Monday, July 7, 2014

Writing Bucket List

There are lots of things I want to write! We all have that list of books, genres, styles, and gimmicks we all want to try out eventually. I thought I'd make a writerly bucket list of the things I want to write before I die.

1- An epistolic novel. This has been on my list for ages and ages! I love books told through letter specifically and I swear I'm going to write one! Hopefully more than one. I have some ideas swirling around my brain, just little gold fish size ones, but soon I hope they find their way onto paper.

2- Horror. I love horror novels and short stories! But it is probably the hardest, most subjective thing to execute well (right next to comedy).

3- Highly illustrated Middle Grade. This isn't the same thing as just writing and illustrating a book. It's telling the story with prose and art, blending them together to make a coherent flowing whole. Think 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' or the Amelia series by Marissa Moss. This is another one that's been on my list for years.

4- Vampires. I freaking LOVE vampires. I HATE 90% of vampire novels. I want to write about vampires but I just haven't come up with something new and exciting and different. But SOMEDAY I will! *determined face*

5- Family Saga. I don't even know why... I just do! But with a paranormal spin. Something multi-generational with a huge cast of characters stretching over years...

6- Comic Books. I have written a few graphic novels but I still don't feel satisfied. Technically I can cross this off the list but I want to write MORE comics and graphic novels in the future so I'm leaving it on the list as 'unfinished business'.

7- A wildly imaginative and dark secondary world fantasy. I would love to get my goth on, and create a dark and amazing world! Something like China Mieville's Bas Lag. Something that's pure imagination and epic in scope.

8- A shared world. I've always wanted to create a shared universe for writers to write in. A fantasy world of course ;)

9- A book about books. I love books, reader's love books. We all love books. But books about books are a little harder to manage.

10- Dark fantasy. Something grim, gritty, dark and scary. Again, I don't know what. But something! That's why it's on the bucket list!

So what's on your bucket list?

17 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I've got my bucket list as well. this is a good idea for a blog post. I may riff off this if you don't mind.

Che Gilson said...

Sure, no problem.

Liane Spicer said...

You've also given me an idea for my next blog post! This is a great one.

I've never considered writing a novel in the form of letters, but I've loved the few I've read--Ann Frank, Color Purple, Letters to a Young Artist... I don't see horror and YA in my future: I'm already writing in 7 genres!

I hate vampires, yet there are exceptions. I saw a film called 'Shadow of the Vampire' and loved it. I'd read THAT novel, and I've read a couple of others that I enjoyed. :) Books about books now...there are lots out there but I don't rule that possibility out.

Che Gilson said...

So glad you enjoyed the post! I think as writers we all have so many ideas and things we want to do. Not all of them may get done, but it's fun to poke around, picking out what we like about a certain genre, and what we don't.

Carol Mitchell said...

I smell a theme :-). Thanks Che.

Neil A. Waring said...

Good stuff. I keep thinking I, now retired, should have a bucket list of some kind but It never seems to work out. I just put down 1. and then nothing. Thanks for some ideas.

G. B. Miller said...

I don't have much in the way of a bucket list for writing. About the only item that I perpetually have on my bucket list is to write a "G" rated story.

I did it once and I suppose I could do it again.

Father Nature's Corner

Che Gilson said...

Glad to see this has got people thinking!

Anonymous said...

Creating a bucket lists of stories you want to write is a fantastic idea. I'm going to do this too!

Sunny Frazier said...

I've written a children's book, haven't published it yet but I can cross that off. Others are asking me to write "how-to" books on short stories and marketing, so they are adding to my bucket list. I'm thinking about a mystery series featuring a Hispanic sleuth. I would love to write a historical, but the research frightens me. However, I do have a good idea set in the Caribbean. . . .

Anonymous said...

Love this. Like others, I may also have to borrow this idea.

Among other things, comics are also on my list, along with a screenplay, a children's/young reader book, and a novel set in the 1980s, just so I can revisit my teenage years while solving a murder mystery :D

Che Gilson said...

Yay for the 80s!!

Jewel Amethyst said...

An epistolic novel is also on my bucket list and you know what? I started it. It's now lying fallow with all the other half done manuscripts that's on my bucket list.

I just crossed off a children's book because I've just accomplished that. As for vampires, they've never been on my bucket list.

KeVin K. said...

Che, I'm up for #8.

My bucket list is pretty straightforward.
I have notes and outlines of four novels I will write over the next two years (not counting the YA novel currently in revision) (a few folk who know me will note something odd about that parenthetical aside).
I have an outline/overall arc for a series of novels I want to develop.
I want to script comics and graphic novels.
I want to teach others to write better than I do.
And I want to be part of a shared universe I have a hand in creating.

Liane Spicer said...

...the YA novel currently in revision.

Kevin revises only to editorial direction. Who are you and what have you done with Kevin!

KeVin K. said...

A Master of Fine Arts candidate following the editorial directions of my prof.

Liane Spicer said...

Ah, yes. That explains it. :D