I keep blog posts that I read bookmarked (or ‘starred’ in Google Reader) for ages – months, even years. I was just going through them, and came across a couple from last summer: one by Joe Hill and the other, a response to his post, from Kat Howard.* Their blog posts list five things they want to try as writers that they’ve never done successfully.

For the purpose of the exercise, ‘success’ indicates getting paid (you can read Joe’s post for the reasons behind this). I think I’ll tweak that definition slightly for my version, because I consider that I have successfully written comics thanks to the Moth Tales webcomic, even though I didn’t get paid for that. I also wrote a full-length script for Atomic Diner Comics, although we have yet to see the finished comic. Hopefully that will happen this year! *crosses fingers and hopes*

So. Here are five things I want to try in my own writing career that I haven’t yet done successfully:

1) Write a novel that has no supernatural/paranormal elements. I suppose that including this is cheating, as I’m sort of working on something at the moment (just a little bit, on the side) that would fall into this category. Still, it’s not written yet – not by a long shot – and certainly not sold, but I hope to give it some dedicated time soon. It’s a YA novel, but I don’t want to say any more at the moment because it’s unlike anything I’ve ever attempted.

2) Write a novel for the adult market. I have still never completed an adult urban fantasy or paranormal romance manuscript. I’ve tried twice, and stalled out at around 40,000 words on both occasions. I still have plans to rewrite the second of those attempts – and then finish it. I think it will turn out to be a ‘paranormal romantic suspense,’ but one that reads a little closer to urban fantasy.

3) Write a film screenplay. This could be an adaptation of a novel, though I think I’d prefer to try an original screenplay.

4) Write a TV pilot. I have two strong (I hope) ideas for this, one that would work in the UK market and the other aimed at the US. The UK one has no genre elements at all, while the US idea is science fiction.

5) Write a poem and have it published. There are a couple of online markets that I always keep an eye on, but I am not a natural poet at all. Still, I’d really like to try this. I love reading poetry and should spend more time doing that.

I have no idea when – or even if - I will ever achieve any of these things, but there’s no harm in trying. Right?

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*I love Kat’s blog, in particular, and highly recommend it.