This year it's all about the numbers

I've been working offline on a new project now for a few months. It's the same one that got away when Exercises in Song took over my life. It involves a lot of preparatory work, which would be hard to translate to things like blogposts, although I might well try to do so as we approach the end of 2011.

This next Pocketful is going to be called: 10x10x100. This is the (I suppose intentionally) cryptic title for a set of 100 short stories, of 100 words each; the stories themselves break down into ten locations and ten styles. I don't want to say much more than that as it will probably give too much away.

One big problem with this structure is that it isn't at all clear how it's going to work in terms of something I can produce in the usual format. 10,000 words is unlikely to fit into the usual sixteen or so sides of A5, plus a cover. It's also not necessarily the best format anyway, for - but once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Suffice it to say that I can't see it working in a pamphlet like earlier Pocketfuls.

So I'm not sure what to do, except: have it written, if possible, by early December. What happens with those words then, I don't know. It'll work itself out.