I had a very similar experience that gave me permission to pursue hobby-level writing. I read a very long series of books (Defiance of the Fall) that starts with frankly terrible writing (sorry Jeff if you somehow read this) but also contained some genuinely good concepts.
Not only is this a pretty successful series but it’s 16 books long! The writing gets progressively better and the strong concepts (heavily borrowed or otherwise) carry it through. The latest books are not legendary or anything like that but I really do enjoy them and the writing no longer gets in the way of that.
This sort of progression is way more inspirational to me than reading Hemingway’s best or listening to a Ted Talk. It’s objective clear evidence that you can just start writing, even releasing the weak stuff, and both succeed and improve simultaneously.
Not only is this a pretty successful series but it’s 16 books long! The writing gets progressively better and the strong concepts (heavily borrowed or otherwise) carry it through. The latest books are not legendary or anything like that but I really do enjoy them and the writing no longer gets in the way of that.
This sort of progression is way more inspirational to me than reading Hemingway’s best or listening to a Ted Talk. It’s objective clear evidence that you can just start writing, even releasing the weak stuff, and both succeed and improve simultaneously.