Mining Your Literary Roots
One of my favorite questions in literary interviews is when they ask the author what books made them want to write, and which writers influenced their own work. I love hearing what authors are reading at the moment—one of my favorite features in The New York Times, and part of the reason I’m still forking over for a digital subscription, is the By the Book column where they ask authors what books are by their beds—but there’s something magical about learning what books serve as an author’s foundation, maybe because an author’s creative DNA stems from what made them first a reader. That is something all readers share, whether they move on to write their own books or not.
Studying literature at university, you realize that part of understanding long-dead authors involves not just considering the period in which they wrote, but the books they likely read. Literary influences help to throw a light on how authors take their understanding of what has been done before and put their own spin on it.
Of course, the farther back we go, the harder it becomes to discover what past authors read. Rolling back a couple of centuries, there were far fewer books published, but many of them have vanished into time. We also have less information about what the authors read specifically. Some made notes in diaries or commented about titles or authors in letters, and so if those survive we have some details. Other authors kindly referenced their reading habits in their own novels, such as Jane Austen name dropping throughout Northanger Abbey with her heroine’s reading choices. And sometimes it’s just obvious from the prose, where stylistic homages provide clues.
As an agent, I often see patterns in the sorts of manuscripts I gravitate toward that stem back to the books I loved reading in childhood. The tropes, the literary tricks, the personalities of the characters. I’m a sucker for underestimated protagonists who defy either conventional or in-narrative expectations to go on to save the day. Whether it was Charlie winning the chocolate factory or Charlotte spinning her brilliant webs—that spider would have appreciated social media—or a pair of dalmatians scouring the English countryside for their stolen puppies when their humans couldn’t see the true threat, I recall countless books I read and reread that primed me for that partiality. My taste for everyday characters juggling aspects of science dates right back to Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series, and I blame her A Swiftly Tilting Planet for igniting my obsession with time travel and multiple timelines. And I know The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett taught me early on that you don’t have to like the protagonist at the start of a story in order to love them by the end, and how satisfying I find that particular character arc.
Knowing your own literary DNA, those titles you devoured as a child—or even those you discovered in your teens or later—can be great for when you hit a reading slump, as most readers inevitably do. When you’re in the sort of funk where you bounce off every book you read, to the point where you know it’s you and not the books, finding something that aligns with those early loves can go a long way toward regaining your reading mojo. Though a reread can also do the trick.
Likewise, writers struggling to decide between project ideas, or who are hitting a wall with a work in progress, might want to mine their own literary roots for inspiration. What patterns can you find in your childhood favorites? What types of stories or tropes repeat in the novels you have loved, or find yourself returning to year after year? Think about whether any of those beloved tropes or twists might help you rejuvenate your work-in-progress or spark that necessary new detail to flesh out a prospective idea.
Understanding what makes you tick as a reader can do wonderful things for figuring out what type of storyteller you aspire to become. Sometimes the lineage is clear and you can easily trace the path from your reading roots to your writing style. Romance author Sarah MacLean talks about raiding her older sister’s collection of Harlequin novels when she was a preteen. Already a voracious reader, she credits that deep dive into romance as taking her the final step on her path to incurable bookworm. Little wonder when she started writing adult romance after a brief stint writing YA, her debut romance, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, featured a wild assortment of details representing everything she loved about reading the genre.
Most of the time, writing DNA stems from an amalgam of all the books and authors you loved and obsessed over as you developed as a reader. In interviews, Leigh Bardugo cites reaching the end of Frank Herbert’s Dune as the first time she was conscious of not wanting to leave the setting of a book. She picked it up from a library display of fantasy and science fiction under a banner that promised the discovery of new worlds and obviously delivered. Though Bardugo’s own work is quite different from Herbert’s, reading Dune made her consider world building in a specific way that snowballed as she went on to read more fantastical novels. Donna Tartt, unsurprisingly, was reading Greek tragedy and philosophy in college while working on The Secret History, but she has also mentioned being influenced by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, a title she loved since childhood. Not necessarily an obvious influence unless you know to look for it.
Next time you’re standing in front of your bookcase, trying to choose your latest read, take a moment to consider the patterns of your personal literary roots. Is there a shelf that houses your favorites? Are there any shared traits that jump out at you, deeper details beyond a common genre or author? Even if you think you know what types of books click for you, it might be surprising to take a second look and see what comes to light.
In general housekeeping, I plan to close to queries again at the end of July to allow myself some time to read all the partials and full manuscripts I’ve requested. Don’t panic if you aren’t quite ready to query yet; I will be reopening again in the fall, probably around the start of October, exact date to come when I have firmed up my schedule.
Those of you anticipating my next craft post in my series on editing for submission, doing a deep dive into all the difficulties of that first manuscript page, look for it next week. Meanwhile, thank you, as always, for reading, and please feel free to join me in the comments section with any questions or your thoughts on your reading DNA. Is this something you’ve thought about before? Have you made any new discoveries? I’d love to hear about them.
Wishing you all wonderful reading revelations and some quality writing time. Until the next one! 🥰
I didn’t have the greatest relationship with books when I was young. I struggled to learn to read. I had a teacher yell at me to sit down when I went to ask her a question about a book. That memory always stayed with me.
It wasn’t until after high school when I went through a hard time that I picked up reading because talking to people wasn’t an option. I started with the classics, then decided to get my BA in English. I’ve read so many books I really can’t say which or what. Every book I read is my new favorite. I can tell you my drive to read and write is me saying - you all thought I could never do this. I’m proving them wrong….everyday!
For childhood influences that stuck with me forever, there's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the Bunnicula books, and the Dragonlance books.
Stephen King is another big one, as you know. ;) But I don't think many readers caught my homages to The Long Walk and to Gerald's Game in Rock God.
It's not his "Everyman" characters that appeal to me, it's how trauma shapes characters and influences their reactions and decisions they make in face of challenges, the relatability of intrusive thoughts, the power of friendship, and outcasts having a chance to triumph by finding their own inner strength. Which is why IT is my favorite novel of all time and inspired me to write my own coming of age horror, but with girls. When I froze up in trying to write that book, my therapist agreed to read IT with me so I could really understand what I liked about it and therefore which things I wanted to include in my story.
One favorite aspect of IT that I didn't manage to capture the way I'd originally wanted was the use of setting as character. I got all the 90s small town Idaho vibes, but because the theme of my story had more to do with the evils of patriarchy, something that is unkillable and exists all over the world, that's okay. I'll just have to write another book that has a setting with as much personality as Derry, or Rose Red, or Manderly, or Krynn.
Right now I'm playing with a lighthouse on the Washington coast in the late 19th century that will have a couple nods to Robert Eggers's The Lighthouse, but will flip the dynamics he had between those main characters. And I'm also celebrating my love of George RR Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire with a fantasy romance in a Westeros-esque country that pays homage to the dynamic between Sansa Stark and Sandor Clegane...which was HIS homage to Beauty and the Beast.
Whew, I did NOT mean to write a mini essay, but this is such a fun topic!