The Babysitter won't leave me alone
Inappropriate inspiration and what I can learn from it anyway
Do you remember that episode of Dawson’s Creek where (and forgive me, my memory is hazy but the sentiment is real) a hot new film student enters Dawson’s life and she’s into things that aren’t just other films, and it blows Dawson’s small white mind, and she says something to the effect of ‘if you only watch Spielberg films you’ll only ever make versions of Spielberg films’, and then the episode ends hilariously, with Dawson taking down his roomful of Spielberg posters and putting up a limp poster of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ to show that he now has one other interest (and that is impressing girls).
I often worry that I’m Dawson; only ever writing versions of what I read. Rattling around inside rules, desperately trying to write out of my comfort zone, without ever actually attempting something different. Why am I always reading about writing? Dawson would never admit to this but I’ll speak for both of us here when I say I don’t think I have particularly original ideas, either. So when I’m absorbing any sort of art, I try to think about how form, approach and technique can agitate and excite my writing.