Nathan Rabin
CREATOR
Project Update: Only three days left in the Maniac Pixie Dream Girl Campaign and We Have a Ways to Go!
Hey you beautiful people,
I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to the Maniac Pixie Dream Girl campaign so far. I cannot express how much your support means to me. This is a brutal business, particularly if you’re a painfully insecure autistic man who is terrible at selling himself in a field where that’s a requirement.
I’ve done enough crowdfunding campaigns to know that only two times really matter: the beginning and the end. In the beginning, there’s hopefully a mad rush of excitement, optimism, and momentum, as you bring something new into the world.
I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to the Maniac Pixie Dream Girl campaign so far. I cannot express how much your support means to me. This is a brutal business, particularly if you’re a painfully insecure autistic man who is terrible at selling himself in a field where that’s a requirement.
I’ve done enough crowdfunding campaigns to know that only two times really matter: the beginning and the end. In the beginning, there’s hopefully a mad rush of excitement, optimism, and momentum, as you bring something new into the world.
At the end, again, if you’re very lucky, there’s unstoppable momentum and urgency, as your fans help you achieve your literary dream and make a book that is, right now, an abstraction, a glorious reality.
In between are two or three weeks where nothing much happens. The electric sense of possibility has long faded, and there’s no real urgency, because you have weeks, not days, to contribute.
These in-between weeks are agonizing. About a week and a half ago, I made the mistake of compulsively checking my overall tally. Boy, was that dumb! I’d check, and the number of supporters would be 111. I’d check two hours later, and it was still 111. I checked the next day, and it was still 111.
In between are two or three weeks where nothing much happens. The electric sense of possibility has long faded, and there’s no real urgency, because you have weeks, not days, to contribute.
These in-between weeks are agonizing. About a week and a half ago, I made the mistake of compulsively checking my overall tally. Boy, was that dumb! I’d check, and the number of supporters would be 111. I’d check two hours later, and it was still 111. I checked the next day, and it was still 111.
Intellectually, rationally, and objectively, I understood why the number wasn’t changing at all, but it did a number on my psyche and self-esteem.
So I mustered up the self-control not to look at the total until it was necessary and the campaign was in the home stretch.
My connection at BackerKit emailed me yesterday to tell me that I was 51 percent of the way toward my goal. I’m glad I didn’t compulsively check my total, because it would have only changed by about $ 400 in a week.
My connection at BackerKit emailed me yesterday to tell me that I was 51 percent of the way toward my goal. I’m glad I didn’t compulsively check my total, because it would have only changed by about $ 400 in a week.
We’re nearing the finish line now. The campaign will end at 4 PM on Thursday. If I don’t reach my 8000 dollar goal, I get nothing. Y’all get nothing. A book I am very excited to write, but am too superstitious to start before/unless I make my goal, will not exist.
It’s sort of like a theatrical production of Peter Pan, only instead of bringing Tinkerbell back to life through applause, you will hopefully be bringing Maniac Pixie Dream Girl to life through your words.
Right now, things are looking a little iffy. I need to raise a little under $4,000 in just under 5 days for it to succeed. I’m super excited about the entries in the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Project that I have written but haven’t published yet. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
Monday: Autumn in New York
Tuesday: Sweet November (2001)
Wednesday: Elizabethtown (a 3000 word, deeply personal essay on a movie I’ve written about extensively)
Thursday: Garden State (a 2000-word piece on a movie I inexplicably have never written about
Right now, things are looking a little iffy. I need to raise a little under $4,000 in just under 5 days for it to succeed. I’m super excited about the entries in the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Project that I have written but haven’t published yet. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
Monday: Autumn in New York
Tuesday: Sweet November (2001)
Wednesday: Elizabethtown (a 3000 word, deeply personal essay on a movie I’ve written about extensively)
Thursday: Garden State (a 2000-word piece on a movie I inexplicably have never written about
Here’s what I would like to add, but haven’t written about yet:
Tuesday: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Wednesday: Almost Famous, Aloha as a MWOF/MPDG piece on Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place
Tuesday: It Chapter One (King column)
Tuesday: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Wednesday: Almost Famous, Aloha as a MWOF/MPDG piece on Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place
Tuesday: It Chapter One (King column)
If it’s just me self-promoting poorly, I will fall short, and that will be very difficult and dispiriting, but with your help, I can make this happen.
To make things obscenely attractive, anyone who buys a physical copy of a book or spends more than 50 dollars gets TWO free ebooks: a PDF of Five Nights at Freddy Got Fingered, to introduce you to Robin Yount, the protagonist of Maniac Pixie Dream Girl, and Questionable Exercises, in Vulgar Completism, a campaign-exclusive collection of deep dives into lowbrow institutions that I conducted for Substack: the SNL and Ernest P. Worrell movies and the Final Destination, Fast and the Furious, Police Academy, Halloween, Silent Night, Deadly Night, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Child’s Play franchises.
If we make it to 10K, I’ll add the complete Friday the 13th franchise to the book. If we hit 12K, I’ll watch and write about all the Leprechaun movies.
I’m excited about all sorts of tiers, like a God-level tier where you pony up the full goal, let me sleep at night, and become my personal hero. Also, I’ll fly to your home to shake your hand, mow your lawn, or babysit your kids as a thank-you. There’s also a homemade, signed, and numbered zine that will now collect the 25 to 27 pieces I wrote for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Project, an MPDG Judge option, where I’ll watch a movie of your choice and decide definitively if it has a proper MPDG, and super-sized versions of Control Nathan Rabin 4.0, where you can program an entire season of content of Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place because I have to write about twenty films of your choosing.
In case you haven’t been following the MPDG project, here’s what I’ve written up so far:
Pop musician and real-life MPDG Grimes
Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), Along Came Polly
Life is not easy for a perpetually struggling freelance writer with bipolar 2 and AuDHD and two children with AuDHD in an impossible field, but with your help, I can make this beautiful dream a reality.
Back! Share! Let’s get this baby over the goal line!
Life is not easy for a perpetually struggling freelance writer with bipolar 2 and AuDHD and two children with AuDHD in an impossible field, but with your help, I can make this beautiful dream a reality.
Back! Share! Let’s get this baby over the goal line!
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