Writing Inspirati

Chatterbox: Inkwell

Writing Inspirati

Writing Inspirations

This is what it sounds like— A place to talk about the people who have inspired and influenced your writing! I always think it's very interesting and reflective to think about where different aspects of our styles come from. Here are some of mine (in no particular order)!

1) Ocean Vuong. He's a poet and essayist, and his writing is absolutely phenomenal. I picked up Night Sky With Exit Wounds from my mom's dressing table and my mind was absolutely blown. I think it's the very best of everything poetry should be. Man, If I could write half as well as that...  I don't even have words. You should definitely read his work (be warned, there's some mature content). Aubade with Burning City and Telemachus are two I really like.

2) Kazuo Ishiguro. He writes novels and short stories, which are always vivid and poignant and simple in their language and yet complexly wrought it takes my breath away every time. Never Let Me Go and When We Were Orphans absolutely RUINED me. Combine gorgeous language, carefully crafted suspense, elegant writing, and plot twists that will knock you out of your chair and you have an author that I spent months desperately trying to emulate. Again, mature content (actually, that should probably be a general warning when it comes to me), but so so so good.

3) Leigh Bardugo. You all probably know of my love for Six of Crows and the Grisha Trilogy (and thE LOVE OF MY LIFE NIKOLAI LANTSOV WHO NOW HAS A WHOLE BOOK WRITTEN ABOUT HIM). The worldbuilding is just so immersive and well-done, and puts such a refreshing twist on common tropes of modern fantasy. I don't write fantasy much, but when I do, I definitely take inspiration from Bardugo's masterful worldbuilding. Everything is so thought out it feels like the world could be real. 

4) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a novelist/essayist. Besides being an amazing writer, I also admire her for her activism and general awesomeness as a person. I read The Thing Around Your Neck for class, fell in love, checked out Americanah from the library and quickly devoured its 500 pages. It's the kind of book that isn't easy to read, it unflinchingly deals with the difficult and the taboo and the sad, but it's overwhelmingly real in a way that you don't often see in fiction. Need I even say it? Mature content.

This got longer than I thought it would— Sorry for all my sappy gushing, haha. I just have a lot of feelings about writing and I can't wait to hear about some of yours! :D

submitted by Abigail, age Old enough, Inside my head
(February 7, 2019 - 7:50 pm)

back to the Inkwell

1. All of you guys. :) I've been reading Starseeker's novel (Take Wing) and Vyolette's (All That Glitters: The Revolution of Mineria), and both of them are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

2. Harry Potter. I reread those book so many times, trying to figure out how J.K. Rowling managed to keep them so seamless and amazing.

3. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. It's a graphic novel, and I love it SO much, and I studied it for a long time. I guess this one is really more of an art inspiration than writing.

I can't think of any other books in particular that I actually used as inspiration, rather than just loving them, but I'll post more if they occur to me! 

submitted by Kitten
(February 7, 2019 - 9:42 pm)
submitted by a top of faith
(February 8, 2019 - 12:46 pm)

Katherine Rundell inspires me- her prose is so beautiful, and I always get little thrills when I read her work. I want to make a story as shining as hers someday.

Mark Crilley is how I learned to draw, and while my style’s nothing like his and I don’t even like his comics that much, the bits at the end of his instruction books-‘go out, and publish’ basically-always inspired me.

Also I really like The Witch Boy, The Nameless City, and a bunch of other graphic novels that taught me I can tell whatever story I want- and draw! 

submitted by Blue Moon, age 12, Here
(February 11, 2019 - 1:02 am)
submitted by top
(February 12, 2019 - 11:49 pm)