This week, I’m going to be reflecting on how my favorite books have impacted and inspired me in the journey of becoming a writer and author myself. At the beginning of the journey, it’s easy and clear which books sparked my interest in becoming a writer – but as the path continues, it gets grayer, with a few interesting standouts. Ultimately, the short list I’ve compiled (chronologically) is this:
1. Eragon/The Inheritance Cycle – Christopher Paolini
2. Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
4. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
5. Neuromancer – William Gibson
6. Roadside Picnic - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
7. The Color of Magic/Discworld – Terry Pratchett
So let’s break tell the story of how these stories became important to me.
We’ll begin with Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. My parents gifted the second and third books in the Inheritance Cycle to me in middle school, believing I’d already read Eragon. I hadn’t, but I’d seen the movie (in retrospect, not even close to the quality of the book) and was well-known to love anything with dragons in it. Immediately, I began the series from the summary of Eragon, through book two and three, then back to book one, and I read the books over and over in anticipation of the final instalment, Inheritance. And on one particular read-through, something magical happened. I sat on the couch thinking, that can’t be it. It can’t be over! There has to be more... and within a few minutes it had turned into a strange idea - what if I wrote more?
And thus, a writer was born.
I took a journal with me to summer camp and wrote like Paolini – or tried to. When I finally typed it all up, it was less than ten pages and exceedingly crappy. But it was a start.
In an effort not to ruin something so beloved, I turned my attentions to Harry Potter – which was useful, even if my enthusiasm has waned in correlation with the author's problematic beliefs and platform. I took issue with the 'next generation' and set out to write my own ideas – so I have no real regrets in taking my practice there. I certainly learned a lot about myself as a writer. And then I found Tolkien.
I’d seen him coming from miles away, like a mountain getting closer and closer in the windshield. He was one of the fantasy greats! But he was also intimidating. I watched the movies first. Only when I was stuck in an airport in high school did I buy a huge but cheap version of the whole trilogy – in paperback, which was a poor choice for holding that many pages – and then I was in awe. The world was expansive and beautiful and tragic, and the epic fantasy was epic. And this is the book I remember the most for what it showed me about what an author could do when they built their own world, and loved it. Suddenly, I wanted to do so as well – and my little dabblings with character generators and derivative works wasn’t enough. It was time to build my own worlds.
At a very similar time, I was reading Pride and Prejudice, which I would go on to reread at least 4 times and write and Extended Essay on in my Senior Year of high school. Austen’s character’s were so witty and engaging, and Elizabeth and Darcy tangibly drove the plot in ways that captivated me. The drama! The excitement! The misunderstandings! I’ll never get over the first time you read Mr. Darcy’s letter and the world turns upside down. I was so inspired by this – and wanted to create characters just as complex and interesting and human.
I began writing my own first project in earnest, with a fantasy world and an ensemble cast; that project is still dear to my heart, and I may return to it one day. And then, in the summer before Senior Year (I think), I read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
I was awed. The way that Rothfuss writes is perfect for the fantasy genre – clear yet beautiful, poetic, but not rambling – evocative. Powerfully intentional. Once again, I had a master of the craft to inspire me. I saw how deep a story could be woven, and that not all parts had to be true – that an unreliable narrator could be a complicated hero, and that sometimes bittersweet things have beautiful power. I was awed by the mirroring of the beginning to the end, and I think that’s the first time I had really felt the ‘craft’ of writing working on me. I think this is about when I realized this was something I wanted to study forever, and something I wanted to do forever, too. It was great timing – the realization helped me to decide to become an English teacher, and I did go on to double major in English and Creative Writing while in college.
College is the setting in which I ‘met’ Gibson and the Strugatskys via Neuromancer and Roadside Picnic. In fact, they appeared in the same semester, in the same class, with the same remarkable professor who had assigned a project in a prior class which has since turned into Meresthian, my current project (and world). Neuromancer is a product of its time, but is also the origin of the cyberpunk genre, and something about it stuck with me – the gloom-and-doom of dystopian futures juxtaposed with enviable technologies but with baked-in warnings – the whole thing a cautionary tale, and ultimately a bit rebellious. And then there was Roadside Picnic, which I could describe similarly, but would say is more obviously impacted by its context (the authors were born and raised in the USSR.) It’s a philosophical sci-fi, and if you’ve never read it, you should. Both of these works really made me see just how much we can comment on society by abstracting it into fantasy – because windows become mirrors, if we take a moment to reflect on ourselves and our society. They taught me the power of the 'what-if?'
At that point in college, I’d already published my first short story, and had more on the way, and I was balancing multiple large, longform fantasy ideas. I’m glad to say that Meresthian was one of them, and I’m grateful for all the lessons I’ve absorbed throughout my journey, because each has made that project stronger. I finished my undergrad, got my Masters (in Education), began teaching, and decided to commit to finishing one main project: Meresthian. I’d been really focused on Meresthian for a year-ish when I began reading Pratchett, and truthfully, he combined all of the above lessons in such a fun, witty, enjoyable way that I was floored. I’m certainly no Pratchett, but I’d certainly like to be more like him. He was a reminder that ultimately, fantasy authors (and readers) can have fun while still saying the most important stuff.
In truth, I’d be honored to be like any of these authors – and I’d be honored to tell stories half as good as theirs. If you’ve never read one or more of those books, I do highly recommend checking them out! They might teach you something about their genre, they might teach you something about the world – and heck – they might even teach you something about yourselves.
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