Top Ten Tuesday: FREEBIE (Writers to Emulate)

 

As always, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

So today's topic is a freebie, so I get to pick whatever I want! I've decided to throw some writing into it today, and do Top Ten authors I wish to emulate, and who inspire me.

A lot of times these authors have many wonderful skills - good a plotting, characterization, description, etc. But for the purposes of this list, I'm focusing mainly on the ones that I'd like to particularly learn from that author.

Basically, if I could have a private writing class with an author, these are the teachers I would pick, and the topics I'd ask them to teach me.

1. Maggie Stiefvater.
Not only are her characters fabulous and her plotting wonderful, but her writing style is just so unique. She uses metaphors to full advantage, and doesn't slip into cliches. We SEE everything she describes. I want to be able to write like this so badly.

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald.
This man is able to fully describe a scene in one sentence. Short, sweet, and dreadfully evoking. He, like Maggie, ditches cliches entirely and I think this is what helps him to evoke such clear images in our minds with so few words.

Also, he created Jay Gatsby. That takes skill.

3. Erin Morgenstern.
I don't consider her plotting to be the greatest, but she is seated along with the previous two in the glorious thrones of cliche-less and scene-evoking description.

4. Elizabeth Wein. 
I would like her plotting skills, please. Of course, her characters are awesome, but... gosh. Plots. Timelines. Flashbacks. This woman is master.

5. Arthur Conan Doyle.
This is the man who created the mind of Sherlock Holmes. He must have been quite clever himself. I so want to learn how to plot a good mystery, and Conan Doyle is the one to teach me. 

6. Charles Dickens.
I know I struggle with reading Dickens - he tends to go off on about some virtue or another, and for some reason that bugs me more that Hugo's digressions. But there is no doubt that Dickens created some of the most colorfully memorable characters in all of Literature (he also gave them awesome names). Think about it - Ebeneezer Scrooge? Miss Havisham? There are also a bunch of smaller characters that pop in and out of his novels who are just plain out WEIRD.

...plotting...

He's also an excellent plotter, and I need all the help with plotting I can get.

7. Victor Hugo.

HUGO HAS EVERYTHING
CHARACTERS PLOT WRITING
TEACH ME EVERYTHING MONSIEUR

8. Alexandre Dumas.

Another plotter. I think that The Count of Monte Cristo has some of the most impressive plotting in all the classics I've read. I want to plot like that.


The words "plotting," "plot," and "plotter" are starting to sound very strange to me. I've been saying them too much. :-)

9. George R. R. Martin.

This is an interesting one, because I don't ADORE his books. I read the first two and quit- I didn't feel involved. But I will admit without hesitation that his worldbuilding is some of the greatest in fantasy literature, and would love to hear about his worldbuilding process. Also, plotting. Of course.

10. C. S. Lewis.

I'm not sure what I'd ask from dear old Jack. He was one of my first writing inspirations, and I think I'd just like to tell him thank you. :-)

What authors would you like to learn to write from?
Or if you're not a writer - what authors (living or dead) would you dreadfully love to meet?
And what was your TTT topic? Link it in the comments!

~Sophia