What's Your Special Story?

[Lloyd]

Kafka on the Shore, although it really doesn't influence my writing at all.

 

[J_Chemist]

Halo: The Fall of Reach.

I spotted it in a Barnes & Nobles back when I was a youngin, and really big on Halo. Changed my life.

 

[Sleds]

I read tons in different genre but mostly the cultivation type. One day I was bored doing my job and since muscle reflex was enough to do it, my brain could do anything else and I started thinking about a story I would like to write for fun.

 

[Voidiris]

SCP Foundation: the Ouroboros cycle

It was the "book" that opened truly my eyes on death, the meaninglessness of objectivity and the nature of life, it is short with only 3 hours and 15 minutes but it is the "book" that changed everything I'm and will be and I love it for it.
The story lead me truly appreciate the meaninglessness of everything objective and showed me that all opinions are lies because if everything can be changed and every value we have is a lie, that only means that we can do whatever is possible and that we can give everything the value we want, it's the infinity-in-the-void and I truly love it.

I just finished reading 'So, I'm a Spider, So what?' volume 16 yesterday after following the series for a while, and I can't even express what I felt back then. The ending was wonderful, and that story really holds a special place in my heart because I loved the writing style so much that it made me want to start writing. My first story was basically a light copy of it with many stolen elements

I can see why the novel inspired you, it was quite beautiful.

I got into writing (again) because I got fed up with spineless, ability-hiding, hypocritical MCs and how nobody seems to be able to write a satisfying ending for any webnovel I read through.

You know such MCs created my hatred for heroes (I never liked heroes to begin with) and it kick started my women bias when it comes to novel because all of them are of the male gender, directly reading some of my now favorite novels that had females MCs didn't help (including the one above), but it was interesting to watch how through mere chance I got such a bias.

 

[Corty]

You know such MCs created my hatred for heroes (I never liked heroes to begin with) and it kick started my women bias when it comes to novel because all of them are of the male gender, directly reading some of my now favorite novels that had females MCs didn't help (including the one above), but it was interesting to watch how through mere chance I got such a bias.

Huh. my two more successful stories have female MCs

 

[Voidiris]

Huh. my two more successful stories have female MCs

They are on my reading list but how mad can the mad god be?

 

[Corty]

They are on my reading list but how mad can the mad god be?

A quote from a meeting with other leading figures, talking about, well peace. Which didn't really happen:

“I am the one who is going to kill you.” She said while smiling, reaching down, grabbing onto his head. Before she could do anything, Harimau grabbed onto her wrist.

“You think that I’ll allow you to humiliate one of my own?” He asked with only looking at her with one eye. He was not even fully turning his head towards Ren, facing Rumira for the most part.

“You have no other choice.” Ren smiled as her figure just disintegrated into nothing but strands of lightning.

What happened next was faster than even Rumira or Harimau could react to. They could only hear the thundering noise, reverberating in the air as Ren appeared behind the kneeling tiger warrior, grabbing onto his head with her two hands.

“You respect strength, huh?” Her voice traveled into everyone’s ears the next instant. “Then better start respecting me now!” She grinned with a wild expression as he just twisted off the warrior's head.

It was a brutal and bloody scene as she not just tore off his head but pulled out his spine along with it. From her fingers, electricity danced all around the decapitated body part and used the now bloody, gory spine as a sword. Next she stabbed it through the chest of the second warrior, right through his heart. It all happened in under a second and by the time her words registered in everyone’s mind, she already killed the two guards of Harimau.

“Now…” She tilted her head with a happy smile, watching the Tiger King standing up. He was turning towards her yet for Ren, everything was happening in slow motion. “Are you respecting my strength yet?”

 

[Voidiris]

“You respect strength, huh?” Her voice traveled into everyone’s ears the next instant. “Then better start respecting me now!” She grinned with a wild expression as he just twisted off the warrior's head.

It was a brutal and bloody scene as she not just tore off his head but pulled out his spine along with it. From her fingers, electricity danced all around the decapitated body part and used the now bloody, gory spine as a sword. Next she stabbed it through the chest of the second warrior, right through his heart. It all happened in under a second and by the time her words registered in everyone’s mind, she already killed the two guards of Harimau.

“Now…” She tilted her head with a happy smile, watching the Tiger King standing up. He was turning towards her yet for Ren, everything was happening in slow motion. “Are you respecting my strength yet?”

Weird the novel got a higher priority rating and why didn't she do the homelander and clapped?

 

[Corty]

Weird the novel got a higher priority rating and why didn't she do the homelander and clapped?

Don't watch many series, so that went right over my head.

 

[georgelee5786]

That would be Shadow of the Colossus. It is a game, but it is what got me into writing. I wrote bad fanfiction for the origin of the Colossi. The good Ole days

 

[HungrySheep]

Hakomari is what inspired my first novel. I then realized I wasn't anywhere close to the skill needed for such a novel and dropped it immediately after. I hope to come back to it one day once I've gotten better at writing.

 

[SalivaSpittingWorm]

I mean, I don't really know if it influenced me to go write, but it probably did. XD
But my favorites that I'll never forget are:

1) Trash of the count's family - Yoo Ryeo Han
2) Lord of the Mysteries - Cuttlefish That Loves Diving
3) The Dragon and George - Gordon R. Dickson
4) Magician Apprentice - Raymond Elias Feist
5) Something from the Nightside - Simon R. Green

 

[Sagacious_Punk]

(The TL;DR version is at the end.)

I kinda have a special story and at the same time I don't. To elaborate:

For me, writing "simply started" one day when I was in 9th grade in high-school. I took a notebook and wrote my first short story, about a fantasy football match that was basically Chaos League/Blood Bowl with the serial numbers filed off. It was tacky, it was simplistic, it was glorious. Barely about a thousand words long; more flash fiction than short story.

Fast-forward to 2010, when I played Mass Effect for the first time. The game's story blew me away. I was totally floored. I was convinced it was the best sci-fi story ever, and I immediately wanted to write something that was bigger, better, and more profound.

Supreme foolishness. Arrogance too, in that late-teens "I'm the king of the world!" kind of way.

So I started writing this sprawling, supposedly-epic science fiction series with multiple plot threads, loads and loads of characters, glorious mess of a story that hit all the wrong notes - tons of exposition, trite dialogue, one-dimensional characters, random "gamification" of the narrative, etc.

Then, a year later, through luck and providence, I attended a week-long writing workshop. I learned a lot during those precious few days. The end result was I threw the first manuscript in the trash.

I started learning to write by reading. Science fiction mainly: real high-concept stuff like Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, David Zindell's Requiem for Homo Sapiens, John C. Wright's The Golden Age, and so on. This did two major things for me: it gave me a solid foundation to become a writer, and ignited my passion for futurology and advanced theoretical science(s). I still have a long way to go yet (so much reading, and so little time!), but at least I gained some understanding about what makes good speculative fiction. (Both sci-fi and fantasy; I've also read a fair number of the latter.)

But my real "special stories" were those that featured dragons prominently. They REALLY made me want to write stories of my own.

I'll cheat and say that the very first story which had a profound effect on me was the movie Dragonheart. That and The Last Castle* with Robert Redford were when I shed my first tears as a wee lad, because in both movies the protagonist dies at the end.

*(Ever noticed how stories about prisons are almost universally good? Even comedies like The Longest Yard. There's some hidden revelation here...)

Back on topic. In 2012 I read the novella "Да пробудиш драконче" (To Wake a Dragon Lass) by Nikolai Tellalov. A classic "boy meets girl" love story, only said girl is a dragoness that has to return to her homeland within a set limit or else Bad Things(tm) happens. Stellar stuff. Followed by "Слънце недосегаемо" (Sun Untouchable), one of the most epic books about dragons and dragon lore ever. Unfortunately, there've been efforts to translate the books in English for... decades now, but due to lack of funding/support, only drafts exist.

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik was the one which humanized dragons for me, and showed me how they could co-exist alongside humanity. The series' duo protagonists, Temeraire and Laurence, are an absolute delight to read about. But to my great disappointment (and anger), the latter books are rather lackluster and downright stupid. His Majesty's Dragon (Book 1) and Throne of Jade (Book 2) are an absolute must-read for any dragon-loving fans. Beware the Victorian-era language; it's a bit heady to get used to it at first.

The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d'Lacey convinced me that dragons and sci-fi truly can mix, and can mix very well indeed. In the series' latter half, we get interdimensional aliens, time-traveling shenanigans, parallel worlds, and quantum mechanics. Plus magic and dragons, 'fcourse. This series, alongside the tv series Surface, should be a case study about how to raise stakes throughout a story.

And finally, another cheat: the videogame/visual novel Golden Treasure: The Great Green. The story here is deeply spiritual, profound, and well worth the experience, even if dragons aren't one's prime passion. I don't know how many people on this forum know about the rising movement/genre of solarpunk (aka hopepunk/noblebright/lunarpunk/etc.), but I say that GT:TGG is one of the leading stories of this new wave of positive fiction.

So, yeah. Lots of special stories, for different reasons. All of them had influence on my writing. All of them I heartily recommend. And lots more still waiting on the TBR list.

If you reached this far, thanks for taking the time.

Regards,
Sagacious



TL;DR VERSION:
Thought I was a boy-genius writing-wise back in the early 2010s, "got better" after some rude awakenings.

Did a lot of reading in the interim, with my special stories being the ones about dragons: the movie Dragonheart, To Wake a Dragon Lass, Temeraire, The Last Dragon Chronicles, Golden Treasure: The Great Green, to name the major influences (and a host of other "minor" ones).

Finally began writing "for real" in 2017. It took a lot of effort.

 

[Lysander_Works]

I just finished reading 'So, I'm a Spider, So what?' volume 16 yesterday after following the series for a while, and I can't even express what I felt back then. The ending was wonderful, and that story really holds a special place in my heart because I loved the writing style so much that it made me want to start writing. My first story was basically a light copy of it with many stolen elements

I was wondering if any of you share the same experience, and if so, what's your special story, the one that got you into writing?

I loved that show so much. DIdn't think to read the written version of the anime, and I especially want to now if it is finished.
Can't say I was inspired by one direct story or another, rather dozens of combinations of elements of stories, games, shows, etc. Of course, that only pertains to the Leray series. For Overlap... ah, well, that's a secret for now...

 

[Voidiris]

I loved that show so much. DIdn't think to read the written version of the anime, and I especially want to now if it is finished.
Can't say I was inspired by one direct story or another, rather dozens of combinations of elements of stories, games, shows, etc. Of course, that only pertains to the Leray series. For Overlap... ah, well, that's a secret for now...

It's finished and you should read it, the first season of the anime covered until book 5-6 but just read from the beginning.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Gotta be the stuff Terry Pratchet wrote. Discworld is still one of my favorite settings (and answer whenever I meet a tinfoil hat or flat earther).