Write Away

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