Avery K. Tingle, The Gamer Author

Linktree ran a contest based on the burgeoning passion economy not too long ago. The premise was deceptively simple: pitch your product in a sixty-second video for a shot at part of a $250,000 grant. I got the email months before the deadline and got hyped. I had this down. I could write the script, refine, and shoot in short order. Let’s do this.

I began work in earnest. I churned out four versions of the script before arriving at something I was satisfied with. Making time to shoot proved more difficult. But no problem, right? I had plenty of time. Besides, I was working on two short stories, I had a night job to manage and oh yeah, I was planning a move from Washington State to Las Vegas. Giving myself a break, I figured there would be time.

I let time run out in Washington but figured Las Vegas would make a better spot to shoot something like this anyway. As usual, I crammed it right up until the deadline. The day before submissions closed, I was headed to the Hoover Dam. What better place to shoot something like this, then where Megatron thawed and cursed Starscream for yet another failure?

It probably would’ve made a good shoot, had I not left the equipment home. Meaning, I left everything at home. Even the script. On that deep subconscious level we don’t like to acknowledge, I knew I left it at home.

On a last-ditch attempt to make good, I tried to do the shoot when I got home only to find that submissions had closed. In that same dark subconscious we’d like to ignore, I was relieved.

I was relieved because I was utterly terrified of entering.
I didn’t think I had a chance.

I am, at most, an above-average video editor with a modicum of skill at special effects. It took me three months to figure out how to use the slomo on my phone’s camera. When it came down to it, I saw myself as “just a writer”.

How was I possibly going to compete with Millenials and Gen-Z who lived and breathed this economy?
How was I going to keep up with people who’d developed products that just might change the world?
Who was I, this lowly author, to dare stand on the same stage as these geniuses?

I should have at least tried. Yes, maybe I would have lost. Maybe I would’ve lost so badly that I wouldn’t have been worth the time of a rejection. But at least then, I’d know.

Instead, I’m left wondering if I might have taken home a bit of the prize if I’d just had the courage to see it through.

It is truly better to try and fail, than to not try at at all.

Thanks for reading.

Avery K. Tingle is a scifi/fantasy author currently residing in the Las Vegas area. Owned by two cats, he is passionate about social justice, Star Wars, and mental health. Connect to his award-winning writing and social media here.