LittleWyvern.com

There are a number of things that I want to accomplish in my life. Some of them are vague; I have certainly never bothered to sit down and make a list. But were I ever to write that list I know that up near the top would be this: Write a book and have it published. It’s a somewhat bizarre dream, I admit, for an engineering student who never took a single English class in college. And yet, there it is.

Kevin Smith was once asked where he gets the ideas for his films. His answer was simple and revealing. “I just make the movie that I would want to see.” A lot of people have criticized his work, but he never takes it too personally. After all, it’s ultimately his movie. He didn’t make the film for the critics; he just made the movie that he wanted to see. If other people like it, well that’s just a bonus.

I am taking that sentiment to heart with this, my latest endeavor. Every day I have a dozen different story ideas flow through my head. Most of them are just fragments, ideas of the “wouldn’t it be funny…” variety. In the past, more often than not I would consider those fragments and think, “Now that would be a book I’d want to read.” Lately, I have instead been thinking, “Now that would be a book I’d want to write.” And the more I say that, the more I come to believe that maybe, just maybe, I could pull it off.

Maybe it won’t be terribly interesting to you, and probably even less so an anonymous stranger. Well, then I think of Kevin Smith and his movies. This is going to be my book, my story. The one that I feel should be told. The one that I want to read. The one that I want to write.

This first book might not come out perfect, and that’s okay. Maybe nobody will like it. Maybe not even me. And that’s okay. Even if this first story is terrible, at least it will be written. And no matter how awful it might become, I will learn from it and then I’ll do better the second time around. All I can really say for sure about this first effort is that my chances of being eventually published dramatically improve when I put those first words to paper. You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take… and so forth.

And so this is where you come in. I’ll throw out some big font for all you casual skimmers, the ones who got bored somewhere in the first paragraph.

DO YOU WANT FREE MONEY??

The consistency and duration of my self-motivation being notoriously fickle, I am going to involve you, my loyal friends and readers. I am going to make you an offer that you would be a little bit stupid to refuse. I offer the following pledge:

Before midnight on December 16th, 2006 I will have composed a novel of no fewer than 50,000 words. The work will be composed of entirely original material (I won’t be copying anything that I or others have written before – sorry mom, no compilation). If I do NOT complete this work, I will mail each of you a check for fifty (50) dollars.

Yeah, that’s right: free money for you.

One fairly common method of inducing motivation is to pledge money to some organization in the event that you fail. Blackmailing yourself, really. But in my case I worry that just won’t work; that at some point I will simply give up and say, “Fuck it, let them have the money.” No, I think it better to offer that money to you, my friends. This will server as a much more potent reminder, I think, because rather than ship off some cash to an anonymous fund I will have to personally admit my failure with each envelope I mail. Further, it becomes an easy way to cause your interest in my progress. If I fail, you come out ahead. If I succeed, well, we all come out ahead.

So here is all that you need to do.

- Before November 1st, send an email to freemoney@littlewyvern.com that includes your name and the address to which I should mail your $50.

If I don’t get your email in the next week then you will not be eligible for this ‘prize’. Because I’m not a particularly wealthy person, and fifties add up fast, I won’t accept the participation of people that I don’t actually know. Don’t bother telling your friends and roommates to email me.

I wonder if a degree of guilt might prevent you from ‘taking advantage’ of such a cool guy. Please don’t let that – or my good looks and roguish charm – stop you. I am more than prepared to ship off a few thousand if need be. It’s going to a good cause: we’re pursuing dreams here, people. In truth, the more emails I get the more motivated I will likely be to screw you all over and finish this book out of pure, unadulterated spite.

I am going to allow myself about six weeks to accomplish this ridiculous task. For part of that time I will be out of town and for other parts I expect to be especially busy with work, but if I allow myself too many excuses I worry that I might never see it through. And so there it is: six weeks.

I already know what I am going to write about, but no I’m not going to tell you just yet. I am, however, adding a little status indicator to the side of my site so that you can keep track of how I’m doing. On December 16th I will post whatever I have come up with. It’s likely that at some point before then I will also post the occasional short excerpt.

Now… stop reading this post, get in on the action, and email me your support.