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?