I studied for my English degree I struggled to keep up with the heavy book lists. It’s not that I didn’t like to read. I’m a slow reader, and I was much more engaged in the film component of my Film Studies/English Lit double-major.
Well here I am, 15 years later trying to write book and market myself as an author in a field of super-readers. Is it a sign that I’m destined to fail?
I’ve always been drawn to creative writing, analyzing narrative tropes & structure, world building technique and general cool shit in media. The reason I picked up writing as my mode of expression was because of the limitless scope it afforded me (Read: low-co$t, low barrier for entry), and I felt as a medium it offered the most flexibility in exploring weird and unconventional themes and stories that you’d never find in other formats.
I did increase my book-reading substantially when I decided to take this writing thing more seriously. I will get into that in another post.
Books aside here are some other sources of writing inspiration:
Dungeons and Dragons: I took heavy inspiration from a D&D campaign I ran from 2015-2018. Characters, settings, and story beats were lifted & and honed to suit the new medium.
Movies from 80s-00s: My first love is the movies, and I’ve been an armchair analyst of that craft for decades. I love a tightly-crafted, script-driven Hollywood flick, or a sprawling epic trilogy (there are a few).
Video Games from 80s-90s: Read my work and you’ll hopefully see the influence of 90s Squaresoft RPGs, Zelda, and other lovingly written retro adventure/fantasy games, in the form of larger than life characters, weaving storylines, and inspired dungeons and boss fights.
Heavy Metal music: Music and writing go hand in hand. My playlist typically covers unholy curses, demonic hordes, northern feasts, unfathomable hells, haunted places, killer monsters, and journeys into the world within.
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