E-MAILS

25/11/08 – 27/11/08

Hello! My name is Mónica Obiols and I’m a Spanish student of English philology from the University in Valencia. I have to analyse your hypertext “Same Day Test” focusing on how you built the text: the structure of this hypertext, which tools you used to build it up (links, images, different possibilities to follow the story…). So please, I beg you some information about your writing method or some ideas I could use in my analysis, if you don’t mind. Thanks!

Hola Monica. Please forgive me if I have your name wrong as accented characters sometimes show up badly with my mail program.

Thank you for your interest in "Same Day Test". I will help you do the analysis if I can. Perhaps the best way to proceed is if you ask me some questions and I will do my best to answer them.

To begin I will tell you a little about the concept and then the programming.

I realised when I began to write hypertext that it was necessary to limit each story. Otherwise choices and possibilities soon overwhelmed the writer. For instance, with two choices at each point, the writer had to create 15 pages for only four pages covered by the reader. So I looked around for something which could fit into a finite space.

For a while my home city of Edinburgh was named the "AIDS Capital of Europe". The health authority made available a same-day HIV test. The patient gives a blood sample in the morning and returns at the end of the afternoon for the results. This is a limited space of time and also a very special one, where the patient has to confront the possibility of their own death, and therefore how they are spending their life. I thought this was a good situation for a hypertext.

Because time is so important in the hypertext, I wanted to have a clock on each page. I also wanted it to behave in a realistic way; if Tom crosses the city, the clock moves forward a long way, whereas if he simply walks across the street, it only moves forward a little.

My background is in computer science so I was able to write a CGI script which kept track of the appropriate links and updated the
clock. It also did some other small things which made the hypertext complete.

Hope this is a good starting point for your analysis; do reply to me with further questions.

Hasta luego, G.

27/11/08 - 02/12/08

Hello! I'm Monica again!

Thanks for replying my e-mail; the information has been really useful.

First of all I want to know about general things, so I can include the information in my paper as a kind of introduction:

- What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of writing hypertext and distributing it over the World Wide Web?

Well, I already mentioned how much more work it is to write the actual text for a hypertext. Even for a relatively short piece it takes much longer, so that's a definite disadvantage.

One advantage is that I can still tinker with my hypertext pieces long after they have been published. If I want to edit the text or add a new section, I can do so. I started giving my texts version numbers because of this.

A disadvantage of web distribution is that it's hard to get paid for my work. Money is not a big motivator for me; but if I made more money from writing I could spend more time on it, instead of working at other stuff to pay the bills.

Of course the big advantage of web distribution is having a worldwide audience and sometimes very interesting feedback from that audience; like your analysis.

- What are you working on next?

At the moment I am writing a novel set in contemporary New York and 1950s Glasgow. I've always written linear work and used the hypertext as a fun alternative to the heavier work of writing novels.

I'm sure I will do another hypertext but I'm not sure when. At the moment I spend a lot of my energy with the performance group Writers' Bloc:

http://www.writers-bloc.org.uk/

- Do you think you had any particular influence in your writing style?

The Scottish writers I admire most are Alasdair Gray, James Kelman and William McIlvanney. Alasdair Gray at times writes a sort of hypertext; for instance, his novel Lanark is in four books and should be read in the order 3,1,2,4. There are also some fascinating hypertext elements within the novel.

- Who do you write for? I mean, do you have any particular audience in mind?

Not really. I suppose Mr. Tokyo was more of a genre piece and Same Day Test more of a mainstream work. But one joy of publishing your own work for free is that you can write whatever you like.

On the other hand when I write novels I have a definite audience in mind.

About the hypertext...

- Can you tell me something about the vocabulary used? Did you want to reflect a particular kind of society?

The vocabulary reflects Tom, a young Edinburgh guy who repairs computers for a living. He is nobody special; I need him to be easy to identify with because readers need to care what happens to him.

- I was really upset when, following the pub choice, the dialogue becomes nonsense up to a point you get lost in it...what can you tell me about it?

One way young men in Scotland deal with emotionally vulnerable situations is to get drunk. I'm sure it's not just in Scotland :)

I tried to reflect the way Tom's perceptions change using the text itself. The entire story is told from so closely inside his head that his narration has to be affected by seven pints of beer.

- While reading, I felt identified with Tom... do you think that the majority of people feel the same? Was this your intention when writing? I mean, did you want to make people aware of the risks of AIDS? Or was it a topic as any other? It's an up-to-date theme, isn't it??

I'm glad you identified with Tom. I hope most people grow to like him and care about him. He is not a "high risk" for HIV, being sexually straight and not a user of intravenous drugs. But he *is* at risk.

In some ways it is an older theme now. AIDS gripped people's minds here in the mid-1980s: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4348096.stm

Things have quietened down. But I do notice new advertising here in Edinburgh targeting gay couples. And the safe sex message is still very relevant. I have some friends in the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who promote sexual health in a colourful way.

- You have represented very well the feelings people can experience in such a situation... did you asked for advice or everything comes from your imagination?

Writing any character requires me to "get into their head" and it's part of the process I really enjoy. As a male of about my age at the time, it wasn't hard to identify with Tom. I believe that no matter who a character is -- male, female, young, old, hero or villain -- making them work as a writer is about finding aspects of yourself in them.

- Would you like to add or remove something about the hypertext?

Hmm. I would like to expand all my hypertexts. At the same time I often feel uncomfortable about Same Day Test. It sometimes feels simplistic and crass. I have to remind myself that it is not about dying from AIDS. It is about how mortality makes us examine the way we are spending our time. And that's why it has a clock.

- I have read on the internet that "Same Day Test" is considered a model hypertext, do you think so?

I think SDT is a good hypertext to show readers who are new to hypertext. It is readable and simple to navigate, and tries to be engaging in the same way that linear fiction is.

I don't think it is a particularly innovative text. I am more concerned with telling a story than pushing the boundaries of the form. I do enjoy writing my own program code behind the story though.

I don't know what else I can ask. If I have any idea I'll write another e-mail! Thanks in advance. Monica!

Feel free. I will try to respond quickly since your deadline is soon.

I would like to see a copy of your analysis when you have completed it. It doesn't matter whether it is in English or Español.

Buena suerte!

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