Writers (published or not): What's your biggest "I could do better than THAT" moment?

[BreweryYardRat]

That moment when you see a really interesting idea in a book that's not being used to its full potential, and decide to do it better. I read A LOT of sci-fi/fantasy, and not coincidentally, this is often where ideas are grossly underused.

For me, the moment was related to Mercedes Lackey's "Elemental Masters" series. Specifically, when I picked up the second book and realized she was just re-telling classic fairy tales. I actually didn't notice when I read the first one (a take on Beauty and the Beast, set in 1905-6, with elemental magicians along the lines of Paracelsus' ideas), because hey, you don't see many Beauties with a PhD in classical and medieval studies, or who contemplate suicide at any point. Nor do you often see a Beast whose condition is his own fault -- the result of a major magical experiment gone wrong. Fire elementals as servants, instead of animated household fixtures, was another pleasant change. Despite Lackey's inevitable problems (cardboard villains, a little too much fluffy-bunny paganism/terminology), and the constant authorial bashing of Aleister Crowley, I thought it was a decent read.

Second one was a big walloping smack in the face. I forget exactly what fairy tale it was based on (I'm thinking Sleeping Beauty, but I wouldn't swear to it in court or anything), but that it was a fairy tale was blatantly obvious from the prologue. My reaction boiled down to this: *my jaw drops, book hits bed with a thump, never to be picked up again* "You're writing about elemental magic, a concept loaded with all sorts of potentially interesting things to put in a story, and all you're doing is re-telling FAIRY TALES?! Fuck, I've had dozens of ideas about that over the years. I know I can do better than THIS!" Cue furious typing.

Mind you, my college studies take first priority, but I'm still 20,000 words in (180,000 left to go -- sigh), and I've done a ton of world-building. I was never planning to go for an Earth-based fantasy, but the plan was originally to stick solely to humans. Somewhere along the way, I acquired four separate non-human sapient species, none of which are traditional elves, dwarves, orcs, and other Tolkien stereotypes. (One's derived from South American mythology, the other three are completely my own ideas.) But enough of my self-puffery.

So, ladies and gents, what are your "I can do better than THAT!" moments?

[Godhumor]

1. MEG--I read that and thought an infant could write better prose

But, to be fair, the public pretty much agreed with me. The book was so bad Walt Disney withdrew a movie deal upon its release.

Spoilers

To be more specific, I completely lost it a multitude of times:

1) The piss-poor excuse for science

2) The main female lead getting over her brother's horrific shark attack death in half a page ("She took a deep breath and resolved to move on.")

3) Two surfers get attack by the shark. One gets eaten while the other makes it back to shore. He then asks a girl out because his competition got chomped on.

4) A female news reporter wears a thong for a news piece, for some reason (And gets eaten)

5) The main character flies a mini-sub down the throat of the shark, gets out, walks in the stomach, and cuts its heart out with a knife. He then pilots the mini-sub out of the dying shark's mouth.

[Droopy]

2. My best moment came when I realized

that I could do just as good as some writers who are in print. I've never thought highly of myself, but I have been convinced that I should take my own writing more seriously. It was really an empowering moment for me.

[Orsino]

3. Every book by Dan Brown, perhaps.

Oh, I give him full marks for exciting pacing and scholarship beforehand, but good lord that man can't write for beans.

And yet I've finished three of his books, and just reread one.

[MrScorpio]

4. I'm planning on doing space pirates

Space pirates aren't terribly original, but I am planning on employing my own particular oeuvre.