When I started this blog, I wrote about four people who inspired my writing but forgot to write about a fifth... that person is who you might say put my book idea over the top.
My first experience with The Hunger Games was watching the movie, which I enjoyed. But it wasn't until I ran across the book that I became hooked on the franchise, thanks to the writing style of Suzanne Collins.
I loved the story that Collins set up, how she built tension, the voice she gave Katniss Everdeen, how good Collins was in making me sympathize not only with Katniss, but several other characters, too. Collins did a good job portraying Peeta and gave you just enough about Gale and Prim to make you empathize with those two characters.
The first time I read The Hunger Games, I had trouble putting it down. That's a testament to her ability to build suspense and intrigue. She seems to know the right spot to end a chapter and make you want to keep moving to the next one.
Just as importantly, Collins' book helped inspire my upcoming novel, Six Pack: Emergence. I had been toying with the idea of a superhero team-up for a long time, but didn't know what setting to utilize. Collins inspired me to add that missing layer to my book idea... the idea of a dystopian world.
The Hunger Games series are the only books by Collins that I have read thus far (which means I have some material to put on my reading list, right?) but if I hadn't ran across her books and only experienced the movies, I might never had found the right setting and storyline to place my characters.
Of course, now that I have completed the first novel and have the second one well underway, I've got ideas for other books running through my head. Who knows if I would have ventured down this path had I not read Collins' works?
(If you'd like to read about the other writing inspirations for my book, you can learn more at these links: Greg Weisman, George Orwell, Stan Lee, Conor Friedersdorf.)
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