I bring up "parts" movies quite a bit, though I feel the need to clear the air: I've never been that good at playing with other people's stuff.  I was never good at fanfiction because.. .well, first I wasn't great at capturing voices and moods yet, but also because I would keep experimenting with everything in there, "why does it have to be this way?"

Anything I like, I don't like the "file the serial numbers off" approach... I hate it when I see it as a viewer, so why would I engage in that sort of thing as a writer?  Anything I like, I try to figure out why I like it, why it works, what doesn't work... it doesn't matter if it's a character, a location, a design style, whatever, I try to boil it down to an energy... turn it into water.  I've always like Bruce Lee's "be water" approach to martial arts, I try to do that as a creative... lose the details, find the soul of the thing, and find a place to use it.  Elegant and simple.

I'm really glad that I learned how to draw.  I remember back in the day I was copying styles, I had my own rudimentary style, but started to mimic others: Kia Asamiya and Moebius, mostly... but they were night and day.  I never became a truly good artist until I understood what I liked and turned it into energy, now all that art that inspired me is a natural part of my own style (of course, it also helps that I started drawing for the trashcan as well).  So having a visual understanding of it made it easier to approach writing the same way.

But let's boil the drawing analogy down even simpler: when I was learning to draw, I would trace sometimes.  Papers to window, or later on, a clear clipboard with a flashlight cradled between my legs.  Poor man's lightbox.  But everyone who's traced a picture knows what happens: the traced element doesn't fit in with any of the modifications or additions you do add.  Using an actual element from somewhere else would have the same result, and you're a fool if you think otherwise.  This is why you gotta break it down, find the core, and turn it into energy.