A Bibliography of Influences

February 22, 2025 | #32

I am the sum of SO MANY people’s parts.
Or… something less eerie sounding.
What I’m saying is that I have a lot of people to thank for influencing the things I create.
I’m going to use this post to talk about some of them, and at least mention a lot of them.

One of the earliest inspirations for me to write was all my time spent playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That world just got me inspired. It’s kind of funny to look at the game now and think that it was so inspirational. But it really was life changing!

It’s hard to pull the early reading experiences out of my brain. But there was a time in late elementary school that I stopped reading, and was really struggling to get back in. Then for an English class in grade 9 I was allowed to select my own book to read, and I ended up choosing Pendragon: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale. It has nothing to do with the King Arthur Pendragon thing, this is about a kid who has to save Halla, which is what they call the universe made of ten planets, or at least those planets each and important turning points that have to be dealt with. It turned out to be a 10 book series, one for each planet, and it really got me back on track. Most of the story is told as journals sent to the main character’s friends, then there are some parts told in 3rd person, with the point of view of the friends. I thought that was brilliant as a kid.

It was around that same time that I began reading A Series of Unfortunate Events. There is nothing I could say about that series that hasn’t been said a million times over. It was formative for me.

Of course Stephen King is a huge influence on me. I haven’t really found other authors who have influenced me in similar ways. I know that with time I will find them. But King is one of the bestsellers of all time for a reason. There is something so universal about his language and storytelling that even books written in the 70s hold up today. I can only hope to have the same longevity.

Most would think that Goosebumps would have had an impact on me, but I actually never read the books as a kid! I did watch the series, along with other spooky series’ like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Eerie Indiana, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, and Freaky Stories. But when it comes to horror, I actually started watching R-rated horror with my dad when I was 8. Y’know, the whole “dad lives somewhere else now, so things are different there” thing. Between the ages of 8 and 10 I saw the following horror movies:
Alien, Aliens, Anaconda, Child’s Play, Children of the Corn, The Clown at Midnight, Event Horizon, Friday the 13th (various), From Dusk til Dawn, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Jack Frost, Jason Goes to Hell (the uncut version, the kill in the tent… that changed me), Mimic, Pet Sematary, Scream, Tremors, Wishmaster, …and many more. I remember when I would visit him on the weekends, we would rent 7 movies for 7 dollars for 7 days from Roger’s video.

To this day horror is what I watch the most, and I also generally read horror more than other genres.

Some horror films and shows that have left an impact on me, aside from the formative impact the ones above did:
Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Caveat (2020)
The Empty Man (2020)
The Haunting of Hill House (series, 2018)
Hereditary (2018)
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
It: Chapter 1 (2017)
The Last Broadcast (1998)
Midnight Mass (series, 2021)
The Mist (2007)
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
Them (series, 2021)
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)

As an adult the writing community has helped shape the way I think about writing. Authortube has had a tremendous influence on me (Katytastic, Brandon Sanderson, Jenna Moreci, Alyssa Matesic, and more). There isn’t much to say about this other than that receiving the thoughts of other writers has helped me see writing in many different ways. Some of their ideas work for me, some of them don’t. But I’d have never been able to find out without them.

One of the most important things in growing my writing was the Writing Excuses Podcast. They’re short, and they’ve been going for so long that if I need help with a specific thing, I know that they’ll have an episode about it. They’re also smarter than they say they are.



MUSIC

When it comes to music, you’d think my biggest influences are generally the few bands and albums that I listen to over and over. But my influences are more narrow than that. Maybe a quarter of my favorite albums are influences, because while I enjoy certain music, I wouldn’t necessarily want to make that music. (Or I can’t. Like there's no way I can make music like Hot Mulligan because it revolves around the vocalist’s unique voice so much.)

Notable influences in my music are:

Emo Stuff:
-Arm’s Length
-Origami Angel
-Peregrine
-The Hotelier
-Jimmy Eat World
-Modern Baseball
-Chinese Football
-The Early November (up to 2012)
-Dashboard Confessional
-The Postal Service
-Bright Eyes

The Early November, Bright Eyes, and Dashboard Confessional are 100% the reason I make music. The others are why I STILL make music.

Heavier Stuff:
(Most of my heavy music goes back to the mid 2000’s when I was Christian, so a lot of Christian hardcore still resonates with me, I do need to find more modern stuff that I love)
-As Cities Burn (first 2 albums, “Son I Loved You At Your Darkest” and “Come Now Sleep”)
-Underoath (They’re Only Chasing Safety)
-The Chariot
-Norma Jean
-Jisei
-Lord Wrought

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that I wouldn’t be making music today if I didn’t start learning how to make games with Gamemaker in 2016. I stopped making music between 2009 and 2017 because of a trauma I suffered in 2009. By 2018 I needed to make music for my games, so I started making chiptunes. And because of that I now usually implement chiptunes into my music and wouldn’t have started making music again if I wasn’t doing that!

It’s weird how everything comes together like that.