Thoughts on writing

I was reading elfscribe5's post about her writing class and thinking about writing styles. Several commented that they love long description and so on and it got me to thinking about writing and reading.

Do we write what we like to read? I think that we do in most cases. Do we have a certain writer that we try to write like or does our work simply reflect our reading preferences? Who would we like to write like? Who do we admire? I've love to hear your ideas on this.

And right now, I will give you some of my own ideas. I really do like to read the type of fiction I aspire to write. The first time I read Flannery O'Connor, I was amazed at her use of words, so few words to convey so much. I also find myself drawn to Annie Proulx. I read Brokeback Mountain a long time before it was a movie and I was enthralled with the way she managed to convey so much emotion in such a sparse style. I do not consciously write like either of them with one exception, a single Brokeback Mountain story in which I gave Ennis some closure. I tried to write that one in the same way Proulx wrote Brokeback Mountain.

IN a writing group I belong to, one writer told a struggling beginner that she should try to emulate a writer she liked, that was the actual way to learn to write since artists often copy the great masters when learning to paint. I totally disagreed with this idea. I told her a good grasp of basics came before anything else. Many beginning writers and especially fanfiction writers have little no grasp of the basics of grammar and punctuation. To write without those is like building a house without nails. No matter how great it looks, the house will fall without the framework being properly secure.

So tell me what you think... argue with me, agree with me. Give me something to think about.