(Note: I may be a total freak about proper writing, but I don't give a hoot about grammar or syntax when I'm thinking.)
Hopefully you know what I'm talking about, but in case you don't, I'll illustrate it for you.
Since writing this post, Weebly has added a TON of new web site development apps to their builder. I've had a blast experimenting with them and, waddaya know, they added an accordion app that expands and collapses content easily. It works great and it's customizable. Observe:
Paul turned sharply, and saw only the empty corner near the stove.
He shrugged and continued to read.
Presently, he flapped the magazine shut, placed his empty mug in the sink, and gargled a capful of mouthwash over the bathroom sink. Then he stepped into the slant, shadow-cubed sunlight of morning over the suburbs. Distant skyscrapers rose against the skyline like the spires of a crown, glittering like silver. He could drive there, if he wished, but he preferred the public bus. The other Literary Immersion Experts often asked him where he got his inspiration. He never told them. It was the bus—breathing in the cross-section of humanity. You had to know people to make reality for them.
Paul nodded at the elderly woman on the bus stop bench, who harrumphed back, not unkindly. The man in the gray suit did not look up from his smartphone. The community college student pored over her oversized textbook. The young couple tangled their fingers together and forgot that the rest of the world existed.
The bus squeaked gently as it pulled to a stop, and hissed as it knelt to receive its passengers. Paul found his seat—fourth down, left, by the window. He opened his mind to humanity. Somewhere, a horn beeped in a short, friendly burst, the greeting of friend to friend during the morning commute. A young boy’s voice called insistently for his father. A dog barked from an upper apartment window at pigeons on the neighboring rooftop.
The bus pulled away from the curb and the city approached, the sky crowding with swooping structures of steel and glass. The Fiction Building was easy to spot, shaped like a quill resting in an inkwell—a large cylindrical base, with a curving tower that defied gravity. The neighboring public library took the shape of a giant book, open and standing on its edge, as though beckoning the world to enter its pages.
Paul stepped down from the bus onto the walkway, and passed between twin fountains to the steps of the library. The elderly librarian at the front desk greeted him.
“Good to see you, Mr. Graff!”
Paul returned her greeting with a gracious inclination of his head. The library was quieter at this time of day, which is why he always came before his office opened. Still, a few people occupied the Immersion Booths that lined the wall. The cylindrical, dome-topped structures were occupied by a single seat facing a tilted book stand, leaving the reader’s back to the open doorway—a safety precaution. Sometimes immersions became too powerful, and a reader had to be rescued by one of the ever-watchful librarians.
Glancing at the readers now, Paul observed that one woman’s body was almost completely transparent, the edges pulsing softly with light, as she pored over the bookstand. A perfect immersion. Paul wondered what book she was reading.
The man in the neighboring booth was not so lucky.
“Sir?” Paul took the liberty of peering into the booth. “I notice you are having some trouble.”
The slightly-faded edges of the man’s body sharpened and he pulled out of the immersion. He sighed.
“This is the third week I’ve tried immersion. I’ve got depression. My therapist recommended a LIE. But I can’t get into it and no one seems to know the trouble, even the librarians.”
“Perhaps I can help,” Paul offered. “I have a little experience with Literary Immersion Experiences.”
The man shrugged. “Can’t hurt, can it?”
“An immersion experience requires two things,” Paul explained. “One: Your personality has to be compatible with the book. If that subject just doesn’t ‘itch’ you, you won’t immerse.”
“Makes sense. And the other thing?”
“The quality. The writer must have what I call ‘the immersion touch.’”
“Something special, huh?”
Paul nodded. “So tell me…”
“Chuck.”
“Tell me, Chuck, what sort of books did you used to enjoy as a child?”
“As a child?” the man blinked. “I wasn’t much into reading. But I liked the superhero graphic novels available at the corner store.”
“What attracted you to those novels?”
Chuck’s response meandered, gradually sharpening as it built from hesitation to rich enthusiasm. Paul listened, nodding, smiling encouragement, then, drawing a small notebook and diminutive pen from his breast pocket, he scribbled three titles.
“I recommend starting with these,” he said, tearing the sheet from the notebook. “They’ll fit your personality well, and I can vouch for the authors’ immersive abilities.”
Chuck reviewed the list. “I’ll give them a shot. Thanks for your help, man.”
“No problem.”
As Paul made his way toward the glass elevator, a middle-aged librarian leaned on a book cart and grinned. “He has no clue who you are, does he?”
“I’m not advertising,” Paul replied.
“But I’ll bet you recommended your own books in that list, didn’t you?”
Paul laughed. “Only one. I don’t write much for the general public.”
“That’s right,” the librarian nodded. “You’re more into the customization business, I recall.”
Paul lifted a hand in a friendly farewell as he swept by. “If you ever want a custom LIE, you know where to find me.”
Her laughter followed him. “I sure do!”
Just before Paul reached the elevator, a loud bass arrested him. “Paul! Yo, Paul!”
Paul paused, collected himself, and turned with a grin he hoped was polite but just short of inviting.
“Ted! Glad to see you.”
Ted’s corpulent figure leaked from his fitted suit just as unpleasantly as his personality leaked from his commanding posture and brazen voice.
“Paul, I had hoped to see you at the hearing.” Ted’s tone spoke of deep disappointment. “It was really too bad that you missed it.”
“Ted, you know my feelings about LIE advertising. I would never support the bill.”
“If you had at least attended the hearing, you might have learned something worth reconsideration.”
“I’ve done my research, Ted. I’m convinced this is an unwise move.”
“You’re just saying that because you think it will cut into your business. But the Shakespeare study says that immersive experience professionals like us will not be affected. Fiction and advertising are two different worlds.”
“Respectfully, Ted, I disagree. Writing is all one piece. If you put immersive qualities in advertising, the public will become increasingly desensitized to immersive material, forcing fiction writers to create deeper and deeper experiences. The deeper the experience, the more potential harm to the reader. You can hardly have missed the Times cover story last week. A man got lost in a book. It may not be possible to find a matched personality that can go as deep as he did, and pull him back. He may be lost forever. That kind of thing is very bad for business.”
Ted’s grin patronized. “But those cases will happen regardless of the legality of LIE advertising.”
“But they’ll become more frequent as immersive tolerance increases.”
“Paul, Paul, think of the benefits! What if your advertisements in Fiction Forum could be immersive? You would never lack for business.”
“My business is doing well enough without immersive advertising. Besides, if everything goes immersive, my ads will be competing amongst the ads for fast food, soap, cars, pharmaceuticals, and beer. How is that improving my image?”
“If the customization business goes bust, my dear Paul, your options are limited. You either have to become a immersive match consultant or publish for the general public. In contrast, if the bill passes, you can be picked up by any number of companies as a copywriter or advertising specialist. There’s no end to the possibilities. Think of it, Paul! With your record, you’d have a guaranteed career.”
“With my record, I already have a guaranteed career.”
“You’re a freelancer, Paul. Uncertainties abound in your job. You rely on your clients’ appetite and cash availability. If the economy takes another downturn like last year, your clients will all switch to this.” His gesture incorporated the towering bookshelves, the Immersion Booths, and the diligent librarians. “Not a guaranteed experience, but much cheaper.”
“And cheap is what you’ll get if the bill goes through,” Paul snapped, no longer interested in politeness. “If immersion generalizes, I guarantee that immersion will mushroom for a few years, then implode. It will kill fiction, libraries, and your precious advertising. For good!”
Paul stabbed the elevator button, and stepped into the glass cylinder without so much as a farewell nod. As the elevator descended, he leaned against the interior railing and rubbed a hand over his face. There was no reason to sweat so much. He shrugged off his ivory suit coat and folded it over his arm.
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Using html to expand/collapse content
This is what I mean by expanding and collapsing content. It's useful to make a cumbersome amount of information more manageable on a single page.
You need a special code to do paragraphs like this. Scroll down to see how.
Anyway, after several false starts and a few replays of the aforementioned scenario, I finally found some code that I liked. This is how I did it, and what I used:
I copied off this free code from Sandeep Gangadharan of Sivam Design:
<!-- Copyright 2005, Sandeep Gangadharan -->
<!-- For more free scripts go to http://www.sivamdesign.com/scripts/ -->
<!--
if (document.getElementById) {
document.writeln('<style ><!--')
document.writeln('.texter {display:none} @media print {.texter {display:block;}}')
document.writeln('//--></style>') }
function openClose(theID) {
if (document.getElementById(theID).style.display == "block") { document.getElementById(theID).style.display = "none" }
else { document.getElementById(theID).style.display = "block" } }
// -->
</script>
- Hit the DESIGN tab
- Scroll down the left toolbar to click Edit HTML/CSS
- Click on one of the four page options (for example, short-header.html)
- Paste the code between the <head> and </head> tags
- Hit Save
Then I used the Embed Code feature on my design toolbar and copied and pasted this code into it:
<div id="a1" class="texter">
<p>This is what I mean by expanding and collapsing content. It's useful to make a cumbersome amount of information more manageable on a single page.</p>
<p>This P in the brackets means a new paragraph. I didn't know that before today. And then you have to finish the paragraph with a slash and a P inside more brackets likthis: </p><br /><br />
</div>
It's been a good day, guys.