I loved the movie Under the Skin enough to want to read the book. Regretfully, I've basically given up on this halfway through, and did my first DNF Goodreads review. I did really want to finish this, but I found it meandering and bogged down in over-description and repetitiveness.
But sometimes when a book genuinely annoys me, it inspires me to do something of my own, and maybe do better. I'd been meaning to flesh out a couple of shorter pieces which I did borrow from to make this piece, however I managed to finish something that was relatively new in concept, and I set myself a goal to be more descriptive as well.
Reading The Bitch Goddess Notebook back in around 2007, I think this actually snapped me out of a long period of writer's block as I went to actually finish something. I barely finished four short stories in the three years I was at university, a lot of that was taken up with essays and screenplays (or rather outlines of screenplays), the few practical classes I had to write actual fiction were far between. So I went from so inspired to uninspired by graduation, and having to find a job after that made writing difficult for me, despite having all the time in the world from having no job to write, being unemployed is a real downer so I'm not that shocked I couldn't do much. I had scant ideas but no motivation to write that much. So reading the Bitch Goddess Notebook seemed to kick me in the butt sufficiently to think I could "do better".
I don't believe I did but I did share this with more people thinking it was relatively good. It's not, but I finished it. I was still pretty slow after that to finish more projects, even after NaNoWriMo and a major relapse, getting back on the horse didn't happen until I went into screenplays just to get ideas out my head easily without worrying about heavy prose.
But there is a benefit to reading a bad book, whether it's widely known as bad or good. If you hate it and you're inspired to do better, that's not so bad. Even watching a bad film might cause this weird bout of inspiration, and I'm not talking about fan fiction. I could go on for ages my issues with this "genre", however it's divisive and you'd be amazed how many people defend fan fiction writers who have their own fan fic "stolen" for profit (the characters weren't theirs but the idea was and how dare this person steal. These thieves should get their own ideas). If you watch a bad sci-fi movie and decide to do something sci-fi related to fix the plot holes or issues you felt the movie couldn't satisfactorily deal with, that's just as good as watching something brilliant that urges you to write. A good song is just as effective, or a painting, or poem. A concept can inspire someone. I was inspired by a common clause you would see on commercials - "conditions apply" - which became Into the Other many years later. The littlest sources can be fertile ground for the biggest ideas. Even if they're not a good source. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was borne out of a drunken jaunt with a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe, and Adams barely remembered the incident.
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