I think all writers borrow inspiration from other sources: if they say they don't they've just forgotten where their ideas came from (or perhaps are too embarrassed to admit it!). But the more experienced writers draw from a wide variety of sources, whereas beginners tend to cling to only one or two.
Absolutely.
And this can be a conscious thing, too. If I'm writing a particular kind of story (yes, I know I'm not a "proper" writer) then I'm aware that I'm likely to be influenced by the ideas of other authors who have written something similar. So I take one of two routes when I'm writing said story; either avoid reading the similar stories completely, or read a lot of them, so that I'm not influenced by too few sources.
To take a specific example, right now I'm writing a Doctor Who/Buffy crossover, where Buffy is the Doctor's companion. I know of the existence of another story, which I would like to read, which has the same premise, but since it's the only other story I know of with the same premise, I'm putting off reading it so that I don't get too influenced by it. However, if there had been lots of stories with that premise, then I would happily have read them all, because then my subconscious would be cherry-picking from the lot of them, and the synthesis would be my own.
Or as a reader, have you spotted any odd influences on other people's work? Well, my favourites have been some of the stories in which some of the characters are heavily influenced by favourite characters from other sources, such as Parl Dro and Myal Lemyal in Tanith Lee's "Kill the Dead" being avatars of Kerr Avon and Vila Restal from Blake's 7.
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Date: 2008-11-19 12:04 am (UTC)Absolutely.
And this can be a conscious thing, too. If I'm writing a particular kind of story (yes, I know I'm not a "proper" writer) then I'm aware that I'm likely to be influenced by the ideas of other authors who have written something similar. So I take one of two routes when I'm writing said story; either avoid reading the similar stories completely, or read a lot of them, so that I'm not influenced by too few sources.
To take a specific example, right now I'm writing a Doctor Who/Buffy crossover, where Buffy is the Doctor's companion. I know of the existence of another story, which I would like to read, which has the same premise, but since it's the only other story I know of with the same premise, I'm putting off reading it so that I don't get too influenced by it. However, if there had been lots of stories with that premise, then I would happily have read them all, because then my subconscious would be cherry-picking from the lot of them, and the synthesis would be my own.
Or as a reader, have you spotted any odd influences on other people's work?
Well, my favourites have been some of the stories in which some of the characters are heavily influenced by favourite characters from other sources, such as Parl Dro and Myal Lemyal in Tanith Lee's "Kill the Dead" being avatars of Kerr Avon and Vila Restal from Blake's 7.