After writing my thoughts on influences and having been influenced in my writing, I realized I’ve limited myself. Obviously, what I’ve read is going to impact my writing a lot. But, in a big way, what I’ve been influenced in the most, is in my storytelling. Craft is important, but the stories I want to tell are always going to be the core. Instead of writing another essay on the authors who have influenced my storytelling, I’m just going to say that all the ones I previously mentioned count for this. Crichton, London, Applegate, Rothfuss, Adams, Lewis and others have all written great works that make me want to tell similar stories.
But let us not pretend that I’m not a child of my culture. I wish I could brag that it’s only been literary works that have influenced me, but that’s not the case. Movies, television, music, video games, and comic books have been working through my system for as long as I can remember. I really wanted to stop and look at some of the biggest examples in my life, which have really played a role in shaping my storytelling. So, knowing full many will read and scoff, here I go.
Final Fantasy VI is the first RPG I ever played, having bought it for the Super Nintendo very late in the game. I had no idea what I was I getting myself into. I could go on and on about the game play, style of graphics, music, and more, but that’s not what this essay is about. I’m here to talk about the story.
Final Fantasy VI has fourteen characters throughout the game and (with the exception of two) they all get character development and a story arch. Each character has a back story that is, especially for me, intriguing and elemental in their growth. You’re never confused by whose story we’re watching, because each is so different. Cyan having to lose his king and family (twice) and Terra’s birth the Esper World are among the most compelling, but they all get a great tale. I didn’t even remember Setzer having one until replaying it recently, and his short tale of losing the love of his life is quick, effective, and sorrowful.
From this video game, I learned that every character should be treated as importantly as the next. The biggest influence this gave me is that my characters must have a back story now; one that is as compelling and full as the main story. Now, I’m not entirely sure this is the best tactic, because it might come into info-dumping or bring to question why we don’t just tell that story instead. But I believe a great back story makes for a great character and creates a richer story overall.
X-Men will always be my favorite comic book series. I’m not going to get into an argument over it, my opinion is set. X-Men does so much, so well. It tells us a story that is bigger than itself, gives us characters richer than what we deserve, and stays cool while doing it all.
X-Men came about in my life almost the same time as Final Fantasy VI and I can say it had almost the same influence on me as that game (as well as Digimon). But X-Men did something else. It showed me the power of character interaction and hinting dialog.
Throughout the series, we have some amazingly interesting characters and they are always interacting with each other. Throughout my reading, I saw the power of these interactions; what they can tell us about the characters, what we can learn from throwaway lines. No character should interact with another character the same way as another. If two characters are talking, we should be able to know who they are, if only by the way the characters are talking to each other.
This interaction has also come into play with my writing. I make sure I know how each character sees the other one, even if it’s as simple as saying “Jace doesn’t like Doran”. This helps me understand how to write the dialog much better than I normally would. I’ve also gained the habit of making back stories interact, almost to the point of a hindrance, which I’m trying to reign back.
The Lord of the Rings, in which I’m talking about the movie trilogy, (sorry, book fans) was an epic eye-opener for me. I had never seen anything like it. I can think of no other term for it as these movies being the Star Wars of my time. I got pulled into this world with no resistance on my part and saturated my life in it. For three years, as these movies came out, my world revolved around the story of the One Ring.
I have to make sure to note again that I’m talking about the movies. I tried to read the books, made it all the way to the last one and hope to try again. But, the movies did something else for me. The epicness that Tolkien was trying to convey and failed to do for me was shown in fullness on screen. There are so many awe moments for me during these movies; Rivendell, the Mines of Moria, The Gates of Argonath, and these are only from Fellowship of the Ring.
Even with all these epic moments, though, the story never loses focus of the small moments and characters. When a character dies, we take the time to notice. When two character talk about their plans, we pay attention.
When writing my stories, I’m trying to write big, epic stories, because that’s what I love to read about. But if I lose focus of my characters, I get bored fast. Like Lord of the Rings, I’m trying to show how the smaller stories are interacting into a bigger story. Unfortunately, I’m not so good at this, but at least I have a goal so worthy of being followed.
There’s more of course; the cinametic nature of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s By the Way album, the episodic yet compelling style of the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica (take that, spell check), the amazing characters of Firefly, the world of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda or all that is Star Wars. All of these have effected how I tell my stories and what stories I’m trying to write.
Hey, look! Rowling didn’t have a thing to do with it…
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