I really enjoy science-fiction books with occult themes, through my entire life I have read a lot of books and definitely did get inspired a lot by all of them, every single book that I read had an impact on me. Also my life experience, all the good and bad that has happened to me.
When I wrote my first novel last year and this, I made a conscious effort to avoid anything that smacked of plagiarism, even if it was only plagiarism of style. I suppose that it is inevitable that writers will be influenced by others, however subconsciously. My characters were a mix; some were real people, others were a mix of people that I had encountered and others were of my own imagination, though probably based loosely on real people. I must confess, though, that I used someone else's fictional character as the basis for one of mine.
I don't propose to elevate myself to the level of you who have written books. I have known several writers, some personally, who have written a number of books and also who have taught writing as university professors. I could not write as they have written nor write a book as some of you have done. But conversations with each of them stirred an itch in me for writing. The first book I read that made we want to write, "I the Jury," by Mickey Spillane, Then later "The Honey Badger," by Robert Rourk. I never tried to write book. I didn't have the education to know how to write nor the talent to otherwise try. But there' is all kinds of writing. The last few years blogging has bloomed out so that anyone, even someone like myself can write. Its personal, informal, and you can write about anything (there's also more sophisticated, dedicated blogs that are recognized nationally as models of good blogging). I call mine "My Journal. I can write about anything, express myself any way I wish or use to find out what think or feel about something. It's a simple blog, beyond the dignity of many writers, but it suits me. Through this blog I also keep some family members informed. Most often I enjoy writing it although I have slowed down from the five days a week . I schedule my blogs to come online when I want them to appear. It gives me voice when otherwise I would have none (or so it seems). I apologize as I have gotten off the subject matter.
I am just about the same as you are about writing a book, @Bill Boggs ! I have never even considered doing something like writing a whole novel about anything. However, I have always had a great imagination, and there seems to often be stories just kind of running through my head. When I was in school, we had to write about subjects sometimes, or even just a story about something , to share with the class. When it was a topic that I was interested in, then I enjoyed writing the story. But since I was also very, very shy; I just hated having to go up in front of the class and read whatever I had written. I remember one time, the school principal walked in during one of my stories, which was close to being finished in any case. I quickly said "The end", and rushed back to my seat. Now, I have discovered that I do really enjoy writing in forums, and I even like my little family blog that I wrtie whenever I think of a story to put in there. After reading some of the books on Amazon, It really made me think that I could do at least as well as some of the books that I bought at the Kindle Store. They were actually just short tutorials on growing something, or the health benefits of coconut oil, or something similar to that. Some of the books barely can be called that and are only maybe 20 pages long, and read like they were copied from other books or articles about the subject. Since they only sell for a dollar or two, you usually get some good from them; but I think that one of these days I may try my hand at writing one of these little books and see if I can make a few dollars from selling it.
@Tom Locke I think that every writer "borrows" a little bit from other writers, but it's not plagiarism as long as the plot is different in my opinion. How many characters did you create in you're book? The writer of Game of Thrones has created 160 characters in his book, I'm amused on how he has done that. :-O
@Bill Boggs I would love to check out you're blog. Do you mind sharing the link with us? It's a fact that writing about our life, and our experiences is the way we can express ourselves.
@Yvonne Smith It's never a bad idea to try writing that ebook and selling it, you never know if you wouldn't be successful in making those dollars. $$ If you have the perfect niche in you're head then you should definitely go for it and put it on paper. Good luck.
I have written a blog since February, 2007. For two years or so I wrote about family incidents or history growing up in relation to cousins, aunts and uncles, Then I wrote about current events or everyday happenings I read about in the papers, then politics or religion, the forbidden subjects, Finally now, that I am older, I write about anything that strikes my fancy.
I couldn't tell you the exact number without reading the whole thing...there are a number of "bit-part" characters that appear only briefly. There are only about five characters that appear regularly and maybe another five that turn up at various stages throughout the novel. There is no hero, my chief character being decidedly an anti-hero. He is based on a former boss that I had, so there is an element of "revenge fiction" going on!
@Bill Boggs It's so good, that writing has no restrictions. We can write about what we want, about our opinions on different subjects and about all of our life experiences without being judged by anybody and the best thing is that we can interest others with our writing and inspire them in some way too.
@Tom Locke That's a little spoiler about the characters in you're book. Very exciting! It's probably a great novel.
That's very kind of you, but I do not labour under the delusion that I have created a great work of fiction. Dostoevsky it is not. All I hope is that a few people find it amusing, because it's meant to be humorous.
@Tom Locke Even thought I admire fantasy, science-fiction, adventure novels, it doesn't mean that I don't read other ones. I read a lot of books, and a lot of other genres interest me. It's always great to read something humourous and have a good laugh.
My novel contains a number of characters that are, in effect, real people and several events that happen are also real (or at least based on things that really happened). So while it is a work of fiction, there is a certain amount of reality in there. This is probably true of most novels, though - a mix of fact, fiction and fantasy.