Digital Novels: Beyond the E-Book

Before going into the kinds of digital novels outside e-books, let us first understand one thing: that the e-book is, strictly speaking, still just a conventional novel. For example, is Anna Karenina on an e-book reader any different from Anna Karenina in paperback? Clearly not. Regardless of the format it is in, the merit of a conventional novel lies in its story and words, and everything else - including fancier ways of bookmarking or highlighting sections of a book - is inconsequential.

The digital novels you will see below, however, are no longer conventional novels. By combining images and text, sometimes even incorporating sound and videos and interactive elements like the ability to comment, they have become the new generation of novels.

Web novels are, quite simply, novels published on the Web. (I would like to equate the web novel with the internet novel, since the consumption of both is largely confined to the web browser.) As is natural with most web content, the web novel incorporates images and text in its content. In the web novel's context, images are used to complement the storytelling. While in most instances the images in web novels are not critical to the storytelling - that is, the storytelling goes on perfectly with or without the images - the almost mandatory inclusion of images in the narrative makes the web novel unconventional. In fact, it marks the beginning of a new generation of novels, one that extends storytelling beyond just words.

The blog fiction is, again, very similar to the web novel. The point of difference here, though, is the way it mainly uses blogs to reach its readership, often under the guise of a real blogger, or appearing ambiguous with regards to its fictional status. More importantly, because of the platform it lies on, readers' comments and interaction with one another (sometimes with the authors) makes it a more involved form of narrative than its web novel counterpart.

All of the above are subcategories of the digital novel - there are more, but I'd limit myself to these few forms that I believe hold the key to the future of novels. The web novel is a more decorated form of the conventional novel, with its inclusion of images and other page elements; the interactive novel takes on a dynamic form of narrative previously unachievable in conventional novels; the blog fiction gives the reader the option to interact with the author and other readers easily. Yet the spotlight is now on the e-book, arguably just the same old novel thrown into a more glamorous outfit. Now that's something I don't get. Don't get me wrong - I'm as much of a fan of conventional novels as the next person - but, I find it strange that most people are - instead of being excited by the prospect of a more engaging kind of novel - excited merely by a 'cooler' way of reading novels.

From what I see, the future of novels should lie in those subcategories of digital novels I mentioned above. Imagine a world of novels complemented by beautiful images and videos; which have any number of endings, some sad, some blissful, and others controversial; imagine sharing your thoughts and feelings with the next reader on what you think of the novel, even if no one around you has read the novel - don't the above excite you? No? Holding a slick iPad2 in your hand excites you more? Well then I'm sorry I've wasted your time. For others who are equally excited by the potential of digital novels though, I hope you liked what I've written. And if you're interested in more articles I've written on the future of digital novels, you might want to start with Art of Online Fiction on my blog, and proceed to find out more about a world of digital novels beyond the e-book.

Interested in finding out more? Check out the below links:

Web Fiction on Wikipedia
Interactive Novel on Wikipedia
Blog Fiction on Wikipedia

and last but not least, an introduction to Web Fiction on Squidoo.