As I continue to work on what will be my first publishable novel, I learn much from the experience. Each time I go back and do yet another edit (I am neurotic about these things), I see the things that I think I did wrong and try to correct them. My other writing, that of the more salable nature, though it may not be particularly poignant most of the time, has forced me to continually examine what I am doing and figure out better ways to do it.
Which leads me to the point of this post...
Every writer has influences as the grow up, people that are responsible for our desire to write. While it's not always the case, generally these are other authors. My personal greatest influences, those people that put the spark of desire in me, are writers like Neil Gaiman, William Gibson and Alan Moore. The list is much larger, of course, but these are the three that I will always return to, reading their books over and over.
But what happens when you go back to read one of your favorites and see what they've written and how they've written it and your mind says to you "That could be improved"? Is it arrogance talking, from me, a writer that hasn't even finished their first book? Or is it that I've found my voice and must say goodbye to these "parents" as my chief sources of inspiration? Is there a point where a writer becomes their own person or do they forever build on the backs of giants? And is that point, if it exists, possible to reach before they've even been published?
I almost feel guilty, looking at my heroes and seeing what I perceive to be flaws...
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