I try to write but find my work greatly influenced by outside sources such
as other written works, movies and television shows. I seem to be unable
to write something that hasn't already been done or write something that
has been done in a different way. Does that make sense?"

There's a quote, I forget who said it: "Of course everything has already
been said, but since no one was listening, we must begin again."

The problem, I see, in what you've described...and this is on the benefit
of three paragraphs and ten seconds thought, so take this with a grain of
salt...is that you don't actually know what it is you want to say as a
writer. Or that you need to say. You're drawing sources from outside
wriers, TV shows, "unable" to do otherwise, by your statement.

Let me toss another quote in here, again from a source I can't recall:
"Too many people mistake a passion for reading with a desire to write."
It's possibly you may fall under this category.

See, the problem with the writing biz is that everyone has access to
keyboard, and we all think we can write, if we just had the time to do it.
Not true. Give me a warehouse full of paintbrushes and easels, and 100
years, and I may in time become adequate, but never more than that.

Writing is a mug's game. It's heartbreak. It's pain and struggle and
rejection and isolation and the only reason...the ONLY reason...to do it
is if you've got something to say, something that burns in you so that you
can't *NOT* write. If you're doing it on a whim, as a curiosity, as you
say "trying your hand," then this may not be the field for you. This is a
hardass, hard-work, lifetime job, and if you're not driven to say
something, maybe you should consider something else.

On the other hand...you're 18. Sometimes it takes us a while to figure
out just what the hell it is we want to say, or want to do. What it is
you need to say may not have occured to you yet. On a third hand, I think
all writers begin by playing around with other writer's voices, using
techniques of other writers as sort of training wheels while they hone
their own voice, dropping them by the wayside as new personal techniques
are perfected, until the writer's voice is unique.

Decide what it is you want, and what you *need,* not what seems like
itmight be kinda interesting...the rest takes care of itself.


jms