What influences and inspires me as a writer?

Well it has to be John Cheever and Emily Dickinson of course J. Well, not really, but what inspires me as a writer is such a vast area, with many conscious and subconscious influences that fluctuate in their degree of influence and inspiration, depending upon what I’m writing at the moment in time or what I’m reading, that it’s hard to list them all. I will however focus on the writers that have inspired me, in one way or another. Well, where to start? It has to be J K Rowling, her rags to riches story has inspired a generation of not just readers but writers too. The way she has crafted her world and her characters, as to make it so believable that you could almost imagination that an owl would come pecking at your window with a letter from Hogwarts, is truly inspirational.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of short stories by Guy de Maupassant, a 19^th century French writer. I hadn’t really enjoyed short stories much but since reading him I’ve been inspired to write them, I must confess, in his style. His stories reflect the life and times he lived in with affairs, discarded lovers and an invading Prussian army. His stories are sometimes funny, sometimes surprising in their outcome but always entertaining. He is definitely the master of the short story and after reading them I now understand what a short story should do, and what Maupassant does so well, is to offer a snapshot of life, to record an amusing character or exciting incident in just a few short pages.

Evelyn Waugh influences and inspires me as the quintessential English writer (with a pipe no less) and a very British way of writing, capturing the real essence of British society in the 20’s and 30’s. A sense then of the heritage in English literature, and of British society, is something that I would like to carry on in my own writing.

However, though these writers have influenced me in one way or another, I do think it’s unhealthy for your own writing if you directly copy a writer, whether their style or their personal lives. Think of all the Stephenie Meyer rip offs, the Dan Brown rip offs and even, God forbid, the Ian McEwan rip offs (believe me they’re out there somewhere). Though as writers we will, and should, be inspired and influenced by that which has gone before us we must never the less find out own voice, our own unique perception of the world.   

  

Is there a difference between the private author and the published writer?

It does not matter whether a writer writes about any recognisable social or political subject as long as the quality of writing exceeds any such expectations.

Honestly have to agree with this statement, if we look at John Cheever’s writing we can see that it is the quality of the writing, and the depth of his characters, that make his stories readable as opposed to any sublimely social or political commentary, though these do exist too of course. However it is fundamentally the principle of a writer to help us escape existence and/or endure it by seeing the world in a new light, and by viewing things previously unknown or where one has held an opposite view, in a different way.  A political or social subject should always be secondary to the quality of the writing, and in the absence of any political or social subject the quality of the writing, if good, will still make a book enjoyable just on its own merit. I think there has been too much emphasis of late on deeper meanings behind books, trying to cram as many references as possible or cover as many social and political issues as possible, whilst neglecting to primarily entertain a reader through beauty of language, deep characters that a reader can get really attached to etc.