So we asked this simple question:
Who is your best "negative inspiration" among geeks, writers, game developers, and other people like us? The person who may not be "good" at what they do, yet inspires you nonetheless?
And the answers?
- All the hordes of best-selling fantasy and SF writers who manage to get published despite producing such mediocre work. If they can do it, so can I.
- Rob Liefeld – perfect rolemodel of what NOT to do in comics.
- Simon R. Green, apparently. His Nightside series is full of fun, quick reads that stop every now and then and make you thinkn about some interesting themes. His standalone novel, Drinking Midnight Wine, slows down the pace and makes you think even more. But when I mentioned him in passing at a used bookstore, the man working expressed his belief that Simon R. Green is "not very good." I'm probably not answering the question, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's subjective. Or that guy in the bookstore was just wrong. Probably a bit of both.
- Ed Wood. He really was incredibly persistent despite personal troubles and limits on his own talent, very prolific even if much of it wasn't good or was under pseudonyms, and he never quit. He is in many ways an illustration of both what to do and what not to do wrapped up in one man.