Influences?

[caecilia]

I'm very much in the process of developing my own voice, and I probably always will be. Have you ever seen artists on tumblr posting their "influence maps"? I always wanted to do that with writing. Since I'm in a writing workshop for school right now, I've been experimenting with different styles. In general, I think a lot of my writing is influenced by media I consumed when I was little, most notably Goosebumps and Animorphs. But lately I've been consciously thinking about my influences.

The story for my 'beginners' workshop ended up having a very Night Vale (and writing it felt like pulling teeth, I hated that class.)

For the one I just wrote, I had The Sims and urban legends in mind and was listening to Ke$ha. A lot. Before that, I had been reading This Is Not Your City by Caitlin Horrocks and tried to go for the same gut-wrenching sadness that makes up a lot of her stories (didn't even come close, but it was fun). For the first story, I was thinking about Miranda July, so it was introspective, relationship-focused, and a little weird.

I don't mean that I've been copying them exactly and trying to be someone else. In all of those stories there is definitely something that's just me. My outlook on life, my sense of humor, my struggle with strong endings. I just seek out something that has a similar vibe to what I'm going for and keep it in mind as I'm writing. What I've noticed is that it keeps me focused, and I'm almost always satisfied with the end result, to the point that you can be satisfied with a rough draft, anyway.

Does anyone else have an "influence map"? Do you do anything similar?

Comments

[serria]

I guess it's impossible not to be influenced. A lot of who we are and the things we imagine were surely influenced by the stories that we read or are reading.

I think I tend to be the most influenced by whatever I'm currently reading or obsessed with, and consciously or not, try to imitate that style. Haha, you mentioned Animorphs - I remember reading those books throughout elementary school, they were totally the shit back then. I have a vivid memory of a fourth grade writing assignment. I had to write a short story. My sentences ended up being a (probably pathetic) imitation of the Animorph's author, and I got marked down points for it. I seem to remember that author using a lot of sentence fragments or single word sentences in the narration, as well as really casual writing (it was first person narration, after all). Anyway, one such sentence I wrote for this short story was - as my protagonist was shocked by finding himself in a "giant world" or something - was "Everything. Big." rather than "Everything was big."

Back then, nine year old me didn't really know any rules of writing, let alone when and how to break them, and my teacher certainly didn't understand what the hell I was doing, so she made me change it. :P But I remember thinking, this is how she writes in Animorphs, why can't I write like that?

Anyway, yeah. I definitely find myself influenced by songs, works of art, and the stories I consume (whether book, video game, or movie). I don't know anything currently that I'm aware is influencing me the most. I'm sure it is subtle a lot of the time, but there are definitely moments where I hear a song or see a picture and a story comes to me.

I've never heard of these "influence map" things, though! Probably because I am no fun and not on tumblr. :P

[caecilia]

Ha. The influence maps are basically just screencaps of things that artists felt influenced them--the first one google pulled up was this, if you're curious. I feel like it's easier to do that with art, because someone could look at this and then look at the art and think "Ah yes, I see it." With writing, they'd have to read all your work and really pick it apart.

Aw man. I mean at least you were having fun with the writing! Is it weird that I am kind of inspired by "Everything. Big."?

Who understands teachers anyway? I had one in high school who said it was impossible to write a story with all dialogue, and I was like "Really because I have a book with a short story like that." Oh well. Your writing probably got stronger from being made to change it, even if you weren't aware of that at the time.

[sarillia]

I'm not sure what my influences are since there are so many different styles of writing I love so I never know what to try to imitate. I've done some experimenting but I don't often have a particular writer in mind.

Usually when I have a writer in mind, it's because I'm writing something that is inspired by them. I wrote a story that was a sort of fantasy pastiche of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest and I was trying to imitate that hardboiled style of narration. That was a lot of fun actually. I want to go back to that and start writing others in that series I was going to turn that into. I had another one that was inspired by Alice in Wonderland and I was very happy when I put it through that I Write Like... test and I actually got Lewis Carrol.

I know I must have been influenced by a lot of different writers and I wish I could think of what they are because it would be interesting to think about, but I'm having trouble.

I started trying to think of whose work I've read a lot of, but there are some like Italo Calvino and Dostoyevsky and Kobo Abe and Franz Kafka that I've only read in translation. I don't know if I can say that I'm really familiar with their style or not. I guess it depends on how good the translators were.

Looking at some of the others, I suppose some of my influences could be Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. LeGuin, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Patricia Highsmith. As much as I love the writing of Jane Austen and Wilkie Collins and others, I don't tend to write as much like them.

I actually think I would like to try more experiments. I know some writers worry about having their own style but I'm not really one of them. I always remember the biggest compliment I ever got from an English professor at school (one that was considered tough by others) where he told me that I write with a strong voice that is all my own. Of course that wasn't something I worried too much about before that either.

[caecilia]

I feel like most of mine are things that I read when I was little. There was an ask meme on tumblr a little while ago about top ten childhood because and each one I named made me think "Oooh, that's why I love ___!"

I don't "worry" about having my own style, but I definitely think about it and I guess...try to analyze it? I think worrying too much would come out too try-hard.

[sarillia]

I didn't mean to say that you're worrying about it here but I have come across some people who do.

I feel like what I read when I was younger should have had a big influence on me but nothing much really sticks out in my mind. There's Animorphs, like you, and Little Women, and I'm having trouble even coming up with more that I read more than once. The Wayside School books maybe? I had a reputation for being a big reader but I don't think I really started reading all that much until high school.

[00ts]

I also remember reading somewhere you imitate what you read whether you mean to or not. I always took that to mean be weary of what you were putting in your head (not that this never really stopped me from reading anything, say, mindless, but I do think it's an important thought to keep in mind).

So, influences. I don't think I've ever drawn inspiration from a song per say, but the following authors have inspired me in the sense that I want to write more like they do when I finish reading them: Caroline Knapp (Drinking: A Love Story, every single time), Richard Bach (Illusions, gives me shivers), George R. R. Martin (self-explanatory I think), begrudgingly Palahniuk (I like his writing style and no don't think he's the shiz but he deserves some credit and if his subject matter weren't purposely revolting I'd admire him even more), Kennedy Toole (lolololol Ignaius), Oscar Wilde, Poe, Fitzgerald, and possibly Hemingway.

And when I was young: Betty Smith for her book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as well as Laura Ingall Wilder for her Little House of Prairie series. I can remember enjoying other books around the time I read these but none come close touching and molding me the ways that these did.

Not sure if I fully understood or answered the question but that's it! xd