Rascal E. Riter: Posting Your Multimedia Novel Online: Don't Let the Fancy Stuff Get in the Way of the Story

More authors every day are making the decision to post novels or excerpts online. Some have chosen web posting as an alternative to print-on-paper because of the rich elements they can include online, such as songs, videos and hyperlinks. Images, too, fall into this category because, while they're sometimes elements of print books, online posting opens up whole new possibilities for graphics.

I applaud all the creative authors experimenting with the publication of multimedia novels.

At the same time, I think it's essential for web authors to carefully consider the elements they're including in their online novels and excerpts. Otherwise, hoped-for masterpieces can become disasters. All those bells and whistles can get in the way of the story you're trying to tell--and turn off your readers.

The purpose of this post is to share some things I think all would-be web novelists should know. Some, I've learned through (sometimes painful) trial and error, while others are included because they're things that turned me off from the web projects of other authors.

Only you can determine the right balance of text and multimedia for your own story but I do want to share this hard-won bit of advice:

When in doubt, leave it out.

If you are not 100-percent certain that a potential element needs to be included within your web novel or excerpt, don't put it there. That doesn't mean you can't share it with your readers. If you really want to share it, put it in an 'Extras' section so readers can check it out there. Just don't let it interfere with the story itself.

Here's the list. It's by no means exhaustive, but I offer it up as a starting-point.

1. Follow good web design principles.

There are tons of books and websites out there on this topic. Web Style Guide is a great place to learn a lot. If you want some examples of what not to do, take a look at Web Pages That Suck.

Here are a few points that are especially important for web novel authors:

Make sure your text size is readable;

Avoid fancy fonts;

Make sure there's sufficient contrast between the background and the text to make for easy reading;

Don't use background images behind your text if you expect readers to stick around for page after page of reading. Background graphics make the reader's eyes have to work too hard; and

If you make the choice to run ads on the page, don't allow flashing/changing ones. They can distract readers' attention from your story and, after awhile, they can hurt readers' eyes.

2. Carefully consider how detailed you really want to get in the renderings of your characters, settings, etc.

For many readers, the joy of imagining characters, locations, vessels, and other elements of fictional worlds is half the fun of reading. By supplying too much in the way of ready-made graphics as representations, you are stamping your own view into readers' minds. That's fine if it's what you really want to do, and certainly the author knows his characters better than anyone else ever can. BUT what if the readers dislike what you're portraying so much that it steals their enjoyment of the story?

I can't tell you how many times I've seen readers' comments on web stories expressing their dislike for the supplied graphics. The wrong pictures might send the wrong message right from the start and prevent readers from even giving your story a try. Cartoony, anime-style character pictures can be great for some stories but, if you want your readers to envision your characters as real, live, breathing people, you may want to stay away from cartoonish renderings. Too-real-looking character pictures can also turn readers off. Don't destroy a reader's fantasy of your hero by offering up a less-than-heroic stock photo of a guy who's trying to look sexy but may look... well... too silly/too hairy/too pretty/too whatever to a lot of readers. PLEASE don't use photos of your favorite actors/actresses to represent your characters within your multimedia novel. It screams amateur--and worse, amateur with delusions of grandeur--and opens up a whole bunch of usage rights issues. Wait! You say you really are an amateur and you do have delusions of grandeur and you want the world to know it? Cool! Me, too. So if you REALLY want to link your characters with actors and actresses, then put that in an 'Extras' section and provide links that will take users to actual webpages where those photos are legally posted. Make it clear to all readers that these are just your imaginings for character castings and in no way imply that the actors/actresses have endorsed these representations of them as your characters.

Generally, it's better to use pictures to represent themes within your fiction rather than the characters and places themselves. Photos showing characters can work well if the characters are seen at enough distance away that the actual features are indistinct. If they're dressed for the part, they can still 'look like' your characters from a distance even if they don't up close.

If you really, really want to include lots of graphical depictions, then go ahead. It's your story, after all. But please keep the following in mind:

Choose graphics that are in keeping with the overall tone of your story so readers don't feel cheated OR sell your story short; and

Try to include such graphics from the very beginning of posting online so you don't suffer readers' anger when you supply graphics they deem inferior to what they've already imagined.

3. Do you really want to include that audio/video?

Web users love a good multimedia experience--but not nearly as much as we hate a bad one. Including audio/video as a part of your web novel can result in a truly horrible experience for the reader.

Here's some stuff to keep in mind.

NEVER set your audio/video to automatically play when the page opens. Let the reader click.

Be mindful of volume settings. For audio/video on webpages, it's better to make the reader turn it up than it is to scare him half to death with too-loud sound. If you're going to include multiple audio/video elements, try to set them all at similar volumes. That way, your visitors won't have to keep fiddling with their volume controls.

Make sure everything essential to your novel is in the text. DON'T put important scenes or parts thereof into audio/video elements and force readers to constantly switch gears between reading and watching/listening. Just trust me on this, okay? If a person has shown up at your site to read a novel, then let him or her read a novel. Audio/video elements should be bonus material... music that sets the mood... a full rendering of a scene that wasn't essential to include in the text but would make a killer video... etc. If you want to tell the story through audio/video elements then consider doing a podcast or video instead of/in addition to the web novel posting, or go all-out and experiment with the creation of a text/multimedia hybrid--just don't call that hybrid a multimedia novel. More on that in the next post.

If you want to make an audio/video rendering of a scene that *is* included in the text, that's fine. Offer it up, but make it clear to the reader that's what the audio/video is so he/she doesn't unnecessarily suffer the redundancy. My own preference would be to leave that particular audio/video experience OUT of the novel scene itself, but maybe just put it in an 'EXTRAS' section with a link from the scene within the text. If you do make videos of this type, consider posting them on video sharing sites with a link to your story as a way to bring in potential readers.

If you can't get good actors to make your audio/video, don't make it. Seriously.

If you can find one or two good actors, you might be able to expand their voice potential as a cast of characters by using voice manipulation software such as AV Voice Changer.

If you want to show characters acting out scenes and can't get enough good actors, my only other recommendation would be to use a program such as MovieStorm. I've also seen movies made with The Sims 2 and some of those are pretty impressive, but it takes a lot of work on the would-be moviemaker's part to make game characters act like actors. MovieStorm, being specifically made for movie-making, is a great deal easier to use for that purpose. The characters there are a bit cartoony but your readers may be willing to forgive you since the technology is still so new. MovieStorm's free to download but you need to buy content packs (for a few dollars each) if you want to do really fun stuff with it.

4. Remember that hyperlinks take readers *out* of your story.

As a web author, one of the things you're probably hoping for is to get some readers hooked on your story. You risk losing them when you keep sending them OUT of the story.

Use hyperlinks judiciously within your online novel text.

Hyperlinks are wonderful when you want to allow a reader to, for example, jump back in time to a previous scene that's currently mentioned as background (just remember to make it easy to get back to the current page once the reader's done with the previous scene).

Hyperlinks that go to places where readers can learn more about people, places and things mentioned in your story are a great way to enhance the reader's experience BUT they direct the reader's attention away from your story. Sure, if the reader loves your story, he or she will probably come back, but if you offer too many hyperlinks too early, your reader might leave before he or she has had the chance to fall in love with your story.

Better options than including external links within the text of your story are:

Providing a list of links, along with some contextual information about them, at the end of each installment/chapter of your story; or

Creating an 'Extras' page providing additional information about the topics for each installment/chapter as well as links readers can follow to learn more, then putting a link to the appropriate 'Extras' page at the bottom of each installment/chapter.

5. Have Fun.

Know that, as an author creating a multimedia novel or excerpt online, you are at the leading edge of a new realm of publishing.

The tips provided above are optimized to meet the expectations of today's web novel readers and based on capabilities of existing authoring tools and user access methods. Nonetheless, I think they'll serve most multimedia novelists well into the future.

We've only begun to explore the possibilities for enhancing our novels. I think it's important for us to remember, as we grow as novelists and our products evolve, that the whole purpose of a novel (online or print) is to meet the needs of those who want to READ. There is a growing audience for the multimedia novel, a textual offering enhanced by multimedia elements, designed to meet the needs of the READING public. No one knows what the multimedia novel of the future ultimately is going to look like. You can help define it.

(A great many) Rules can be broken with great success--just know why you're doing it and make sure it's the best thing for your story. That being said, if you break too many of the rules above, then what you're creating is not a multimedia novel. It's something else entirely.

Rascal E. Riter

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Posting Your Multimedia Novel Online: Don't Let the Fancy Stuff Get in the Way of the Story

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