Influences

All writers have influences, but they are not always apparent. Typically we ask what writers have influenced a writer, but that ignores a huge chunk of what can affect a writer’s work and voice.

You have to include the environment, family, friends, co-workeers, work situation, education, experience, and just about every other factor you can think of. I know that a great many things in my childhood,
from the music I was exposed to, to political discussions at the dinner table, to how my friends and I played, to the many obstacles that came up along the way.

So I have to thank a lot more people than just Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and other science fiction writers for how I turned out. I have to thank my cousins, classmates, friends, and enemies. I have to
thank the city I grew up in, the network program planners (and their counter parts in my local affiliate) for the shows I was able to watch. And a few other personalities in particular. Alan Alda, Burt Reynolds, George Lucas,
Jan Michael Vincent, Lorne Greene, C.W. McCall, John Denver, and the many reruns on WTBS (exposing me to the great comedies of previous decades). And to Buster Crabbe, who without my knowledge, influence so many of the people
who influenced me with his early SF portrayals.

So next time you are asked about your influences, stop to consider all the non-writers who have led you to be the person you are.