The original, strictly linear form of "A Teenager's Dreams" was created as an assignment for Professor George O'Brien's "Fictional Poetics" course here at Georgetown University. Although I wrote the first few pages in a standard word processing program, I soon began using Storyspace as a brainstorming tool, and found that it lended itself quite well to my vision for the narrative, and it forced me to think in some interesting new directions about the narrative structure. At this point, "A Teenager's Dreams" was still essentially unilinear, with no links except the default, making it easy to convert it back into a word-processing program to hand in to Professor O'Brien.

After impressing myself with the thirty-seven block Storyspace Map of "A Teenager's Dreams," I decided to use it as the jumping-off point for my first real foray into HTML and hypertext, and the final project for Professor Randy Bass' "Text, Knowledge, and Pedagogy in the Electronic Age" course. Since Storyspace had already forced me to construct the text in very small portions to eliminate the need for scrolling within the text window, and asked me to name each piece, I imagined that I could translate these pieces into separate HTML files and then create a new, wider, more varied version for the web.

My primary goal was to maintain the narrative structure of the original story but still take advantage of the linking capabilities of hypertext. I hoped to create a reading experience that provides alternative readings of the same story, while simultaneously side-stepping some of the issues of closure and confusion emphasized in many essays on hypertext fiction.

To meet these ends, I chose a structure for the hypertext version of "A Teenager's Dreams" based largely upon the linear structure I began with. The primary link in each text "page" leads, then, to the next "page" of the original story. The other links within each text "page" contain supplementary narrative information (often in the form of graphic images) added by me specifically to fill what I saw as a clear opportunity to provide additional depth to the character of Will, and are designed to ultimately propel the reader back to the main narrative thread. Unlike Michael Joyce's "afternoon: a story," then, repeated readings of "A Teenager's Dreams" will render a similar plot structure that varies, primarily, in additional detail and the opportunity that detail provides for additional insight into Will's relationships with his friends, with Dina, and with himself.

It was important for me that readers of the hypertext version of the story not be able to distinguish this hierarchy (between "main" and "supplementary" links) so that different readings are equally valid. I also wanted to eliminate the feeling of interruption or "missing something" that is often caused by following a series of links, which is why each link ultimately returns to the original thread of the story. I also chose to color the active links very subtlely (as opposed to the traditional bright blue) to diminish the involuntary skimming for links to which a reader of hypertext is susceptible. I also colored already-visited links black, causing them to blend almost seamlessly with un-linked text, and therefore fade into the background once they have been explored. This way, I hoped to create a more traditional reading environment that didn't encourage backtracking.

The size of the text window, which was so important while composing in Storyspace, was also a large factor in my design considerations. I wanted to eliminate the need to scroll through the hypertext version of the story, just as I wanted to eliminate it from the Storyspace windows. I tried to take into consideration different monitor sizes, etc., and place the words on top of, rather than under, the larger images so that even smaller screens could read and pass by without seeing the full-length image if necessary. I also read (somewhere) about placing margins within web pages and indeed I found they greatly eased the reading process. I even chose a gray background (that is, now that I have looked at it for three weeks, minorly distracting) to minimize the white/black contrast that is so hard on the eyes.

I also wanted to maximize the impact of the dreams around which the story involves, so I implemented some server-push commands. In dreams, after all, the dreamer has no control of the passage of the images, and I wanted to carry that feeling over into the reader, something I was obviously unable to do in the linear version. The graphics add a great dimension to the story, I think -- I just wish now I could use sound! I'd love to hear Will keep pulling out of the driveway, the beer bottles clinking into the cooler, and the applause at the Miss America dream!

Hacking the translation from Storyspace to HTML (cutting and pasting, mostly) was one of the most interesting parts of the development of this site. During the entire construction process, I not only had manageable-sized pieces to work with, but I already had a visual map of each of the soon-to-be-HTML files and the main linking structure between them. They were named and, therefore, identifiable, and I think I avoided much of the confusion inherent in constructing a web site from a more traditional document. The Storyspace map became my lifesaver as the document got more complex -- I never lost sight of my original narrative.

The only part I am not yet happy with (besides the infinite possibilities I had to postpone out of time considerations) is the graphic series at the end. I tried to learn GIF animation but I think that may have been a little ambitious! Next time . . .