I want the bodies of lots of different people. I wish I had her legs, her stomach, her arms, etc. But last week at the gym one day, I had an odd experience. I was walking behind a woman whose body looked like mine when mine is at its best. She was the same build, same muscularity, same height, etc. I knew from past experience that if I were working out more and eating better, she was what I would look like from behind. Does that make sense?
Anyhow, that got me thinking about writing (big surprise, there), and I was trying to think of what writers are like me at my best. Not the writers I wish I could be like, as when I finish a book and wish I had written it. There are tons of those. But the writers whose word choices; sentence, phrase, line, and paragraph/stanza constructions; and ideas feel like mine, when mine are at their best.
I couldn’t come up with a lot. John Bellairs book, The Figure in the Shadows, has always felt to me like a book I wrote. And Katie Davis’ picture books, especially Mabel the Tooth Fairy and Who Hops, feel like they came out of my brain. As far as poetry, my favorite thing to write…the closest I come is that I think Lisa Westberg Peters’ poetry has a lot in common with my poetry on a good day. I think we use the same everyday language, reliance on metaphor, and sense of humor/wordplay.
What about you? Which writer or illustrator do you feel like you have the most in common with?