Showing a narrative consisting of snippets of text

The web app I am currently working on shows snippets of text and allows the user to write or load other snippets of text to continue the narrative. All snippets of text are connected and have options (edit, delete, save, etc.). This is similar to the Twitter feed, but unlike Twitter, the "tweets" are all part of a bigger narrative.

How can I best display the snippets of text, not interrupting the reading experience while still showing options? I have considered:

• cards (but that ruins the continuity of the text)
• multiple inline sentences (but how should options be shown? in the margins? how would new text be animated in?)
• each snippet shown with a row of icons below (looks too cluttered)