So Much To Do, So Little Time: Do writers have bucket lists?

by master April 25, 2014

By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Mark Victore Hansen
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I feel overwhelmed because there is SO much to do and so little time to get it done. I had planned on bringing Loran Rudder and the Secret Key out in June, but that just isn’t going to happen. I am not ready. The book is not ready.

But have I been revising/editing/reinventing it? NO! Instead, I have been considering my want-to-get-done ideas–a sort of bucket list if you will. Do writers have bucket lists? I suppose we do, in one way or another.

A few things to consider when deciding on a bucket list item:

1. Just what do you want to accomplish this year? Next? In five years? Ten? Calculating your compass might help you create a more solid direction to point in. Is what you want to do contingent on your acquiring some new skills or knowledge? Get that app filled out for a college class!
2. Are you stuck on a moderate level when you really want to be in the excellent category? Are you stuck between floors in your writing building? Write more. Everything you pen is fodder for raising the elevator. You might start out being a general blogger, only blogging about life things. But sooner or later, you will find your niche and begin blogging about it. Then you will see the floors of that building fly by.
3. Have you been carrying ideas around in a folder or notebook but never doing anything with them? The most positive way to see no growth is to never do anything with what you have written. There is a 100% chance of failure if it never leaves the idea stage. Get that notebook out and whip one of those ideas into something.

Here are just a couple of my bucket list ideas:
1. Write a non-fiction book about something. A real full-length book. Not a booklet.
2. Be a speaker at a workshop.
3. Sign books at a con.

Bucket Lists
I actually accomplished one of the things on my BL this year. I taught several classes on writing to all of the kids in tenth grade English (honors too!) at Noxubee County High School.