What is Novlet

You are sitting on your favourite armchair, reading one of the books you just bought, when suddenly the plot takes a twist that you don't like. You start wondering how the story would have continued if the author had not chosen to let the protagonist die in such a silly way, or if the villain had not revealed himself so soon. One idea after the other, you start putting together a whole new alternative storyline, that looks as good as the original one.

If this has ever happened to you (even without the "as good as the original one" part), this website is meant for people like you.
To use a web 2.0 slogan, novlet.com is a web application that supports collaborative non-linear storywriting.

To use a less abstract language, even if storywriting part is quite straightforward, the other couple of words probably deserve some better explanation.

When reading a "traditional" book, you have a start and one possible end. There is only one way to read a book: from beginning to end, page after page, without any possible deviation. If you imagine the start and the end of the story as points on a sheet of paper, the plot unravels as a straight line, without any possible branching point. For this reason, the story of a common book can be called linear.

If, however, while reading a book, you have an idea and start writing an alternative storyline, what you obtain is a new branch in the story, i.e. there will be some point in time where the plot can take two different courses, that could possibly lead to different endings.

In Novlet we take this idea to its extreme consequences, shattering a story in it's simplest pieces: each story is divided in passages, sections of texts (usually 2-3 paragraphs long). Each passage can have one or more different continuations: it's up to you, the reader, to decide how the story you're reading should go on. And if you don't like any of the potential continuations that have been already written, you can always write your own one, and start a new storyline.

Eventually, each story will have a single starting point, but a very intricate structure: recalling the sheet of paper analogy, Novlet stories will look quite complicated if compared to normal ones. You'd see a single starting point, but the story would have a branch for every passage with more than one possible continuation.
This, basically, is what non-linear stands for.

The explanation of the term collaborative is a lot easier: in novlet, stories can be written by everyone. You could be writing an exciting spy story, or an epic fantasy novel with potentially anyone. If you see a story that you like, you are always allowed (and, possibly, encouraged) to contribute to it.

Now you should have a more clear idea about what is Novlet, and you can browse the existing stories, read some tips about writing your own passages and then show the world how creative you are.