Next Tuesday, I’m going to embark on a very intense adventure to write my next novel Typhoon in three days. To achieve this goal, I will need some help from you, and also a whole lot of structure. Here’s the general idea…
A day (as you may have heard) is made up of 24 hours. I am going to set aide 4 of those hours for sleep, because I don’t want to die midway through the event. I’ll wake up at 6am and stop work at 2am the next morning (all times Canadian Pacific time). I will also need 3 more hours a day for eating, bathing, and bringing-kids-to-schoolness. All in all, about 17 hours of solid work time, repeated three times. 51 hours.
At this point, I would like to remind you that I don’t drink caffeine. When you’re done screaming, please resume.
My goal is to release a new chapter every hour, with each chapter being about 1,500 words. Based on historical trends, that should be immensely possible, especially with a good outline in place. If I stick to that plan, I should have time to write a 76,500-word book, which is right in line with what Typhoon should probably be.
The chapters will be posted on a special 3D1D site so you can subscribe, but not get spammed by my regular blog RSS feed. I’ll announce each chapter on Twitter, and I hope you’ll be able to play along.
To make things more interesting, I’m going introduce some interactivity. For each chapter, I have a question or two that I’ll be asking on Twitter. The answers I get (first come first serve?) will be integrated into the story. Name a character, send me a medical condition, stuff like that. If you play along, you’ll get to be part of the action. This should also help keep me awake late at night 
To further confuse things, I’m going to layer some fun on top of the writing. Right before I post each chapter, I’m going take a quick pic of myself sitting at my computer so you can see how exhausted and dishevelled I become over the span of the project. I will take requests via Twitter for actions/poses I will do. Within reason. Keep it clean. I’m also going to include all my twitter traffic for the hour, so future generations can see how silly we all were.
Since this is really performance art, I am going to sell ad space on the page (it’s like tips, but with rewards!) One banner for each hour, permanently attached to the chapter. Advertise your own projects, or whatever you like. The price for the banners will change over time. Hour 1′s banner will be $1. Hour 10′s will be $10. Hour 30′s will be $30. You get the idea. The chapters become buyable one day before the project starts, so nobody has to feel rushed. (note: banner size is 889w by 125h)
Finally, because not everybody has money to throw around, I’m going to institute a short-term points system. Everyone will get a unique URL pointing to the site… every time someone arrives via your link, you get 1 point. Mention the project on Twitter and you get 5 points. Each point is worth $0.01. If you refer 10 people, you’ve got ten cents to buy an ad with. Refer 100 and you’ve got $1. Refer 1,000 and you’ve got $10. Makes sense?
Is there anything else you’d like to see me do? I want to make this as fun and involving as I can, so throw even your craziest ideas at me. I’m ready.
