Storify Assignment B: Electronic Literature the New Future - Diana Rhodes

Electronic Literature, what is it? 

Assignment B, By Diana Rhodes

My topic for inspiration came from Module 1: What is literature? I wanted to describe what Electronic Literature is, since when I explain to friends and family about our class - they had no idea of what I am learning. 

I had a hard time selecting a topic and how I should create something on storify. I am not much of a writer. I was having difficulty getting all my thoughts and searches on telling my story; from what I've learned these past weeks. Until, I saw the motivational tweet from our instructor: "Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it." So here is my heart filled attempt to this assignment.

• How did you approach finding the different elements that you included in your Storify post?

I started in the beginning and wanted to answer the question "what is electronic literature?" from our readings in Module 1. I wanted to make my storify educational and short. My goal was to use graphics and videos to share my ideas on what this type of literature is and why it can never be in book form. Also, literature can be use various platforms to communicate with anyone with text, games, social media and graphics. The reader can do more than just read on electronic literature - they can interact.

• What keywords, hashtags, or other methods did you use to narrow or expand your search?

I searched with keywords: Electronic Literature, Interactive Fiction, Born Digital Fiction, Born Digital Text, Graphics, Music, video games, Inanimate Alice and Twitter fiction.  

To grabbed all the images from Google, Twitter, Gify, Flickr and web searches. I wanted to include tweets and animation to tell my story. I expanded my search to include books, brochures, stories to help with my storify.

I searched for the video on Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl. A Digital Fiction classic that I learned about in one of our readings.

• Why did you decide to include the elements you did?

I tried to select elements that are short and to the point. I didn't want to lose the readers attention with my storify, since from our past readings "Is Google is making us Stupid?" people are not reading, thier power browsing. I tried to put text in very short form to not get too fussy.

• What were the criteria you used in order to decide an element was worth including?

I wanted to answer the What, When, Where, Who, Why and How in my storify: 

1. The what - is describing Electronic Literature and what it can do to tell the story. I used images with graphics and video.
2. The when - a brief segment on Patchwork Girl and that it's started when internet became household. I added the video of Shelley Jackson.
3. The where - Some countries are using this in their educational curriculum. 
4. The who - can be accessed by anyone and that anybody can become an author if they like. They can contribute to Twitter Fiction. 
5. The why - by explaining the uses for educational and entertainment purposes. 
6. Lastly, how - by using elements like sound to set the mood, touch by interaction with the game, and visually by changing the text style and graphics.

Example is on my use of music and text in my post. How can you capture music? Could I have found musical notes? Maybe, instead I found a picture with records. Classic like literature, but cool like a DJ and just like an author, the DJ will try to get you to dance or feel something. With the text portion of my post, I found a post with design - I wanted to show text can be graphic and used in the design of the story.

• Do you think your post gives a "full picture" of your issue? Why or why not?

No, not really. I wanted to emphasize the future, the hybrid usage, how it all started and what it can be used for. There was so many search items, so many posts and pictures - I found it became a tad overwhelming. 

Electronic Literature is new and can be so vast, that it became frustrating at times to find what would best describe what it is all about. Hard to put it all in a "full picture", since it can be used in many areas and interpreted differently.

• Do you think you could use your Storify post as a starting point for writing a longer academic essay? If so, how? If not, why not?

Yes, I'm hoping my post could be a starting point on this subject. I actually removed other texts and pictures to try and keep it streamlined and not too lengthy. I could have emphasized more on educational benefits, accessibility for people with disabilities or reading difficulties, and on how organizations can use digital literature to tell their stories. I only briefly touched the topic of what it is Electronic Literature. There is so much more.