Thursday, October 7, 2010

When gentle nudges don't work, find creative ways to nag

Every Sunday the Albany newspaper, the Times Union, prints a "Life Stories" feature of short stories sent in by readers about their lives.  (Hence the title, huh?)  Because I fancy myself as being somewhat interesting, I submitted a piece in back in July.  The next day I got this response:  

I’ll be happy to consider your story. I’ve just returned from vacation, so it will be a while before I get to read it. Please bug me if you don’t hear from me.
Well, every three weeks or so I'd take the guy up on his invitation to bug him.  At one point, I opened with "You'd think you were my boyfriend, the way I nag you!" and though without fail I heard back right away, his response was always something like, "I'm swamped right now, but keep bugging me."

The other night I decided to go balls to the wall and sent this: 

Okay, Jack--

You said don't hesitate to bug you, and for once I'm doing as I'm told. And here are five other things I will do to get you to read my Life Stories submission:

1. I will buy you a beer. Not the cheap stuff, either. A good microbrew.

2. I will send you a free copy of my book. Men love it because it has lots of swearing.

3. I will crank call your worst enemy. That will be fun; I'll use my fake English accent.

4 I will let you borrow five dollars. And for as long as you need it.

5. I will send you my obituary picture to be printed when I die in 2059. See attached. I look awesome and I probably won't change too much before then.
... and I attached this picture.


Well, I heard from him the next morning and guess what? My story is on the schedule for November 7.

I'll remind you before then, but that's not the point. My point is, sometimes you have to be creative to achieve your objective. Sure, I took a risk, but in all his communication he seemed like a nice guy, so I figured he might get a kick out of my approach.

So my question to you is, what do you have out there that's going nowhere for you? How can you creatively escalate the situation to the next level?

Do it! Do it today!!!

P.S.  Cleavage might help.  Just saying.

7 comments:

Hurricane Mikey said...

Cleavage is like cinnamon or bacon. It's the secret ingredient that makes everything better!

Anonymous said...

You really think you'll look that great when you're 102? At that age, my cleavage will be down at my waist. What an optimist you are!
DeeDee

raydenzel1 said...

Send me a picture like that and I will publish anything you want!

gayle said...

Wow that is awesome!! Can't wait to read it!! Now any suggestions to get my husband to clean off the poarch:)

Fragrant Liar said...

Girlfriend, cleavage always helps. But I'm sure it was that thought of five bucks in his pocket that did it.

Looking forward to your November debut.

I Hate to Weight said...

that's a great story! fantastic creative work.

i'm inspired. i guess the biggest thing i did recently was finally get myself to AA and approach a stranger to sponsor me. i was terrified.

i have a lot of hopes (and now hope), but i've decided to just do all the things i need to do to finally really get sober.)

i just realized i'm having a little therapy session on your blog.

this post really touched and inspired me, and not just to go to Victoria's Secret!

Caz Wilson said...

Oh my god I love this! Sometimes you do hit that wall where the one person you need to do the thing you want just won't do it.

The creative nagging is genius and that photo is awesome!

xjcx