THE NUMBERS STILL, JOE? WHAT’S UP?

Okay, so it’s been a while. I thought I’d refresh you on the numbers project (see here) since it’s been on and off all year. That’s on me for not keeping up with the project every single day, or even every week.

In any case, as you can probably guess, I won’t be hitting the original goal of 365 stories (by word or by sentence count). And that’s okay. That was a lofty goal that was, frankly, over-reaching for my abilities.

But, I feel more creative than I have in a long time, so I feel that this journey has been a good one and worth the effort.

So, what’s next?

Well, the goal now is 100 short stories by word count, and 100 short stories by sentence count. I’ve found an interesting thing has happened as the project has progressed, and that’s the fact that each story has been more and more accurate when I finish the rough version, meaning that when I reach “the end” of a story I am very near that story’s required word or sentence count. So I’ve been better able to gauge structure and the arc of stories over time.

But I’ll have a full evaluation at the end of the whole shebang.

For now, back to the posed question: What’s next?

After the end of 2016, I’ll have the 200 stories collected not only on this website, but also on my computer. I’m going to compile them and publish them as one collection. I’ll likely go the route of Amazon Createspace or a similar self-publisher, but the whole point is to get them out there.

Will they be released “as is” or will they be revised?

I’m still debating on this. On the one hand, there’s something raw about putting them out as-is, and keeping the intention of the original project. On the other hand, it’d be nice to refine some of the “better” stories.

However, it would be a requirement, I think, to keep in the parameters. For instance, if I revise the language of story EIGHTY so it flows a little better, make it more exciting, I’d still keep it at eighty words. Make sense?

What do you think? Revise them all? Just a handful (like 10 or 20)? And, if revisions happen, keep them in parameters?

I think, because this blog will still and constantly exist until the internet melts down, thus keeping the stories in their raw forms forever, I should probably give a go to polishing all of the stories for the “book collection”, no?

Let me know what you think, either in the comments below or send me a message via this page. Hit me on the Twitter, too. @joepezzula

As always, thanks for reading!