Will the Future Novel be More than Text on a Page?
We all know what it looks like when a novel is adapted for film or television. But what would it look like when the novel format is adapted for the Internet? We reported in March that more and more reading is being done online, especially by the younger generation, but because of the distractions of the media rich world in which we live, most reading on the web is actually just skimming. So how do you create a compelling novel format for the online world? Canadian author Nicola Furlong thinks the answer is a new web publishing format she's calling a "Quillr."
Furlong's latest novel, a "supernatural suspense thriller" called Here Ends the Beginning, is the first to be released using the Quillr format (the Quillr site isn't online yet). The Quillr concept, which was created by Furlong, and colleagues Glynne Turner, a video producer and songwriter, and Charles Ormiston, a web designer, mashes up text, video, audio, and photos to create a new type of ebook that the three hope resonates with the YouTube generation.
"Here Ends the Beginning is much more than a conventional e-book," wrote Furlong to us in an emailed press release. "The text is punctuated throughout with video clips and photographs of actors recreating the characters and scenes. Music and sound effects further enhance this novel experience."
The first 5 chapters of the 43-chapter-long book are available for free, with the full book available for $12.95 CDN. But is this really the future of the novel?
We've seen a lot of experimentation with the traditional book publishing format over the past year. From an author using Amazon's Kindle ebook reader to beta test his book to one using blog comments to peer review another. From books being written and released on cell phones to novels being serialized and released over LiveJournal, Twitter, and Google Maps. Unfortunately, none of these experiences have so far been able to match the enjoyable, intimate feeling of curling up with an real, printed book -- at least for me.
Writing about Penguin's Google Maps-based novel mashup in April, Booklist's Keir Graff wrote, "It's an odd sensation, really: simple words can evoke a world in our imaginations, but as soon as the words are married to real-world images, they lose much of their power." The same thing can be said of Furlong's Quillr concept. While videos and images flowed well as far as where and how they were inserted into the text, they seemed to detract from my reading experience by breaking up the continuity of the "inner movie" I develop whenever I read a piece of fiction. Also, constantly having to scroll and click while reading a long piece of writing can be frustrating -- it's just not as natural or satisfying as turning pages in a book.
But perhaps that's due to my advanced age of 24 years old (ha!). Maybe multimedia-enhanced, web-delivered books will resonate better with a younger set of readers. Give Furlong's book a chance and then come back here and leave a comment letting us know what you thought. Is this an enjoyable way to read a book? Or are publishers barking up the wrong tree with experiments in web publishing that mash books with web technology?
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I started reading through the Furlong's book and let me tell you the experience is not at all satisfying. The music in the background keeps distracting you, and so are the images and videos. The main plus of novels is it challenges reader's imagination. Each reader has his own vision of space and time where events take place and behavior of characters involved.
I don't think this semi-movie semi-novel format will really hit chord with the indent hardcopy novel lovers.
It's interesting that a decade of net art/new media efforts to publicize this type of creativity really hasn't made much of an impact. God knows what the "younger set of readers" would make of mezangelle which [ironically] has been in operation for way over a decade.
Chunks,
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Terrible idea. If you like it then just watch TV and stop pretending.
Sit down and read a book. Experience the joy of the written word as it was meant to be enjoyed.
Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire
It seems like a slightly more literary take on the 'photo strip' stories you'd get in comics back in the 70s - no idea if they still do them, but they seemed to be a fad that died off soon enough - in contrast, graphic novels became a success.
I can see this idea being very useful in some non-fiction and text books.
Can't help remembering, though, the little girl, who, after her first experience of television, told a reporter that she preferred radio "because the pictures are better."
Novels are about stimulating the imagination and creating worlds behind the eyes.
I'm sure any writers or editors here will agree with the old golden rule 'show don't tell'. Books like *Here Ends the Beginning* will shatter that and degrade, rather than enhance, the novel experience.
But I guess nobody ever lost a bet by over-estimating what an entertainment-craving public will swallow next.
Best wishes. Neil Marr
I can see the value of including images, perhaps emotive pictures or short video clips which echo and enhance the symbolism, or mirror a metaphor in the story. Even music which is compatible with the text could have a place, but I think these 'assets' would need to be vague, archetypal and highly allusive. Showing characters faces as actors? Definately not. Same goes for interpreting scenes. I think those additions would be far too limiting and distruptive of the imaginative process of reading.
Novels are supposed invoke the reader's imagination? What is there to imagine if the novel is describing ...say..a lion and you..literally see a photo of a lionel. It feels like chidren's textbook to me. Now imagine reading Dan Brown's novel and you see ..Tom Hanks
photo out of sudden
I think it will work nicely if used as referenced, not overlaying various media.
I habitually read novels on my PMP, or sometimes even on a PC screen. But they're still books. This thing ain't. Nor is it hyperfiction, or interactive fiction, or a graphical novel - legitimate genres in their own right, all of which I know and enjoy...
I'd say it's an experiment, and a failed one at that. Oh, and the writing is quite atrocious, not to mention the website design. As for the pictures? If you're going to put any, at least make them artistic, if you see what I mean. No sound here, so I won't comment on that.
Maybe I'll give it a second try. Maybe a better effort would stand a chance. Right now, I'm not so sure.
Why doesn't anyone try to take a great sculpture and make it a painting? The medium should fit the art, the art should fit the medium. The biggest potential for storytelling is the metaverse, not so much the web. The web is good for distribution, the metaverse actually introduces new capabilities. Think of the kind of story you can weave using intelligent virtual agents in a virtual world - immersive story.
back in grad school at CMU I was coding a "choose your own adventure" book in flash. this reminds me so much of that. interactive storytelling is really touch to do well though ... i learned the hard way :)
I like serialized novels online, and I like the idea of Shadow Unit, and online serial in a TV show format. But as others have noted, reading a book and seeing pictures and videos of the characters seriously limits your imagination. If I wanted that, I'd just watch a movie or TV show. Especially since movies and TV shows (even online shows) have better acting than Here Ends The Beginning. A slightly smaller problem is that the text is way too big on the site. It makes it harder to read a large amount of words in a shorter time, and also means you have to scroll a lot more.
I appreciate their willingness to experiment and take a risk, but it didn't work in this case.
I think a blog, which is mostly just text, would make a much better novel. Blogs are also written in the first-person and are often very personal. You could read post by post as if they were chapters. I'm sure someone has done this before.
I'm a writer and web person and have to agree with the earlier comments that reading a novel is really an intimate experience that you create yourself. It also requires focused attention to enjoy. A web site with all sorts of bells and whistles detracts from that experience. I'm all in favor of the web but there's a reason why novels have been with us for hundreds of years - it's a format that works.
How about a novel written in a blog by a collection of authors working on a continuous storyline: http://chapterbytes.wordpress.com
Caution - chick lit ahead.
the concept of interdigitated media storytelling is one i am passionate about but it is tricky to do "right".
i took a look at this project and despite not enjoying the content, design and implementation overall, i do appreciate the effort to explore the possibilities of intermixing mediums to provide more immersion.
you cannot really compare this type of stuff to a tangible novel in your hands or a text-only digital book. you cannot replace true books. but other forms of story-telling should be given a chance to evolve... things like ARGs, hyper-fiction, collaborative-fiction, chaotic fiction etc.
i've built experimental synchronicity art prototypes in the past... interdigitations is a word i tend to use. i never tried to supplement text with other media so much as presenting a more balanced presentation using text, audio, video, images and interactivity. i enjoy when one work of combined art can have multiple interpretations. i would make each "chapter" a mix of interweaving audio-visual elements. i dont think these concepts work too well with a typical flow of a text-centric book.
with that said, back in 2000, i was very much into using an ebook authoring tool and reader called TK3 (nightkitchen.com). google search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tk3+reader+night+kitchen&btnG=Search
TK3 let you write stories and combine images and Apple Quicktime compatible media. I thought it was great and created several experimental works with it. It was not, however, internet connected so the media you add had to be downloaded along with the ebook .tk3 file to work.
TK3 was a pre-cursor to what is now called "Sophie". More info is here:
http://sophieproject.org/
So, although the example of the so-called Quillr was less than appealing to me, I hope you folks do cover this space again. Maybe I will also get back into it ;)
Sull
Maybe if the story wasn't from an overused genre and the audio and video weren't so poorly produced. Because this was not enjoyable at all. Even the interface was pretty poor. You don't know you need to scroll until you actually scroll. I mean, come on.
What's left to the imagination is far more effective than what is shown, I've found. This kind of multimedia book isn't something that would appeal to me--if I wanted to see something acted out, why wouldn't I just go find a movie? And what about older books, would they try to do a screenplay for many of them? What about more books by more obscure authors?--but it might have an appeal for those who grew up watching more TV and read few books for entertainment. I'm only 22, which doesn't make me feel too out of the multimedia generational loop, but perhaps that's old enough to be a little old-fashioned about books.
On the other hand, I do think that having a soundtrack embedded in a online book could be rather appealing, if it didn't detract or distract too much from the text. Many of us turn on music while reading anyway, and to have a customized soundtrack could be rather awesome--or absolutely wretched, depending on the quality.
It's a "novel" idea, and one that I'd actually been thinking about for quite some time. But like one of the other commentors said, the extras tend to take you out of the story. The idea of a multimedia book may make it, but not in this incarnation. The writer commits all the sins of a novice and the acting in the videos was so bad that it just burst any impending bubble before it could even form. Recommended reading, Ms. Furlong: "The First Five Pages" by Noah Lukeman.
I've been toying with a cybernovel (text, photos, video, and music) for long months, and so I was excited to see this article and to check out "Here Ends the Beginning."
I really wanted to like it. Instead, I found myself frustrated by the same type of factors that frustrate me about my own work in this multimedia realm, and which are the reason I haven't yet found the right magic to complete my own project.
I fear there's a little too much going on in "Here Ends the Beginning," with the text and other elements competing for user attention. Rather than relaxing and entertaining me as it might do in traditional print form, it stressed me out, and I left the story.
I'd encourage anyone undertaking a project of this type to choose one medium as primary and then use the others only to highlight that content at rare and carefully chosen intervals so as not to break the user's cognitive and emotional flow. I also think the use of less real-world and more evocative images would better suit the story here by engaging the reader more fully. The page design could use some work; as others have stated, the current set-up requires almost constant fidgeting with the mouse.
Still, this type of multimedia storytelling is in its infancy, and I think Ms. Furlong and her partners show a lot of promise in this first effort. Kudos to them for completing this massive undertaking.