In Japan, mobile phone novels called "keitai shousetus" have become so successful that they accounted for half of the ten best-selling novels in 2007. Here in the Western world several would-be novelists are attempting to use Twitter to create the same phenomenon. Some of the novels tweeted so far have been interesting and engaging, but others, sadly, appear to be abandoned. Will micro-format fiction ever take off here as it did in Japan?
- readwriteweb.com

Technology is central to this novel and its entire process. Thea, the character, will exist in the virtual world long before Saccades, the book, is published. And although she will not be "born digital" in the strict sense, the Internet will always be her first home, the place where she is most herself.

On the other hand, she loves books; she loves paper; she craves the intimacy of both. Which is to say that Thea is basically a literary hybrid that will be developed online, through the Saccades Project, an umbrella linking a blog with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Last.fm and any other appropriate networks. This way, I will, and Thea will - each of us, real and imaginary - will be able to respond, adapt, and interact with readers throughout the writing of this book. In fact, readers will help shape and craft the book's content.

The print edition, the hardcover book and its paperback, will be quite different than anything available online, but the two sides of this story, the virtual and the real, are extremely complimentary in creating the widest possible range of readers - and reader contributions - far in advance of actual publication date, as well as the widest possible range of tools with which to develop these characters. Beyond distribution, there are many structural and creative reasons why I want Thea to exist digitally, first and foremost.

One reason is that I intend to use technology to enhance the way I write naturally, which, for me, begins with dialogue. Usually, it's nothing more than a sentence or phrase that I don't understand, myself, but if it's compelling enough, I have to follow it, to see where the comment leads. In that respect, I'm very interested to see how Twitter might provide an editing tool to help me craft the book's dialogue and to see if others find those comments equally provocative. And just as websites draw loyalists by posting reader-generated content, I'll weave readers' contributions into the final version of the book.

I want this story, this character to speak to girls by actually speaking to girls. I want to develop the character's voice, a genuine, unmistakable girl's voice through real conversations via text, IM, Skype, even, with young female readers, who are now being taken quite seriously by many others industries in the world. For example, thirteen-year-old blog phenomenon Tavi Williams graced the cover of the September issue of POP magazine. A year ago, the Web was her oyster, and today, this girl who "scatters black petals on Rei Kawakubo's doorsteps and serenades her in rap," appears side-by-side with new artwork by Damien Hirst. For anyone who claims kids no longer know how to write in complete sentences, take note: "Urban Chic' Really? Still? We're still talking about Urban Chic? The whole shoot is kind of bland and I feel bad that the model had to work with such a boring setting." Now that's a voice for you. And Tavi Williams is exactly the type of role model I'm looking for, because that's a voice that will ring true, whether it's relayed via text messaging or longhand. After all, condensed does not mean canned.

Really, how can you not be inspired by what girls are doing today? This is the most design-savvy, visually sophisticated and technologically advanced generation in history; a generation that has spent almost their entire lives online, discussing film, art, and music interchangeably. They know Joanna Newsom from Marc Newson; blend their tongue and cheek humor in the likes of art-celebrity death matches, such as blogger Doom's hilarious Araki versus Araki post (eugeniasemjonova.blogspot. com). What I most admire is that, clearly, this generation demands originality from the world at large, but from themselves most of all. Which is why, at some point in the near future, I want to experiment by handing over Saccades' blog to a number of young bloggers, male and female, ask them to play guest editor for a week or so, to see what would happen.

Yet, for all the excitement and the incredible energy that young bloggers generate, in the past year, I have watched several young women retire; deactivate their blogs with little to no warning. Although they never say exactly why, I have to imagine, for all their admirers, they must have a number of detractors and complaints that they do not share publicly. What generation can possibly relate to being a teenager today, receiving praise and criticism on a truly global scale? It was hard enough to survive one's teenage years before the Internet, so I'm curious to see what are the very real long-term consequences of Internet celebrity?