on my blog. Now I’m heading over to Jodi’s blog to take a look at those Chinese Whisperings.
Carol´s last blog ..Thursday