one really influential book on my writing style was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. weeby answer, i know, but hear me out.
i read the first two books freshman year of high school and each year as more were published i’d reread the older ones. because i was rereading i noticed things about their composition.
the most obvious was kyon’s narration/dialogue thing that everyone notices. so finally one day i thought to myself if the story is being told in first person why does the narrator need to conform to the way dialogue is represented in the text?
this question led to me writing a slew of stories experimenting with how point of view could change how the story itself is written.
like it made me consider who the narrator is because for books 1-4 kyon adamantly tries to be only the narrator, but is gradually pulled more into the story that he’s telling (and he’s telling it, look at his tone and asides throughout).
to make a medium story still medium: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya accidentally made me question writing mechanics and how they can affect storytelling conventions.
(p.s: it also made me okay with writing super short but interrelated paragraphs)