Telescopic Story
I just finished putting together a very short story utilizing telescopic text. It’s inspired by a guy named Joe Davis, who did one about making tea. It works like this: there are occasionally words with a light gray background that you can click. When clicked, those words will reveal more words. So a simple statement like “I made tea” can become “I made myself tea” and then “Yawning, I made myself tea” and so on.
I wanted to make one that began with vague characters who gained dimension and shape as more of the story is revealed. Though my end result is nothing award-winning, I think it succeeds in shifting the expectations of the reader. It’s also a pretty cool example of how a writer’s revisions to a simple piece can change it dramatically.
Here it is: “He Looks at Her” by me.
show me how to make one, please, sir. i searched for about a minute and had no luck. but, alas, when investigating the cavernous wormholes that proliferate in cyberspace like subatomic particles, i am ill-equipped.
It’s all about the coding. I just looked at Joe Davis’s page source (under the “view” menu of your web browser) and figured out the pattern for the javascript — didn’t change the css or anything else. His page source also labels the “I” section and the “made” section, etc, so it’s nice. With mine, I tried to keep some consistent indenting to give some idea of the hierarchy (like an outline). Email me for more specific directions if you’re having trouble, lingol.