I take influence from a lot of writers. They’re not all cats on the page. I’ve learned as much from musicians and comedians as I have from authors. In the end, we’re all trying to make points as clearly as we can. With that in mind, here are a bunch of folks that do things that I admire.
James Baldwin – Plainness. The most amazing thing to me about Baldwin’s non-fiction is how few tricks he uses. He makes his points without dancing, but he still hits you hard as hell. Reading Baldwin is like what it must be like to block a bull rusher–you know he’s coming straight at you, and you still manage to get floored.
Ice Cube – Brevity. No wasted words here. Cube takes the shortest distance to his points, and he makes it work almost every time. Even on the wack shit he did during the late ’90s.
Chris Rock – Building. The way he writes contrasts is always good. He drills you with the factual, and then he comes with the counterfactual brilliantly. He usually builds with three factuals before making the joke, which can be a little predictable. But no matter what, he wins with the counter.
Bill Simmons – Excitement. One of the first suggestions Simmons made to me was to get in and show how much I love what I write about. I’m still pretty dreadful at that–all those years of econ aren’t great for making an exciting writer–but he’s the master. And where Simmons is underrated–there’s always a logical underpinning. The other thing Bill does well is finding the perfect reference to make his point.
Ralph Wiley – Indifference. Basically, Ralph didn’t really care if you got it or not. He said what he had to say then rolled from there, and he did so with no concern to whether you were ready for his jazz-influenced style (he once compared himself to Monk because of how he used well-timed silences). The thing, though, is that you have to be as good as they come to pull that off. And he was.
Peter Gammons – Ease. When you read Gammons, you almost wonder if he’s really reporting. The information is always there, but it flows so smoothly. He doesn’t go out of his way to tell you he’s about to make a killer point. He just does. It’s after you read it that it really hits you.
Harry Allen – Density. I try to put in as much information as possible in every piece I write. I really worked toward that after I did an interview with Harry where he talked about how proud he was of the density of a piece he wrote. As a writer, I’ve only got so many words to use to make the reader think. Harry showed me, in many ways, how it’s done.
John Lennon – Wit. Lennon always had that smirk. I wish I had that smirk. Still working on it, though.
Bob Dylan – The run-on. In the Jim Brown/Tiger piece, I sent a sentence to Fred to get his take. His criticism was an accurate one–the sentence ran on. The problem wasn’t that it ran on, though. It was that i didn’t execute it properly. It’s okay to use a run-on sentence if you want to convey a rambling tone. think about it–when you talk, sometimes rambling is the most engaging and entertaining thing you can do. As a writer, it’s tricky pulling that art. I don’t do it much–even though I’m partial to compound sentences–but I wanna drill it when I do.
Ray Ratto – The right lead. In boxing, a right lead is a straight right hand. As Norman Mailer points out in “When We Were Kings,” boxers don’t use it because it takes too long. It’s easily blocked and easily countered. Ratto, who writes for the SF Chronicle and CBS Sportsline, writes in these frenetic flurries…then he drops a quick point in that floors the reader. It’s not a jab because it’s too powerful. It’s a right because it can put you on your ass, and it only works because it’s imperceptible among all the other punches he throws.
Gary Smith – detail. I tend not to like reading magazine stuff by guys that do fiction because they care too much about little details that don’t matter much to the thesis. Smith, however, is the king of detail. The pictures he paint are vivid, but rarely does he offer something that’s not needed to get what he’s doing. Tricky balance.
Jason Whitlock – technical entertainment. I contend that Whitlock, one of my friends, is the best football columnist in the country. Why? Because he can hit you with technical details about football–which he knows from his time as a player–but still make it fun. Like him or not, Whitlock’s an entertaining, informative read.
Mack Jones – parsimony. As most of you know, that’s my daddy. He told me long ago to “never say with two words what can be said with one.” That’s the one thing I consider on every draft, the one thing I make sure to edit as I go along.
The Onion – the straight face. The Onion, though not as good as it once was, is still the best written site out there. Why? Because they propose such absurd scenarios, but they manage to do so in the most realistic way possible. They know the best humor comes when people aren’t trying to be funny. We know they’re trying, but they can make it look like they’re not. Great shit.
Jimi Hendrix – Voice. The thing with Hendrix is that his songs really only work well for him. It’s hard to cover Hendrix because, aside from the daunting task of replicating his solos, no one sells his lines better than him. That’s something Dylan can’t claim. But Dylan gets points because he writes songs that offer lots of interpretations.
I’m only stopping here because I have a million things to get done. But that kinda gives an indication of endless quest toward self-improvement. Long of the short–there’s lots to learn and lots of places to do the learning.
14 thoughts on “Different Skills from Different Writers”
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this post is going into my “things to read when i have writers block” folder… absolutely fantastic.
Stephen King – Depth.
Like him or hate him, you can’t deny his depth when spinning a tale. One of my favorite things about a good Stephen King book (and yes, there have been bad ones–Dreamcatcher) is the way he goes deeeeeep. When other writers reflect back to another setting or time in their story, they come right back. Not King. He’ll have reflections within a flashback within a reflection, and comes back out one by one successively. It’s an awesome read and keeps you reading until you’re all the way back.
So yes, he’s had a few stinkers, but to his credit, he did write the book which became one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time — The Shawshank Redemption. (Also the movie “Stand By Me” was from a story from the same book called “The Body.”)
Steve was also responsible for “The Green Mile”. “Pet Sematary”, “Christine”, and “Carrie” weren’t too shabby either.
He’s no Shakespeare, but he’s no slouch either.
Well, I was trying to reference only his non-paranatural ones… But yes, those are great reads–particularly the Green Mile. I loved the way the books we distributed early on. One part in six were published every few months.
And there is of course his crown jewel–The Stand (read the unabridged version to get the full flavor of King). That book is epic.
I think someday Bo if/when someone puts you in their own list like this, they’ll have to list your writing characteristic as ‘Wit.” You can keep Lennon company.
I take that back. Change “wit” to “cleverness.”
OK, OK, I know I’m going over my post quota here. This will be the last one I swear.
J.D. Salinger – Timelessness
I read the “Catcher in the Rye” as a teenager. But then a year ago I read it again. As I was reading it, I had to keep reminding myself that it was written in 1951, because from the text, you’d never know that. It could just as well be set in today’s day and age. It is a timeless classic.
Boy, Holden was one interesting character. The novel was ahead of its time, as no one had really written about teen angst in that vain before.
Samuel R. Delaney – Balls
I’ve always been fascinated with the combination of science fiction, sexuality and racism that Delaney has successfully woven into his stories over the years. If you haven’t heard of him, check him out. There’s also Jewelle Gomez who has an imagination quite unlike any other in recent history.
I have to co-sign what Rex said about you and your “wit”. You could most assuredly keep Lennon company. You’re much to hard on yourself, because whether you realize it or not, that smirk (your smirk) comes across in your work. It’s one of the things that as reader, keeps me coming back. And again, to agree with Rex, it’s clever. There’s a way in which you infuse even your most serious writing with levity, that although deliberate(?), still comes off as very natural and easy. It’s being funny (smart/funny), without looking like you’re trying.
C.S. Lewis
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
Good damn list, sir. Pharrell views music like art, I guess writers view words like music. My influence? Off top I would have to say Walter Mosley for contemporary and Ralph Waldo Emerson for the throwback.
great list. the only two I would change would be Ice Cube and the Onion. To me, 2Pac was the epitome of brevity. No tricks, no metaphors, no similies, just straight to the point. As fas as straight-face comedy goes, the all-time king of that has to be Leslie Nielsen. It’s not just that he did the outrageous while keeping composure, but the fact that he did it with the same amount of calm someone would use to check their mailbox. Mr. Bean was close, but his staight face was more of a clueless buffoon. With Nielsen, it is as if he knows he is being outrageous, but it’s perfectly normal. Probably also helped that in most Nielsen films, the world around him was just as crazy as he was.
This was a good list and gave me lots to think about…
Stream of Consciousness (21st C) Dave Eggers – I guess Kerouac is the king of stream of conscious writing, but Dave Eggers has mastered this technique and modernized it for the 21st Century. In terms of influence for a blog style of writing i.e. attempting to record the thousands of thoughts and opinions running around your head while trying to maintain humor, Eggers is the writer to learn from.