Hey everyone! Welcome back to the last stand-alone post of this season. I’m excited for this post because it’s basically a fangirl post and I love writing those. I hope that some of you find some of these ideas interesting. Don’t forget that the end of this post is my announcement of the new series! I hope you enjoy! So, without further ado…
Books that Inspired Me to Write
I’ve been a writer for a long time. The first story I actually remember writing down was a short story I wrote in 3rd grade called The Cave. My third-grade teacher gave us 10 minutes at the beginning of English class to write anything we wanted in our journals. I knew from what my classmates shared that they used theirs as an actual journal telling our teacher about their days and things like that. This activity was just meant to give us practice making sentences and spelling. I used it as practice to write.
My third-grade teacher eventually let me know that she actually liked my story and asked me to keep writing it. I actually still remember the plot of that short story today because I loved it and because my third-grade teacher was the first person outside of my parents to encourage me to keep writing.
But even before that third-grade class I was a storyteller even if I wasn’t a writer. I used to make up stories to tell my parents or friends all the time. Some of them based in reality for fun and some completely fanciful. When I did start writing I wrote everything from fantasy, to mystery, to historical fiction, to romance, to science fiction. I just loved telling stories. But long before I was a writer or a storyteller, I was a reader.
My father and mother began reading books to me before bedtime before I was even born. They used to read out loud to each other at night and they continued to do so before I was even born. Growing up, reading time with parents was just a normal part of life and from the moment we realized I was hyperlexic (although we didn’t know that was the word) they read me whatever I wanted including Shakespeare, classic novels, and others.
I continued to be an avid reader even as I became a just as dedicated writer. I continued to write a wide variety of genres, still trying to decide which one I wanted to write the most. I eventually settled on fantasy and, in recent years, started in on science fiction. But I settled on Fantasy because I was inspired by a set of five different books that I fell in love with that encouraged me to continue writing much like my third-grade teacher had.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Those who are Brandon Sanderson fans will know that he has many good books. The first Brandon Sanderson book I ever read was Elantris. I read it at the age of thirteen after my dad let me borrow his copy. I fell in love with this book and it’s one of the reasons I decided to write fantasy. What inspired me from this book was the unique magic system. I had never read a magic system previous to this that was different from the basic wizard magic.
Since then, I have read many books with unique and interesting magic systems, but this was my first taste of it and so this will always be the book that I look back at and feel amazingly inspired by. Whenever I’m feeling like I’m being left behind in my writing or lacking improvement this is one of the books I read.
Green Rider by Kristen Britain
When I was around fifteen years old, I once again borrowed one of my father’s copies of this book. He recommended it to me after seeing some other fantasy that I enjoyed. I fell in love with this book as well as the rest of the series. I fell in love with Kristen Britain’s descriptions. I loved the way she described people, settings, the forests, the castles, the rooms, the food! Everything was described so well and so detailed that I could practically smell the bread in the morning or the horse manure in the stables.
I was inspired by the Green Rider book and the series to write fantasy where I could spend time describing things the way Kristen Britain described things. To this day I have reread the Green Rider series multiple times including once again each time a new book comes out. I love this series.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Many of my friends read this series as the first books by Brandon Sanderson that they had ever read. As I previously mentioned, Elantris was my first Brandon Sanderson book. But Mistborn was also one of the series that I read that seriously inspired me to write. What amazed me in Mistborn was the use of politics in fantasy. Up to this point most of the books I had read with fantasy in them had more to do with questing – even Elantris and Green Rider, which had much to do with politics – still were overall, quest books.
I began to consider more when I read fantasy after I read this book, how the politics of the world and of the countries around it inspired the plot and motivated the characters. Did it change the type of setting? Could the politics influence more about the characters themselves than I had previously considered? This was one of the first books that ever caused me to consider this more seriously in fantasy reading and my own writing.
The Outstretched Shadow by James Mallory and Mercedes Lackey
I have read many a Mercedes Lackey books in my day. My Dad had a large collection of Mercedes Lackey as did my uncles and so finding new Mercedes Lackey books to read was never an issue. I enjoyed her books perfectly well, but I enjoyed nothing more at the age of fourteen or fifteen than this series when she collaborated with James Mallory. The name of the series is the Obsidian Trilogy, but the first book is and will always be my favorite.
I learned from this series about serious character reflection. How to include the reflections of the characters as the main point of character development without interrupting the plot. Not only did I enjoy an epic fantasy novel when I read this book, but I also learned and grew and was forced to think on the reflections and situations of the character and think about how I would react. I learned how to show character reflection and make the reader think and this encouraged me to continue writing.
The Rose of the Prophet series by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis
This was actually one of the first fantasy series I read all the way through. My father let me borrow the first book from his collection (as you can tell he had an extensive fantasy novel collection) around the time I was turning thirteen years old. This series was my first time reading a fantasy book where religion and religious dissention was sometimes used to make a point. It was also a novel where I saw interactions between people of foreign and very different cultures and the issues that could cause.
I think my interest in this topic – that of religion and different cultures interacting – is the reason that my dad recommended Elantris to me next. But I think this was something that not only encouraged me to continue writing and to write on topics like that but also to look into topics like that in the real world to gain a greater understanding of what was happening both now and in the past.
There were a lot of books that I read during my teenage years. I’ve read so many that sometimes I can’t remember what the stories were about, let alone if I enjoyed them. But despite that, these five books/series have always stuck around for me, and I have reread all of them multiple times. Reading seriously helped me to improve both as a person and also as a writer and I will always be grateful for these five books/series particularly.
NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
It is finally here! The announcement of a new series coming in May!! I kind of hinted at it a bit from some of the stand-alone posts but the new series coming in May is going to be on…
drumroll
WORLD BUILDING!!!
Starting in May and running through June there will be a post a week about different topics relating to world building. I’ve planned it out and am very excited to write a series on this topic. I think it will be very fun. In July there will be a series of Stand-alone posts to accompany the series as usual with an announcement of the new series at the end. There will be a hiatus in August and another new series in September. I’m excited to get started on this new series and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy writing it!
That’s all for this week. I can’t wait to take a short break to prepare for a fun new series. Have a great April. If you are participating in any writing activities in the month of April, I applaud you and hope you have a wonderful time participating in those. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links below. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next series!