Do you fear being influenced?

[eviladam]

I'm presentlly working on a science fiction novel and I LOVE sci fi movies, books, games ect. Only now I'm affraid to watch any of it for fear of being influenced. Do you guys have that fear?

Like I think if I watch City on the Edge of Forever from Start Trek TOS something will some how bleed over into my work. Not even any thing overt, but something.

[Qualapec]

Yes. I'm playing around with a story idea right now. My main character's a wizard and I'm worried about him being too much like Dresden. Or any other urban fantasy hero for that matter.

~She-Wolf

[Mickey Finn]

Influences happen. They're supposed it, it's part of storytelling.

Stephen King, in his introduction to Harlan Ellison's "Stalking the Nightmare," goes on about "Milk takes on the flavor of whatever it's closest to in the fridge." His best stuff seems to always be written while he's reading Ellison.

Neil Gaiman got famous being influenced by others. Hell, so did Jim.

The trick is to not make it a copy. The REAL trick is to make the influences better than the sum of the parts, which is what Jim does.

[meg_evonne]

YES.  For example I just came up with a great name for a minor character that's perfect, instant reader recognition of the type of puffed up politician, but it just "feels familiar". It's too great to let it go, but I've made it bold and bright RED so if it comes to me that I've kiped a name I can change it...  Groan.  If it hasn't been used it is ingenious.

Wanna help me remember?  It's ... ta  dahh  "Percival McKinley"  He has a flaccid tomato head that wobbles over a portly short body,wears a tie with gravy stains.  Winston Churchill without the intelligence and oratory skills, but has instinctive political dexterity.   Huhhh... well it doesn't sound all that special now does it?  Maybe I should cut and paste over to the "bad writing" thread?    I do love how it rolls around the tongue though and I look forward to wacking off his his head and letting it roll around the floor a bit...

[sights unseen]

I did in the beginning, but then I realized that being influenced by good writing is a good thing. I think all authors are influenced by those that came before them. It's only natural and besides, how else are we going to learn to write as well as our favorites if we don't absorb some of the 'flavor' that King and Mickey referred to?

Kelley Armstrong on her message board said she got her idea for her Bitten series by watching an episode of X-Files. And now she's on her 10 book, I think. So wherever you get your influences, if it's a good thing, use it and run with it.

I hope to be heavily influenced by Jim Butcher's and Jack Bickham's scene and sequel writing construction. I've got the stories, what I need and am working on is the structure to put them in.

[ihatepeas]

I don't think influence is something you should be afraid of. The only time it's a problem is if your work becomes derivative or plagiaristic. And if you're serious about writing, there should be enough people looking at your work (including you) to catch things like that. Influence is good. Influence is part of inspiration. I think if you push away what you love in order to write what you love, you're distancing yourself from it, and that's not good. If you're writing something close to what you're watching/reading, etc., you just need to have your antennae up and pay a bit closer attention to your writing.

--Sarah

[Nessus_Wyndestrike]

Mmmm. I must agree that I have feared being too "influenced" as it were, by other writers [like Laurell K. Hamilton, most recently with the creation of my own version of the Incubus  ]. I still do, at times. But you can work through it by engaging yourself in your own brainstorm. I guess.

And avoiding plagiarism. That's a big one too.

[Uilos]

I am constantly influenced, even without realizing it. My writing shows this. But instead of trying to cover it, I've built in my novel the conceit that people like Tolkien, Herbert, Lukyanenko, even musicians, actors and and others in history, are either a part of the "magical" world or in the Know.

For Instance, I mention that Tokiens Conceit that The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are actually translations of the Red Book of Westmarch is actually NOT a conceit

Herbert's wife was a powerful psychic, and most of his material on prescience and seeing the future is based on her beliefs and philosophies.

Lukyanenko wrote Night Watch as a tell-all book about the Russian Branch of an Agency that investigates the "Magical" world. Much like The Jungle was based on the Meat Packing industry.

I do mention JB, that he got the magic right for the most part. I also mention that JK Rowling is way off "She wrote so much about that world, do you honestly think any of us would let her live after that?"

[Spectacular Sameth]

I'm pretty sure The Dark Tower series was influenced by T.S. Elliot's "The Wasteland," but I mean, the Fisher king stuff and the Dark Tower and all that come way before T.S. Elliot.

[Dom]

Mickey Finn summed up my own opinion...you're always going to be influenced, and it only becomes an issue when the sum of your influences don't make a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.

I'll occasionally have a span of a few days where a new great book I just read colors my writing, but eventually I always turn back to my own style, as the majority of the influence 'wears off'.  Case in point, I would love to have half the talent Scott Lynch, who wrote The Lies of Locke Lamora, has.  But my personal style is, and always has been, closer to Jim Butcher's (even before I read Storm Front for the first time).

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I'm pretty sure The Dark Tower series was influenced by T.S. Elliot's "The Wasteland," but I mean, the Fisher king stuff and the Dark Tower and all that come way before T.S. Elliot.

Yes, but there's a difference between influenced by and deliberate homage and reference to, and King probably would not have used epigraphs and titles and things from "The Waste Land" if it wasn't deliberate.

[eviladam]

I just want to make sure it's as original as possible, and not just pieced together from other great sci fi. My big fear is that I'll think it's original and some one will read it and say replace willaim shatner with the guy from seven days and that's your novel. Not that my novel is any thing like either of those shows, just saying.

[Uilos]

I just want to make sure it's as original as possible, and not just pieced together from other great sci fi.

Ah, Eragon...

[meg_evonne]

An interesting quote this morning on PBS.  "Creativity does not evolve from nothingness."  Creativity evolves from our backgrounds, our morals/ethics, what we have read or seen or felt around us, which transfers to our soul. It is a jumble of mediums and thoughts. 

Creativity is not the repetition of another's work.   

Yeah, that gray, but you recognize creativity that is unique and that which is copied.  The first soars and the second crashes....

[Kristine]

If you want to check on names or specifics if things ring too familiar try googling the name.  Usually there is a fan our there somewhere who has it in a web site or, god forbid, it is an actual person of note that might take offence.

Influence isn't bad if you can make it last for the entirety of the story your writing but it doesn't work if every chapter your influenced by a different book.  Don't be afraid to read your work out loud as well.  I find that this is one way to catch when you have been thinking faster than you were writing.