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Who Inspired (and inspires!) You to Write? (Or: The History of My Literary Love Affairs) Prompt 3 #swinspires
When I first began to read, it was LAURA INGALLS WILDER, E.B. WHITE, CAROLYN KEENE (who I thought was a person, not a syndicate) and FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT.
When I first began to write poetry, it was SHEL SILVERSTEIN and NAOMI SHIHAB NYE. When I poured my heart out with poetry in junior high, it was ee. (My mom kept saying, "There's a reason when he doesn't capitalize things! You're just not capitalizing things and using him as an excuse!")
When I first began to raid my mother's bookshelves, it was JANE AUSTEN, ERNEST HEMINGWAY, WILLIAM FAULKNER, WILLA CATHER, and THOMAS HARDY. (I loved MARGARET MITCHELL and DAPHNE DU MAURIER, too.)
When I first began to have my bookshelves stocked by English professors, it was EDITH WHARTON, SYLVIA PLATH, JOHN MILTON, TONI CADE BAMBARA, OVID, DENISE LEVERTOV, CHARLES DICKENS and ADRIENNE RICH. (But like every other college student, MILAN KUNDERA made me swoon.)
When I fell in love with the personal essay, it was ORWELL, DIDION, and ST. AUGUSTINE.
When I fell in love with the short story, it was CHEKOV, O'CONNOR and ALICE MUNRO.
I can't remember when I didn't love the novel. Lately it's been BOLANO, EGAN, CATHER (again, My Antonia this time), DOSTOEVSKY and JONATHAN COE. It's always TOLSTOY, AUSTEN, ELIOT, and BALZAC.
Over the years my writing teachers, including HOPE EDELMAN, DIANE MIDDLEBROOK, RICHARD HOWARD and FRANCINE PROSE, have inspired me with their writing and with the writers they love -- writers' writers, as they say. And for me it was PROUST, REBECCA WEST, EMILY DICKINSON, JOSEPH MITCHELL, LYDIA DAVIS and HENRY GREEN.
Last night PATTI SMITH made me wild with inspiration. JUST KIDS is one of the most perfectly rendered books I've ever read. Her style, her poeticism, her honesty, her bravery, her words! I wrote for hours last night.
My friends AMY FOX, NANCY K. MILLER, and DEBORAH SIEGEL remind me that I'm a writer, even when I don't write. (My mom and dad do that, too.) And whenever I hear my sons say, "mommy is a writer," I know I am. Twenty-two years of journals, kept almost exclusively in spiral notebooks, tell me that too.
Who inspired you to write? Who inspires you now? Tell us the story of your literary love affairs.
And don't forget, as I just did, the juicy and addictive as well as the high-minded. (My juicy and addictive list...AGATHA CHRISTIE, ANNE RICE, V.C. ANDREWS, FRANK HERBERT, JUDY BLUME, DAN BROWN.) All are part of what makes us writers. And all speak to our lifelong love affairs with reading, too.
RELATED:
Follow the thread of INSPIRATION and read fellow She Writers' responses to the prompts.
Recommend--and receive--at the She Writes Recomm-engine. All your book giving and gifting queries in one place!
Comment
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Comment by RYCJ on December 21, 2010 at 7:34pm -
I always wanted to write, however in as far as technique, I like to think it was writers like Edward Keyes, Truman Capote, Gerald Frank and a number of other similar writers I used to read in my pre-teens. It was the 'then this happened, then that,' and so forth that stuck with me. Something like, just tell the story and move on without the frills.
Shakespeare was another. Loved the fact that educators were persistent about interpreting his work.
Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings also was a great inspiration.
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Comment by Marina DelVecchio on December 20, 2010 at 9:09pm -
Bronte's Jane Eyre inspires me. I was in middle school the first time I read the book, and I was amazed that Jane and I lived parallel lives. She was my first friend and sister, and she the first person to explain people to me so that I could understand why they acted as they did -- why I felt so alone. She saved me --
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Comment by Marcy Gray Rubin on December 16, 2010 at 11:44am -
That's easy. Jean Kerr. I remember reading her book "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," when I was nine. It was a collection of essays --Nora Ephron before there was a Nora Ephron. I read it and laughed out loud and thought...women can be funny, they can think funny and they can write funny about anything. She wrote about living in New York City, basing her career as a writer on the fact she could sleep late in the mornings, her shopping for the perfect black dress, training her dog, training her four sons, training her husband the theater critic, Walter Kerr.
After reading all of her books I wanted to write just like her. To take ordinary things and see them through the lens of funny. Even today after I continue reading authors who make me laugh -- Jane Austen, PG Wodehouse, Nick Hornby, Woody Allen, Tom Rachman, I still think ...What would Jean Kerr Say?
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Comment by Kierie on December 16, 2010 at 8:40am -
Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder When I was little Willa Cather and Edith Wharton in HS.
My 8th Grade English Teacher Mrs. Cohn. She told me on the morning of 8th Grade Graduation that Kieran Bridget O'Brien was the perfect name for an Author :D
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Comment by The Salonniere on December 16, 2010 at 8:37am -
This is wonderful -- huge thanks to Juliet's English teacher, White Buffalo Woman, Mrs. Garcia, Louisa May Alcott and Lucy Maud Montgomery, Cali's late mother (what a bittersweet inspiration that is), and Linda's thoughtful readers.
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Comment by Juliet Wilson on December 16, 2010 at 1:20am -
I had a brilliant English teacher at school who really inspired me to read. My early literary inspirations were Jane Austen and the Brontes. My grandparents bought me a wonderful poetry anthology when I was very young which meant that from a very early age I was a poetry fan.
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Comment by Amy Jo Sprague on December 15, 2010 at 8:47pm -
My Sociology professor/author, she was a Medicine Woman of the Lakota Tribe known as White Buffalo Woman. She knew before I did that really I was a writer that wasn't following my passion. She helped get me into the private arts college where I soared in writing. I'm forever grateful for her.
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Comment by Chimica Robinson on December 15, 2010 at 7:54pm -
When I was in the 2nd grade I had this amazing teacher; MRS. Garcia. We had this story to write and I wrote a story called "Tommy No Trunk " She took me to the side, told me the story was amazing and she would enter it into this writing contest thing where they preform the story to the whole school. I was in shock of course. And my story won 1st place for my grade that month/quarter! The day I came back with my award she took me to the side again and said " Chimica, you were born to write. Don't let anyone tell you other wise. " I was 7 years old then but her words are always what I remember whenever I'm having a day when I feel like I'm a bad writer. She inspired me because she really did believe in me just like my family did.
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Comment by Patricia Anne McGoldrick on December 15, 2010 at 6:06pm -
My earliest writing inspirations were:
- Louisa May Alcott from the U.S.--Little Women, Eight Cousins;
- Lucy Maud Montgomery from Canada--Anne of Green Gables.
Their characters resonated with me & spurred me on to become a writer!
The duality of inspiration continued when, later, as a teen, American author, James Michener interested me along with Canadian authors, Margaret Atwood & Margaret Laurence.
Patricia
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Comment by cali yost on December 15, 2010 at 6:03pm -
My late mother inspires me to write. When I was a little girl, I spent at least one day a week at the public library hanging out with my mother who was a voracious reader. It wasn't until I published my first book five years ago that I realized she was also a frustrated writer. She was a child psychologist and wanted to write a book about how every child is special. When she died I found her notes and an outline, but no book. Now the world will never have her unique wisdom. I wonder how many children and families might have been helped. I write because my mother couldn't and should have.
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