What types of fiction were a major influence in your writing style?

[JoshRaed]

For me there is:

1. Action/fantasy cartoons I grew up on: Avatar, Steven Universe, Teen titans.
2. Horror movies: Specifically the messy brutal fights characters get into.
3. Webtoon/tapas BL I guess in terms of relationship building and exploration.

[ThunderChicken]

My first story isn’t fiction, so it wasn’t really influenced by fiction, though the stories in the Something Like… series kind of inspired me to finally write it. That series was my introduction to gay themed romance novels (which, given my age, is really, really sad) and I thought, “Wait a minute! I had stuff like this happen to me! Even sadder stuff!”

…and so Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days was born.

My second story, the one currently in progress, was inspired by childhood dreams of growing a great pair of wings out of my back and taking flight. This story was also inspired by any number of fantasy/magic stories including LOTR, Harry Potter, and the like. At first I was going to do werewolves-with-a-twist but decided on shapeshifters instead because I wanted a variety of animal characters. Daecon, my MC, follows a Harry-Potter-esque “grew up among plain humans and didn’t know he had magical abilities until he stumbled into them” theme, but he isn’t a wizard and doesn’t go to magic school. The focus on the story is him growing out of his arrogant prick stage and finding his way in a new world of magic and shape shifting that he didn’t even know existed. This is where the story gets its title, Finding Daecon’s Way. Also, they say “write what you know”, so this story is an LGBTQ themed shapeshifter fantasy.

[stiatent]

Videogames - Action-Horror, action and fighting games
Enjoy fast paced action with flashy characters, but also the way games use the environment to indirectly lead the player, foreshadow and tell additional story with background props etc. (always fun watching game lore theories on youtube too)

Horror movies (similar to u lol ) - for their dramatic scene lighting, creating mystery and stirring fear of the unknown

Handsome guys, guy fashion , gay/bi stuff which inspired by personal life

Ancient cultures/ myths and mysticism for their larger than life portrayals/ various interpretations of our world and fascination of world that existed before we were born

Dinosaurs, cryptids, Kaiju, deep sea animals

[Shanny8]

Just other comic books...

4 writers that influenced my writing style- 1) Chris Claremont 2) John Byrne 3) Walt Simonson 4) Marv Wolfman

[kalmia]

I’m in the same boat with a lot of fantasy cartoons. Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, SVTFOE, Avatar, etc. Even though they’re not direct influences in my current comic, they’ve definitely affected the way I plot my stories.

Romance animes lol. I’m a sucker for a good slice of life/romance anime. Bonus points if it makes me cry and is angsty or has a really intriguing sub plot outside of its romance. Love it.

Other Webtoons in general. Some of the first Webtoons I read were Unordinary, Let’s Play, Lumine, etc. They all have big influences in my comics style and plot. Even Canvas stories I’ve stumbled upon have given me ideas.

This one’s kind of weird, but I grew up watching Minecraft role plays on Youtube back in like the early to mid 2010s, those had a weird influence on the type of stories I enjoy creating and consuming now as an adult LOL

[darthmongoose]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series - I was a massive fan of these from my early teens, and it's hard to understate the impact that had. The mixing of fantasy and political allegories, the characters being a group of bumbling losers who are going to save the day anyway, the villain being a posh guy with skewed ideas who thinks he's owed power... And of course the tendency to set up something big and fantastical and then juxtapose it with something mundane and anti-climactic as a punchline.

Megatokyo - The first webcomic I ever read, so on some level this set the baseline for what "a webcomic" is. I think also older webcomics like Scary-Go-Round, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Shortpacked! all had an influence on how I approach writing webcomics.

Sweatdrop Studios - These people basically taught me how to make comics, and encouraged me to have my own unique voice as a British manga creator instead of striving and failing to write and draw exactly like Japanese manga. I learned a lot both literally from them on their old forums, and from reading their various comics.

Scott Pilgrim - Massively influenced how I pace comedy and action, and I'd call this the biggest influence on how I write dialogue specifically.

Kiyohiko Azuma - In terms of comedic timing, and somehow making the simplest possible joke absolutely hilarious, this guy is like a god. Absolutely incredible. I strive to be as funny as Azumanga Daioh and Yotsubato!

Homestuck - The Homestuck influence in my writing isn't so obvious in Errant, because I had to cut down the number of words when I saw how little I can fit on pages to make them comfortable to read. The older scripts are much more rambly. I feel like the influence of Homestuck comes up most in Jules' dialogue, and in the pacing of some action and comedy.

William Shakespeare - No, really! I'm actually a massive Shakespeare fan, and I've been to see a bunch of them, including one at the Globe. I love the way Shakespeare builds plots with meticulous mechanics, and then tells them in the clearest possible way. He's always thinking about who needs to be where and how the misunderstanding happens. I love his wordplay and his use of these big concepts and symbolism. There's a lot of quite Shakesperian themes in Errant; a bad king whose folly curses the land, with a sibling who is a wise fool, somebody in a mask, misunderstandings keeping people apart, gender confusion due to cross dressing, fairies and monsters, ghosts etc. etc.

[Mallory]

For Engram specifically, my influences were
1. Soviet and American Utopian sci-fi (from around 60’s to 80’s)
2. Studio Ghibli and Ghibli-inspired creators (like Pixar!).
3. What is now known as “cozy” science fiction like Becky Chambers’s work, though when I first conceived the project, this label did not exist.

The art style was a mash of chibis and cartoons, influenced by a bunch of artists I used to absolutely love in the 2010’s (ironically, I went to this art style from something much more realistic, while many of those artists draw pretty realistic artwork these days, haha).

For my prose I am absolutely influenced by fanfic. I read a lot of print books too, but I just love the conversational tone and the use of space to punctuate a character’s thoughts, which never flies in print because it uses up so much more paper. I’m definitely a lot less experienced when it comes to writing prose, so I’m still in that stage where every new project is a completely different flavour, sometimes within the same draft.

[CarltonIsaac]

Here are my top ten books and comicbooks as sources of my inspiration.

[TheLemmaLlama]

If I had to name a type of fiction that was most influential ... probably RPGs? XD Even that's pretty broad though. For something narrower, maybe 'slice-of-life anime (and webcomics)', but that's more of an after-the-fact things where I deliberately sought them out to learn from them because of what I'm writing, rather than being inspired by them before I decided what I wanted to write XD

[NickRowler]

The Simpsons. Mostly because I constantly watched it as a kid that it is subconscious in my brain. I guess I am drawn to writing sitcom style stories.

Doonesbury. More so the character interactions and juggling a larger cast of characters. I guess I sort of want to create a less political version of Doonesbury.

Stuff like Naruto, Avatar the Last Airbender, Xiaolin Showdown, and reading some Chinese folklore as teen influenced giving characters elemental powers. Also some Pagan lore.

Vertigo. I like the idea of writing in a spiral.

[Silver7]

For me it was Dragonball Z and Bleach that really influenced my style

[llobucervallince]

Musicals, yep, that's it

[pixxiepinks]

Video games are probably my most consumed source of fiction. I play a lot of games from a wide variety of genres, everything from horror to RPGs to dating sims. And these games have definitely shaped the tropes and the story beats I like to use. I'll list a few from each genre that really stand out for me.
RPG - Dragon Age, Undertale, Kingdom Hearts, Genshin Impact, Persona 4, and the Zelda series.
Horror - Outlast, Resident Evil, and Dead by Daylight
Dating Sims - Our Life, Cinderella Phenomenon, Obey Me!, and anything made by Argent Games.
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I was also raised watching Ghibli films and I know they greatly changed both how I write my female heroines in my works and how I portray them in the context of their worlds. (These movies also really helped me create works where love wasn't the defining characteristic of my female leads' lives and I am deeply grateful for that fact.)
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However if I had to pick one thing that really shaped and influenced my style the most, I would say Dungeons and Dragons. My experience with tabletop role-playing games, (both playing on my own and watching others(Like Critical Role and the Adventure Zone)), greatly expanded my writing toolbox.

It's such a different storytelling experience than writing by yourself, as you are creating a story not just by yourself but with other players who have an equal say in how the story develops and changes. You quickly get used to surprises and weaving together seemingly random plot points into one cohesive story. Especially being a DM and having the job of keeping players wanting to play, you get very good at crafting stories meant to keep you engaged and invested. And you learn how to craft stories that feel alive.