Goodreads asked David E. Barber:

How do you get inspired to write?

David E. Barber I read as much as I can, and nothing inspires me more than reading the work of a really good author. When I first read the Lord of the Rings I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I couldn't imagine I would ever find an author I loved as much as J.R.R. Tolkien. I must have read his trilogy 20 times, and The Hobbit more times than that. But then I discovered Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance, and a whole host of other great fantasy writers. Then I started to stray away from fantasy into other realms. I discovered Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I read Robert B. Parker and Dick Francis. I read Issac Assimov and Orson Scott Card. I read Flannery O'Connor and Dorothy Parker. I read the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sylvia Plath, and I just kept going. In my mind there is nothing more inspiring than good writing, and I discover more great books and extraordinary authors every day. More than anything I want to be one of those authors. I want to be that good, that insightful, that profound. I'm not there yet. But I am inspired to keep trying.

flag