In the medium of hypertext fiction, the conventions of written narrative are not held to be the symbiotic masonry as it is the bases for in the printed text. The mobility of the text nodes through being selected by the reader, either by default or at random, changes the perspective of the narrative and the experience of the reader. The short hypertext fiction works by Ruth Nestvold titled Joe’s Heartbeat In Budapest, is representative of this change in narrative style in its pattern of the text, undefined characters and in this example, some gender bias.

A feature of hypertext is that characters are more likely to be introduced by their narrative and actions, rather than been introduction to the reader by descriptive text. In these works, the text is the conversations of the two characters as spoken by them, so the names of either of the participants is not given. The reader is attracted and held to the narrative through becoming part of this conversation by taking the role of one of the characters. This is by selecting one of four responses to the displayed text, these are, “Yes”, “No”, “Maybe”, “Bitch”. In this particular text being a conversation between a man and a woman, there lacks an equal response for the woman to be able to call the male a Bastard.

This involvement and participation in the narrative through selecting the paths the text navigates through the story line, extends the reader's experience of reading over that of printed text. This interaction with a story’s narrative and taking a character's role is a more dominate experience for the reader over the symbiotic correctness of the text. Though the story–line in this text is short, it can be rerun as a different narrative as the reader tries different response combinations available with the four buttons. Drawing the reader into a conversation that might not be to distant from one of their own.