Read and learn
I'm continuing to edit Eyemind for the Angry Robot Open Door reading period. When we submit our books we have to talk about our influences, and that got me thinking about which authors had taught me what.
From Anne McCaffrey I've absorbed ideas of fluent storytelling. Her books were always very readable, even when she was writing about high tech. From Elizabeth Moon I've absorbed the idea of using multiple viewpoints to tell a story. I would never have attempted to tell a story in five viewpoints as I do in Panthera : Death Song before I read her Serrano and Vatta's War books. From CJ Cherryh I've learned to get my characters using the tech of their period without looking at it as shiny and new. Her descriptions of the day to day life of operating a starship are the most detailed and convincing you will ever find.
We're always told to study the market so that we know what's been written before, but it also tells us how those ideas have been handled, and gives us ideas for our own re-working of universal themes. And what could be better on a cold and rainy day than tucking up with a coffee and a great book to read?
From Anne McCaffrey I've absorbed ideas of fluent storytelling. Her books were always very readable, even when she was writing about high tech. From Elizabeth Moon I've absorbed the idea of using multiple viewpoints to tell a story. I would never have attempted to tell a story in five viewpoints as I do in Panthera : Death Song before I read her Serrano and Vatta's War books. From CJ Cherryh I've learned to get my characters using the tech of their period without looking at it as shiny and new. Her descriptions of the day to day life of operating a starship are the most detailed and convincing you will ever find.
We're always told to study the market so that we know what's been written before, but it also tells us how those ideas have been handled, and gives us ideas for our own re-working of universal themes. And what could be better on a cold and rainy day than tucking up with a coffee and a great book to read?
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