 One day, in his early college life, he was given a copy of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", which inspired him to write in one genre.While Tolkien inspired the genre, Brooks stated during his TEDxRainier talk "Why I Write about Elves", as well as at the Charlotte Literary Festival that he credits the inspiration of his style of writing to William Faulkner's works.With this inspiration, he then made his debut in 1977 with "The Sword of Shannara".