Nathan Bransford - The Forums

My short story that sprouted forth when I put pen to paper for the first time at the age of 10 was a ghost story. But I've always been a pantser, so there was no outline or plot I was following when writing. I had no perception of genres. I've always been a horror-buff of sorts, my favourite cartoon as a kid was He-Man, I wanted a Chucky doll for my birthday (actually, I still want a doll like Chucky), I hoped to see Freddy in my dreams so I could hug him for being so awesomely scary, and I used to peek under my bed and in my closet at night and wish the boogeyman a goodnight. So when I decided to start telling my own stories, I didn't stop to think what kind of story it would be. They were naturally scary and involved paranormal elements, so in a sense, I feel like the genre picked me.

As per the thread title, what inspired you to pick the genre that you did? Or did it naturally pick you?

I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with my Dad as a young child. That sparked a lifelong interest in fantasy.

My dad used to tell me stories about young women who did amazing things, went on adventures, saw the world. It just made sense to write about adventure, and girls like the ones I used to think of when I was scared. You know a story has been told right when you want to live up to the character.

I was known as the Space Cadet Kid because I spent more time in my imagination than in the real world. Things have always been more exciting in there. Stories about normal life bored me (still tend to bore me) but anything magical captured my attention and got my imagination spinning. I live for things like that. So when I started writing, it was natural to go the fantasy route. I dream in magical lands, after all.

I did try once to write a non-fantasy story. I got five pages into it before a magical portal opened up and my character was imbued with wizardly powers.

I got five pages into it before a magical portal opened up and my character was imbued with wizardly powers.

Epic

Like Matt, Tolkien inspired me a lot. However, I would have to say it was my mother who inspired me to write in the genre I do. Her imagination was frightening sometimes (literally. I wouldn't sleep for weeks when I was younger (7 maybe?), because she had me convinced vampires were going to eat me in my sleep. thanks mom). As a result, I also have a crazy imagination. I've been called a space cadet a few times myself.

I'm one of those people who if I can't do something creative, I start to twitch and go crazy.

I write historical fiction. This is because I have always had a weakness for history, and I have been reading 19th century fiction since I was 12.
One of the reasons i think I love the genre is that it opens up new worlds, allows me to learn something new, and i love the intricate social systems and how they lend themselves so well to conflict in novels.

It was more that I am inspired to write about certain things, and those things have a genre.

Interesting question!

The majority of my work is in a "first person rant" style of writing. I branch a little into the paranormal but for the most part I just write about a relativley small but personal conflict that my MC is fighting. Im almost sure all of this came from reading, and loving, Catcher in the Rye as a kid.

I still love that book.

Cookie wrote:Like Matt, Tolkien inspired me a lot. However, I would have to say it was my mother who inspired me to write in the genre I do. Her imagination was frightening sometimes (literally. I wouldn't sleep for weeks when I was younger (7 maybe?), because she had me convinced vampires were going to eat me in my sleep. thanks mom). As a result, I also have a crazy imagination. I've been called a space cadet a few times myself.

I'm one of those people who if I can't do something creative, I start to twitch and go crazy.

You know, Tolkien first drew me to the genre, but I wouldn't call his work an inspiration for my own beyond that.

I'm much more influenced by Frank Herbet in terms of scale and theme, and by others like George R.R. Martin or Brandon Sanderson in terms in style and vibe.

It took me a few novels to finally figure out my genre. I love fantasy best as a reader, so I think that was always a given when it came to being a writer, too. I read a lot of adult epic/high fantasy when growing up, and that's what I naturally fell into for my first novel... but while I enjoyed it, I didn't feel passionate about it; I didn't even bother with revising it. My second novel I deliberately chose to write as MG/YA modern fantasy-type with a male protagonist, a calculation made with an eye on JK Rowling's success and the apparent boom in that market, but while it felt better, I still wasn't passionate enough to want to stick with it for more than one set of edits. For my third novel, the idea that spontaneously came to me was a modern fantasy with a teenaged girl MC; the story came out a bit older/darker than the previous one I wrote, and I discovered that this more mature YA with a female protagonist, that was what I felt passionate about. It took some trial and error to get there, but I found it eventually.

I've been a history buff since I was a kid, and so the only logical choice for me was historical fiction.

I think the ultimate inspiration for me was the built environment. I loved going to historical sites even as a child, and I was soon concocting what-if stories in my head about the occupants of these sites. I started writing my first historical when I was in middle school (and only after the story got to big in my head that it had to put on paper), featuring characters set in the Antebellum South (since I was obsessed with plantation architecture at the time). Eventually, and after several trips to England, I developed a massive case of Anglomania, so my stories started crossing "the pond."

Also as I grew older, I began reading more and more about social history as a result of my fascination with Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. That further spurred me into writing stories from times that were so very different from (and in some cases, more prefarable than) my own world.

Squirrels made me......at gun-point.

Hillsy wrote:Squirrels made me......at gun-point.

And this is why I voted for your submission to Nathan's funny scene contest a while ago.

The Movie for a Saturday Evening presentation of Planet of the Apes when it panned to the Statue of Liberty torso on the beach.