Thursdays Child

Hey guys,

Before I even start this post let me say that I'm having major problems with my blog. I can see your comments, but can't reply to them--so it looks like I'm just ignoring everyone. Very sorry about that. If anyone knows how to fix it, I'd really appreciate the heads up. Until then, I'm trying to figure it out...

Now that's out of the way, I'll move onto my Thursdays Child post, which is hosted by the very awesome Rhiann-Wynn Nolet and Kristina Perez. Make sure you stop by their pages to say hi. It would be awesome if more people joined in the bloghop!! The link is on both their sites.

I'd say one of the things that inspires my writing the most is reading. I've learned more from that than anything else. There are some amazing books on writing. I love Stephen King on Writing, The Breakout Workbook, and The First Five Pages. All excellent guides.

But, beyond that, just regular books are excellent sources, both of inspiration and the mechanics of writing.  Like, when I was a kid, (about ten) I read a MG book about a boy who falls through a forgotten door on his planet and lands on our world. It was one of my favorite books and I probably read it five or six times.

It's NOTHING like the book I wrote--except for the very basic idea of it. My book being about a girl who falls through a rip in a parallel world and ends up on Earth with no memory of her life before the fall. For the longest time I didn't make the connection, until I was going through some old books for Goodwill and came across The Forgotten Door. Then I just kind of smacked my head and went, "Holy crap. I totally took that idea." haha...What do they say though? There's no such thing as an original idea, right? I think its really neat that something I'd read at such a young age would come back to me and have a huge impact on my own work and, therefore, my life.

Then, of course, there's those books that have such beautiful writing that I can't help but aspire to be like them. Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovannoff, Cassandra Clare, Laini Taylor. I know some people accuse them of "purple prose" but I have to disagree. I think they're amazing and I can only hope someday I'll be able to write half as well as any one of them. Cassandra Clare was pretty much single-handedly responsible for teaching me how to use metaphors successfully. haha. And Maggie Stiefvater is the first writer I ever read whose books reminded me of reading poetry. Very cool.

How about you guys? Are there any books out there that have inspired your writing? What are they?