Bifocal Fiction
Short stories,
an image to discover.
Each story pairs text with an illustration. After a short opening, reading alternates between image fragments and passages of text. The complete illustration can be displayed at the end.
How to read
Four principles
- 01
Text carries the story
Text carries actions, thoughts and choices. It provides all the information needed to understand the story, in a comfortable column with no required interaction.
- 02
The image does not repeat
The image offers light, texture, a presence or a trace. It complements or shades the story without having to reproduce the action described in the adjacent text.
- 03
An illustration revealed in fragments
Strips reveal different parts of one continuous illustration, from top to bottom. At the end, the full image can bring the fragments together and reveal their spatial relationships.
- 04
Space between passages
After a brief opening, each reading block combines a strip, a passage of prose and breathing space. It fills at least one screen and grows as needed. In print, each image fragment and the text that follows occupy one page.
Narrative forms
Standalone stories and series
- 01
The one-shot
A standalone story that requires no prior reading. Its central promise is resolved, while the world may keep its mysteries.
- 02
The independent cycle
Each episode tells a complete story within a shared world, theme or premise. Episodes enrich the whole; their order stays flexible until a continuing thread makes them dependent on one another.
- 03
The serial
One story continues from chapter to chapter, read in order. Each episode changes the situation; the overall promise is resolved at the end of the arc.
For authors
How a story is composed
The story and its structure are finalized before the illustration brief. Each marker opens a reading block. The site then extracts strips from the source image: four by default, usually three to six according to the story’s rhythm.
Brief opening.
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First passage of prose.
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Second passage of prose.
… through to the story’s resolution.Start here
Discover the format
by reading
Our first English stories are coming soon.