Hardback, 145 x 37 x 10mm

Paperback, 151 x 25.4 x 10mm

ebook, PDF format

Overview

One hundred and eleven six-word stories about Hell, in three editions.

Background

I really like projects with constraints. When I made films, some of the best work we did was in projects where we were given briefs with tight parameters, most notably shooting and editing within 48 hours. Those pieces were inventive and had a kind of manic energy to them which wouldn’t have been possible if they’d had more time or resources. I’ve often set myself guidelines to follow trying to chase that high, sometimes successfully and sometimes… not. Perhaps it’s getting older, but I’ve come to appreciate a bit of time to think, to ruminate and reflect on the work. Perhaps that means it doesn’t have the raw energy of more frenzied projects, but I think for the most part it does mean it comes out better. Maybe.

But there is something appealing about projects which fit within certain parameters. Those don’t have to be time based. In fact, I’ve found myself less able to work to those self-imposed deadlines for anything more than three days. (The last one was the 3 Day Novel Competition, which produced a novella I was pretty pleased with. It didn’t win, but did make the shortlist.) When it goes beyond that short intense burst, other things sort of get in the way and I can’t make it work. That said, sometimes you see something where the pieces fit together perfectly in your head. So it was with Six Six Six. I’ve been thinking about the six word story for a while now, mostly due to my friends at TYPE! magazine, who feature them in their brilliant bookmark literary journal. Obviously, I could have just written some six-worders and submitted them, but my grandiosity wouldn’t allow for it. Instead, this project came to mind, based first of all on the maths. One hundred and eleven six word stories equals six hundred and sixty six words total. That, obviously, is the Number of the Beast, so it made perfect sense to do a connected series of tiny stories about the Dark Lord himself. I’d make it into a book that would have 666 copies and sell them for £6.66 each.

And that’s what I’ve done. Almost. Some things have changed along the way. In the process of prototyping the physical books, it became clear that I had to make some hardback copies. I wasn’t about to do 666 of them though, so the idea of separate printings came to mind. There would be six hand-made hardbacks, sixty mass-produced paperbacks and then it seemed obvious to make six hundred ebooks. The pricing was obvious: £66.60 for the handmade books, £6.66 for the paperbacks and 66p for the ebooks.

Writing the stories was fun. I did it piecemeal over several months, jotting down any half-idea that came to mind and spending an hour or so twisting them into shape. Six words isn’t a lot, but it allows for a surprising amount of variation and experimentation. When I started amassing an amount of stories of what I thought was a decent quality, I started looking at the overall structure of the story. It’s basically Lucifer: My Fall and Rise of Lucifer, although I must say that my knowledge of the story comes more from popular culture than it does from scripture. Milton scholars should look elsewhere. I think it’s pretty entertaining, though, and I’m pleased with how it came out. The niceness of the hardbacks was a surprise and I’ve learned a lot about bookbinding through doing it. It’s another tiny fiddly project, though, and I’ve promised myself that next time I’m going to make something larger so I’m not dealing with teeny-tiny margins for error. I am almost certainly going to ignore my own advice, though.

Enormous thanks should go to the brilliant Jemima Kingsley, who created the system that allows me to sell individually numbered PDFs for next to nothing. Anyone looking for any sort of technical solution to a problem should hire her.