Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I thought this would be a fun way to share a condensed version of potential rambles and thoughts that I have.

This week’s theme:
Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist

Initial Thoughts:

The theme for this week is based on what I wish to see (more) from writers or books, and frankly, I feel a massive brain fart incoming because this theme was difficult to conjure considering I’m not the most creative person around.  And I’ll probably get flamed for some of these opinions but whatever, hater’s gonna hate.

So what do I want to see? Well:

1. Writer’s who push their craft for themselves and not for others. I’m not an artist of a craft by any means so these are probably unsupported observations I have, but regardless of the form of content, I see it often where creators start with something and have it seemingly pan out (for series in particular) in favour of readers. There’s a distinction between understanding your target audience and writing for them. The onus isn’t on the writer to please their readers; although that’s a definite plus. With hype trains and fandoms that litter the Internet in positive toxicity – totally patent pending this term – it’s not surprising to read into plotting a happily-ever-after (as a prime example). But this isn’t Disney. I mean, if that was the endgame intent, then I’m all for it. Otherwise, I hope writers don’t get caught up in trying to please every living organism.

2. Incorporating controversial topics. This is generic but needs more attention. Pick and choose any one or many and seamlessly integrate these unspoken truths into the development without explicit detailing in the synopsis. The “oh shit” value, I find, is much more impactful especially when it’s out of left field, relevant, and fits into a narrative. A plus is if it’s used in the context of young-adult. Bam, the elephant is in the room.

3. Integration of subcultures. Whether its cosplayers, freerunners (parkour), drag queens, hippies, derby boys/girls, etc., used in any way possible, I think I’d enjoy something to these extremes.

4. Retellings from outside the main cast. With or without a modern twist, consider the six degrees of separation. And to go along with this:

5. Novellas with a different perspective. I think it would be totally rad to be inside another character’s head while following the main story. Haymitch Abernathy in a drunken stupor? Sign me up.

6. Characters with the ability to shapeshift into useless things. “Fuck yeah, I can transform into a Persian rug,” said no one ever…not yet.

7. Novels with romance aspects where the love triangle/square/octagon ceases to exist. Where all the fandom ships have sunk. This will probably enrage people, but hey, if it works it works (see #1).

8. Open-ended endings. There’s so much emphasis on finality and a concrete ending that I find it refreshing to have an either-or type of up-for-interpretation end.

Afterthoughts:

Yeah that’s all I got, maybe. I apologise for starting off this list with much seriousness. It’s something that has been simmering on my mind due to negative reactions people can have towards authors based on how a book may play out.

But hey, I’m more than happy to hear out your thoughts to this weeks theme or how I tackled it. And yes, I realize that the initial point refutes all the other ones. Haaaaaa.

Cheers,
Joey