What type of literature inspires your writing?

For example, does your style of writing mirror webnovels, lightnovels, traditional, or something else? Maybe even a mix?

Personally, I'm big on light novels. If I had to say, my biggest inspiration is Kamachi (author of the Toaru series). Definitely my all time favorite light novel.

i grew up with a grandfather and a father that seemed brave, in that they were unafraid to read. which means both basements had old wooden shelves and boxes around, both filled with paperbacks. To Granddad, books were an expensive luxury item. Being able to read a novel straight through in decent time then discuss it for conversation? Was a mark of distinction when he was young. In both my basement and granddad's basement growing up... if I got bored, I could paw through the book shelves and the boxes of paperbacks. Rearrange the "library" to my tastes.

Series? "Spenser" novels, "Quiller" novels, Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt novels, Casca: the Eternal Mercenary, "The Executioner", Doc Savage, Tarzan, Parker, Travis McGee.

There were multiples of certain spy novel authors, espionage novels.
There were an amazing number of what I called "bug books". (the bugs are taking over, Horror style).
There werea certain number of "the big pandemic" books. (Spore 7 , Andromeda strain, The Omni-sea)
There was a bigger KING section and a small "Koontz" section.
Serial Killers and tracking them down was clearly a thing.
Science fiction had its own shelf.
There was "any number" of one-offs.

The one common thread I can take through all of these.
1. being big and strong and tough, is fine... but only to a point.
2. being smarter than everyone else, that's the real weapon.
3. when you come up with a unique strategy, you have a chance.

These things ranged form the late 50s, then more thru the 60s. They surged in the 70s and 80s. They slacked off in the early 90s.
There was some kind of a wide "golden era" in there for me.

when I write? ^^^^^ is what I want it to read like.
Its what I miss today, and I can't be alone.
I don't expect to become a millionaire if I pull it off,
I would be content to grind out minimum wage full time per week.
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Smut
Monster Girl Smut to be exact.

Okay fine my inspirations comes from many years of story telling from childhood cartoons, video games, movies, and of course from literature as well as Mangas and Anime.

My current biggest inspiration comes from Baldurs Gate 3, Game of Thrones, Freiran, Inuyasha, and Trigon

I really dig the OSHA handbook, FM 4-20.100 manuals as well as field safety and health manuals.

On that note, I do believe veering away from the standard story driven narratives can indeed help to broaden your horizon in topics less traversed.

Try some non-contemporary literature - I will individually explain how they affect oneself to apply onto your writing.

1. [Aristotle : Nicomachean ethics]
- This one if you want to learn character development through actions. Make characters more relatable when they have extremes. Eg Corwadice to Rashness

2. [Kant : Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals]
- This one if you want to learn characters being driven by duty, principle and morals rather than emotions

3. [Mill : Utilitarianism]
- Counterpoint to kant one above, help to write villans/characters who act based on results rather than morality. Ends justify the means.

4. [Viktor Frankl : Man's Search for Meaning]
- Understand deep psychological motivations

5. [William Zinsser : On writing well]
- Eliminate all the fluff of your novel writing and be clear

6. [Katherine Boo : Behind the beautiful forevers]
- Actual social realism (written in the setting of a slum), immersion from gripping emotional complexities and challenging circumstances

7. [E.L. James : Fifty Shades of Grey]
- This will be the most important after everything above.

This one. Yes this one. Very important.

I am the expert. No need to thank me.

@Sylver
not throwing shade, just asking.
cartoons, comic books, video games... these are huge influences to the web-novel "literary genre" as a whole.
yes?
you simply must understand I'm a relative newcomer to the fact that "web novel" is not, in fact, just a novel you can read free on the internet.
vampire/werewolf romance, billionaire romance, harry potter seems to cover the lion's share of "trad books" read.

I feel like "real readers" (for lack of a better term) are about to be herded up and thrown into camps to be gassed.
lol.
@eagle_360 :
Not too shabby, not by half.
some things are arguable, but isn't that kind of the point
but there's less of us every passing year, is what I feel like.

PS - we could have a rousing coffee shop talk about #7

I wore my socks on my hand today.

You can't argue with me if I have socks on my hands. Dem's the rules.

eagle_360 said:

I wore my socks on my hand today.
You can't argue with me if I have socks on my hands. Dem's the rules.

Click to expand...

I'm reporting you to Reddit and others, for having "red flag" literature
A-N-Y sight caught of (gasp) Classical Greek? Is enough to get you put onto a watch list.

[ I hope our names are touching on the watch list, and enjoy your (you) ]
lol

To be honest, the thing that inspired me to write was Jack Vance, the Dying Earth, and Fafhard and the Grey Mouser. I love my morally grey but well well-intentioned heroes. Mostly 70's pulp trashy things and 20's weird fiction. I also like Moorcock.

For me it was another web-novel called Release That Witch. It's translated so I am not really aiming to capture it's writing style in English since it comes off as choppy, but the general idea behind it was really inspiring. I am a big fan of isekai (I know, trash taste), but it was always annoying seeing the protagonist forget everything from Earth, other than like rice haha. So I figured, be the change you want to see in the world while adding some twists to the formula.

As for the writing style, I can't say I am trying to mirror anything specific. I just try to write something that's easy to read and that I would personally enjoy reading if I picked it up. It's actually a really good exercise because when I tried writing in the past it was always super purple, and Joycean at times. And while I enjoyed writing like that and being all smart and witty with the prose, I realised reading it gives me a headache. So I try to find the balance between the one sentence / paragraph kind of writing, and something with a bit more meat on its literary bones.

I would have to toss out a list for each separate project. Biggest influences would be the first things I was exposed to (other than children's books) - Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Another big influence would be comic books, specifically the comic books put out by the mainstream American publishers between about 1962 and 2000,
But then there are specific story influences, like Raymond Chandler (specifically The Big Sleep) for the Jack Diamond stories, and Lonesome Dove for elements of Digital Cowboy Dane - (though it also borrows from such diverse sources as Star Trek, Rawhide - though maybe those two are not quite so far apart, as they have links through Have Gun Will Travel both in creative teams and structure - and several movies and cartoons),
And I suspect I retain an egregious predilection for excessive, obscure verbiage due to a teenage obsession with the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft.