About halfway into the Confidence story, I was becoming aware of some problems associated with weekly submissions via email. Flashbacks in the story made it difficult for readers to keep the timeline straight and the variety of characters that I introduced made it difficult for readers to remember which character was which. Normally, if somebody were reading this as a book they could leaf back through the pages. But the email format made this more difficult.
As I began to question readers about the email format of delivery, I ran into other problems. Many people on the list were international and did not understand some of the references I made to American culture. In addition, I found that many readers liked the story behind the story as much as they liked the story.
So, it occured to me that if I set up the story as a set of web pages, I could over come these difficulties. Having the pages online would make it easier for readers to look back at previous chapters, thus solving one of the problems. But the real inspiration was the idea of pop ups to explain time sequencing and reacquaint readers with characters that had not been mentioned for awhile. The idea of pop ups expanded further when I realized that I could provide any sort information including explanations of symbolism, themes, and authors notes about the story. With this realization the concept of the online novel was born.
Here is how the Online Novel works. Throughout the story there will be red, green and blue links. The red links are notes to the reader and may help remind the reader who a character is, where the stories is in time sequence, or explain a reference that may be unfamiliar to some readers. Some red links just reveal silly comments that I felt like making. The green links explain symbolism, development of a theme, or an important transition point in the story. The blue links are author's notes and allow me to go off on any number of silly side tangents as I feel compelled explain the story behind the story or to pontificate on all manner of things.
When you encounter a colored link, simply place your cursor over it. You do not need to click the mouse button. If the comment exceeds a normal popup comment, it will instruct you to click on the link to get a pop up window with a fuller explaination.
At the bottom of the table of contents pages, is a clickable mailer so that you can send me an email with your thoughts about the story. I welcome your comments, positive or negative, constructive or destructive. So please feel free to send a note and let me know what you think of the story. Also, tell any friends who might be interested in the story.
This is, as far as I know, the first online novel. Other stories have been made available on the web as a means of distribution. But, again as far as I know, this is the first time a story incorporated web technologies, especially pop ups, to enhance the story. Since this new idea is still evolving, your thoughts and feedback are all the more important.
I hope you enjoy the story, and I look forward to your comments.
John M. Artz
December 2000