Neal Stephenson handles exposition better than anybody else. I keep trying to learn his tricks, but every time I duck into his pages, I get lost in the stories all over again and forget that I'm a writer.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
As an author, you think you know where the good parts and the bad parts are. And then you read to a group of children, and you learn when you're boring them, and you hurry through those sections to get to the parts where they're interested again. You start to get a sense of your story's rhythm and flow.
Authors are influenced by everything they've ever read. If you've read widely enough, it helps you create your own mix.
I am not an analytical writer. Once I flesh out my characters and decide on the elements of my plot, the story unfolds in my head almost as though it was a movie reel.
Neal Stephenson is great. He can write about a white wall for six pages, and it sounds fascinating. I read the whole 'Baroque Cycle' and 'Cryptonomicon.'
Sometimes reading other writers helps. You learn some little technique that turns out to be useful, or simply are reinspired by the amazing things others do.
I try to read writers who are better than me because it inspires me to be better.
Even now I try to make each page compelling for the readers to get absorbed in the book.
I enjoyed reading all the classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Bradbury.
Alan Moore's writing is almost novelistic. It's very intricate and wordy and smart.
Anthony Powell taught me to write; he has such brilliant control of the mechanics of the novel.