“I honestly, truly didn’t think you’d fall for that trap.”
Her voice has this uncanny ability to sound like it’s coming from everywhere at once. My gun, smooth and white with an alternating blue and orange light cradled in the center, constantly occupies my right hand, making it impossible to cover more than one ear at a time. And anyway, that’d probably just make her more spiteful.
“In fact, I designed a much more elaborate trap further ahead for when you got through with this easy one.”
I usually try to get up the iridescent metal stairs as quickly as possible. Each step brings me closer to the elevator, closer to my next test. The tests are hard, but at least she keeps her vocal script turned off during most of them.
“If I’d known you’d let yourself get captured this easily, I’d have dangled a turkey leg on a rope from the ceiling.”
Sigh.
I climb over piles of twisted metal, lost screws, and broken machinery, in order to get in the transparent tube that will transport me to my next test. She starts to utter another remark, but thankfully, because of the whirring of the doors sliding shut, I can’t hear her very well.
I’ve been fixing the lab up for months (I think—it’s hard to tell time when you don’t see the sun) running test after endless test, stuck under her merciless command.
The tube lets me out in a hallway that almost exactly resembles the one I’ve just left, replete with more piles of crumpled metal and the ever-appreciated snide remarks. God. It’s like she’s inside my head, she’s so loud. No, don’t want to think about that.
The circular metal doors slide open in front of me, unveiling an equally familiar scene: the test room. I’ve never been in this room before, but I know what I have to do. The doors slide shut behind me, and my sarcastic tormentor is silent.
I look around the room. Next to me are two white panels at different angles. Above my head are two metal platforms, one with a red button, and one with a door – the exit. It’s clear my exit depends on my ability to redirect a laser into a receptor on the other side of the cavernous room in which my test is taking place. But where is the laser?
I am thinking it must be above my head somewhere, so I start to wander. I am staring at the ceiling when I feel the sharp burn on my leg that makes me jump. Mystery solved.
I’m sure her reception wires are running a laugh command to her main circuits as this unfolds. Thankfully, I can’t hear it.
Laser located, I prepare my gun. Taking aim, I shoot a person-sized blue oval into the blank wall. I turn and shoot a similar orange one onto the wall above my head. With a deep breath I step through the blue oval.
The movement is quick, a moment of nanoseconds really. But an indescribable feeling goes through me every time I teleport. Sort of like the fifth go-around on a looping roller-coaster after you’ve just eaten Chipotle. Ok, so maybe it is describable. Anyway, I really don’t like it all that much. But it’s extremely necessary for this lab. I would be stuck back in test one without it.
Once I’ve figured out the placement of the portals, the rest of this puzzle is easy. I sort through it in a few minutes. The puzzle has me using a lot of conserved momentum – essentially sending me flying through the air from portal to portal to platform – in order to complete it. These kinds of puzzles are my favorite, I feel like an acrobat or a performer and not just a human subject.
But now I’ve reached the door.
“Well done. Here come the test results: ‘You are a horrible person.’ That’s what it says. We weren’t even testing for that.”
I’m debating creating makeshift earplugs out of the loose screws at my feet as I get in the elevator for the next test.

A spray of gravel clattered down from the ridge above, and I flattened myself to earth, hackles rising. The creature lifted its head as if to scent the air, lipless teeth parting in a silent snarl. I dug my claws into the grey soil, sending a soft snarl of my own after it as it lurched away over the rise. Where I came from, I was the monster. These pathetic rotting things should run from me. I gripped my daggers tighter, tail lashing as if to strike the creature’s head from its rotting shoulders.
I could do it. This place was paradise for a necromancer. The whispers of the dead permeated the air, and their bloated forms clogged the shallow waterways. Even the salt stench of the sea couldn’t mask the smell of rot. I tensed, claws tracing the form of a summoning circle. The ground pulsed like a heartbeat; the air chattered with the skittering of tiny insects as they fled their reanimated host. My flesh golem pulled itself from the ground and reared to its full height, horned head straining towards the empty sky in a silent howl.
I took hold of its massive head and pointed it toward the ridge, letting it scent its prey. The only thing to fear in this land was the dead. But the enemy was not the only one who could use them. I lifted my hand in a silent command, heart pounding. And then I hesitated, tail lashing my flanks with the sudden agony of doubt. There–there were the others, grey flesh on grey sand–more dead forms lurking just behind the first. Reassured, I smiled and dropped my hand. The golem lowered its head and charged.
The Risen lunged around to face us, fanged mouth gaping. “This one” it gurgled with the warbled voice of a drowning man. “Kill.”
The golem struck it full in the chest, its momentum carrying them clear across the hill. The jumbled mass crashed full into the rest of the approaching Risen. The whole mass of them went down like ninepins. I bared my fangs in a laugh and shook my head. Pathetic. They never learned. There was nothing quite like golem bowling. But I didn’t have time to stop and admire my handiwork further.
I sprang from the gulch, throwing myself past the brawling forms and into the nearby copse. Already I could hear the watery growls of more Risen as they converged on the golem, sockets glaring, jaws slavering for blood. I threw myself behind the cover of the brush, tearing frantically through the undergrowth while the battle raged behind me.
And finally, there it was: a shriveled little plant, its skeletal limbs drooping with several dark berries. I pulled them reverently from the vine, careful not to pierce them with my claws. Each one would fetch nearly two silver. As I deposited the last of them into my pouch, a triumphant howl sounded behind me, and I knew they’d pulled the golem down.

I sprang away through the undergrowth, tail bristling as a spectral claw missed me by inches. My years of wandering had made me strong, but Orr was their land. Those who forgot that fact were nothing more than corpses in the sand, destined to become the Dragon’s puppets–or mine. When I had a pretty pile of coins in my open claw, then I could indulge in such luxuries as pride.

Sharp iron thorns shine in the dark, drawing nearer and nearer as the ceiling continues to move downward, or perhaps it is everything but the ceiling that continues to move upward. Either way, we’re in a life-threatening situation.

I hold my line of vision back from what’s on top and turn to the guy next to me. His yellow shirt is so bright that even a glance at it makes my eyes ache, yet I tell myself now is not the time to think about his inappropriate choice of clothing.

Just when I am about to talk, he forestalls my attempt by spitting out a full sentence first: “Victory is mine.”
“Why…” I want to interrupt, but his disdainful attitude make me swallow my words, which decompose and turn sour in my stomach.
“I refuse to listen. You will die and I will triumph. It’s simple as that.”

He takes a leap downward. My eyes follow his movement and see him landing perfectly onto a rectangular stone step beneath the one we originally stood on together. Then he continues to jump from one step to another, avoiding the ones made of iron thorns.

I know I must take action too, or the thorns on the ceiling will soon pierce hundreds of holes in my body. According to my estimation, the closest stone step is three meters below where I am. This is not good, but again I don’t have a choice.

A deep breath. A run-up. Then one, two…! I jump. Oh, God bless, it is a successful jump. I bend down on my knees to rest for a few seconds, and after that I move on, trying to catch up with the guy in yellow. Fear motivates me to keep track of my progress, so I begin counting, “Two, three, four, five…” Step after step.

When I re-encounter the man on my 32nd stone step, both of us are panting like dogs. I have this feeling mixed with relief and disappointment the minute I see him, for he’s still alive. The guy stares back at me with the same arrogant look he had earlier, so I suppose he isn’t pleased to see me again either.

As I turn around to look for my next stone step, through the corner of my eyes I notice a vicious smile spreading on the guy’s face. No. No. I turn back to defend myself but find it too late, for he runs toward me with a speed so fast that I have no time to react. He pushes me down the opposite side of the step, where no other steps are built underneath, and he jumps onto the one I planned to jump on.

 ”Ahhhhhhh!” I hear the man scream during my fall. Perhaps he’s landed on a step with thorns by accident, haha. What a fool. I’ve gone unconscious before I can have any further thoughts about his stupidity, nor am I able to smile with satisfaction in the end.

The sites we visited for last class introduced me to several new ways that one can use the internet to tell stories in a unique way. The use of floating text, visuals, videos, and sounds was surprising to me and I had never imagined using them to create a story. Different effects can convey feelings and create images that we cannot with traditional text on a page.

In order to make my story come to life, I would use moving text, changing contrast, and sound effects.

1. Moving text:     The text would come one sentence at a time on a white background, but the speed at which it comes and goes would change depending on the mood of the particular part of the story. A more intense emotion would be evident by a faster-moving text. The fastest speed would be little more than a quick flash of text on the page that one can just barely read. This would create the confusion and panic that the main character feels.
2. Changing contrast:     The contrast between the text and the background would get increasingly bright as hysteria mounts. As we lead up to the main character fainting, the white would get very bright to the point of discomfort as the bold black words flash upon the page. This would create the blinding effect of lights on a stage.
3. Sound effects:     The sounds would start as the low hum of a crowd as the main character walks on stage. As she begins to panic, the sound would mute to a quiet ring that grows in intensity until she falls. After that, there would be silence until she returns to her feet and the hum returns. This would show the isolation the main character feels when put in front of the huge audience.
4. Pictures and gifs:     In the middle of various sentences, there would be words linked to pages showing different pictures of what might be going on in the story or gifs showing a small action like an eye blinking. Similar to the links directing you to different parts of the story in These Waves of Girls, these are meant to give extra information and add to the emotions of the story.
5. Scrambling text:     At the most tense and overwhelming part of the story, the words will begin to separate and slightly scramble. This is meant to mimic the difficulty one might have reading a speech under high pressure and tension. In Slippingglimpse, the words were out of order and floated about randomly, causing confusion and frustration.

Just before the main character faints, the text would be flashing across the page, the screen would be the brightest and the ringing would be the loudest. Once she falls, the sounds would stop and the screen would darken and gradually lighten as she works towards getting back up. At the end, the screen would be a comfortable brightness, the low hum of a crowd would return, and the text would move at a reasonable reading pace.

The effects would mimic the actual reaction going on within the character’s mind and help the reader to imagine the emotions as they happen. They create empathetic feelings in a way that a traditional storytelling cannot.

Turning “Little Rules” into an e-lit work would be a great way to expand the narrative and add depth and different points of view. Each part of the story would be accompanied by an image to illustrate the action happening in the story, to help the reader visualize the action. The very first image would be that of Harper in her blue bathing suit cover, replacing the first paragraph describing said image. If I could I’d then use flash animation that, when the image of the girl in blue was clicked on, would draw the perspective backwards into the porch where Lyn and Chloe are talking. The bright and sunlit picture of Harper by the pool would become smaller while the shadowed edges of the screened-in porch would slide in and the backs of the heads of the other two girls, turned toward Harper, would come into view. Lyn would be centered in the frame while Chloe would be to the left. This would establish Harper as the main subject of the story, but place the point of view with Lyn. The story would appear as text over this image, from “‘I can’t do this’” to “nodded toward the pool.” Lyn making her little speech, up until “’look both ways’” would be backed by a shot of Lyn’s face, while the paragraph that begins with “‘Don’t text while driving?’” would feature Lyn’s face at an angle, with Chloe’s blurry face in the periphery (reinforcing that Lyn cannot actually tell if she is angry because Lyn isn’t looking at her).  From “The cover slid forward” to “spill out her insides” would be backed with an image of Harper with her feet tangled in the cover, while “‘Don’t say a word’” to the end would appear over a shot of Chloe’s hand on Lyn’s elbow.

The biggest e-lit feature in my story would be hyperlinks. In Caitlin Fisher’s These Waves of Girls hyperlinks were used to connect a vast web of short stories into a whole with thematic connections. In my story, the main thread of the story would be broken up into parts that are hyperlinked together in sequence (so that different parts of the story can be backed by different images), but at certain points there will be other hyperlinks to additional pieces of story that give context to the main narrative, making a similar web of stories. The words “Greek tragedies in school,” for example, will link to a piece about Lyn reading Facebook posts about people condemning her actions, or perhaps an actual image of these posts, with Lyn’s classmates acting as a Greek chorus. The words “to court” would lead to a piece about Lyn actually going to court for hitting Harper. The first mention of Harper’s name would lead to a piece from her point of view detailing her thoughts before she decided to go running on the road she got hit on. The words “a crack,” referring to her scar, could link to a piece describing the actual accident.

Another multimedia tool I could use for my e-lit is audio. In each extra hyperlinked piece I could add a sound that plays as soon as you arrive at the page to help reinforce the message of the piece. The Facebook piece could play a crowd murmuring, the court piece could play a gavel banging, and the accident piece could feature a loud “thunk.” To further enhance my story, I could add video too—perhaps instead of a written piece about the accident, a video of a dramatized scene of its immediate aftermath could be embedded.

Adding interactive and audio/visual elements to the piece will help the audience gain a more complete and engrossing picture of the action surrounding the scene.

Last week, I submitted “Mirror Mirror,” a 3rd person narrative about an interaction between a pair of split personalities within a single body. In keeping with some recently read e-Lit, I have several methods in mind to enhance the story with digital media:

 Firstly, the story would be improved by the presence of images. Keeping with the slightly vague approach to describing the characters, the images would serve as first person views of the scene, focusing on the mirror and the shattered/split reflections in it, providing some level of story immersion for the reader, while still maintaining the mystery, though perhaps providing a subtle hint as to the purpose of the theming.

Animating these panes subtly to add a hint of depth and life would further add to the feel, particularly if this animation were to rely on the position of the mouse on the screen. In this way, the user’s point of interaction (the cursor), becomes their point of view, shifting the perspective, for instance, as if the viewer were moving with the cursor. This would further immerse the viewer in the individual roles, but cause them to feel feel isolated from the counterpart figures always across the mirror. In Cruising, by Ingrid Ankerson, the author uses a similar interactive mouse-based animation to engage the reader into finding their own view. The act of putting effort into controlling the view invests the viewer further in the act of reading, even if no persona is intended to be represented. 

Additional uses for animation in general might be to have the main banner of the page be reversed or ‘mirrored’ when hovered over. This could potentially make the user wonder at the meaning of the title in the context of self-reflection

‘The story, being primarily composed of dialog, is essentially a series of quotes from alternating sources. To capture this feel, each image/quote pair will be clickable to link to the next, capturing the back and forth feel to the exchange. As the user clicks from one view of the mirror to the next, it may feel, to the user, as if they are repeatedly crossing the mirror.

The dialog is primarily between the two main highly contrasting characters. A good method for showing this would be to have opposing themes to the pages that, depending on the current speaker would exhibit different ambient/background properties. The ‘left’ character, is for instance, slightly angrier and less verbose, and less orderly than the ‘right character. These themes could be represented in the background colors, image, and the style or font of the text. Red vs. Blue, sharp lines vs. rounded corners, serif vs. sans-serif etc.

Choice of background sound/music would also contribute significantly to the distinct themes, making them even more starkly different, and adding to the perception of the two characters as distinct people.

HTML Tips/Resources:

1. http://www.html.net/
2. learn CSS (and maybe php and javascript if you feel like it)
3. focus on content in your HTML, do your formatting with CSS…
4. use the view source/inspect element functions in your browser to view other web-pages, and error check your own.

Wake is a first person narrative which tells the story of a girl trying to reach the mountain summit with her close friend, unaware that he and the rest of the world around her is nothing more a dream. As the dream world is often composed more of impressions and emotions rather than specific details, this narrative would benefit greatly from adopting the style of an e-lit. Due to the lonely mountain environment in which the scene takes place, as well as the vague nature of dreams, this e-lit should be minimalist in nature, balancing sparse text, sound, and video to create this effect.

Visually, the effect would be reminiscent of Donna Leishman’s  Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw, in which the scenes remain static until readers explore further through interaction. For Wake, I would reverse the placement of the videos and static images as it is seen in Leishman’s e-lit. Each scene (the climb, the detour, and the waking) would take the form of a looped video with sparse detail and emphasis on environmental scenes. The video will take up the entirety of the window, mimicking true first person view, and will repeat until the reader until the reader clicks on key pieces of scenery. These key items are in fact buttons marking hyperlinks, which would direct the reader to a static, close up image of the object in question before the narrative moves on to the next video.

Text would be sparse compared to the original blog post, including only the literal thoughts of the character rather than describing more action heavy scenes, as  the video sections should sufficiently communicate. Attempting to overlap these mediums would be redundant, and complicate the emotional reception of the narrative. Text would primarily appear accompanying interactive scenes, or at the beginning of a looped video in order to set the scene.

While the text is an important aspect though, music can tell a narrative just as effectively. Thus in my opinion, it is a necessity of e-lit. In the case of this narrative, however, it should be used in moderation. Gentle, simple music should be used in the background of each video (I imagine it being light but bittersweet,) accompanied by occasional ambient background noise. This music, like the videos, will be on constant loop until the reader progresses, and should be non-repetitive.

IT IS CRUCIAL, however, that this music stops during the static images. Such silence represents a slowing of pace in the narrative, encouraging a pause in thought as the reader contemplates the item of interest uninterrupted. The ambient noise, however may continue, and in some cases may even intensify, as it may originate from the key object.

An example of all these factors working together can be seen in the final scene of the narrative. Each quadrant of the video is a button which shakes the “camera” in various directions and zooms in on the target area, putting the reader entirely in control of the scenery. However, this control is in itself an illusion, similar to the endgame of Shadow of the Colossus, in which the player maintains full control of the character without being able to alter his fate through their struggles. The music begins to intensify and become incoherent, mimicking the increasing loss of control. The scene will eventually light to a white background, which serves as one large hyperlink. Upon clicking this, the music will first calm, then cease entirely.  A video will then play in which the white scene transitions to the familiar sight of the bedroom.

http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/2012/09/10/brotherly-bonding/

The first thought that arrives in my head when I think about my story “Brotherly Bonding” is action. Using e-lit, I would want to expand the presence of the action in the story and really put the reader right into the scene. A major component of “Brotherly Bonding” would rely on sound. I also want the reader to visualize the setting. Aside from the aesthetics, emphasizing and clarifying a few key Latin phrases throughout the narrative would help to signify the recurring importance of them.

1. Background Sound Effects (multimedia/musical track on page)

One of the collections in the second volume of the online literature collection is called “Tailspin”. It uses an audio track in a way that  makes you feel is if you are right next to clattering silverware at a party or something. Early in the narrative I mention a few clues about the setting to let the reader know a storm is taking place. Reading this and imagining the environment is one thing: hearing the process of nature around you is completely different experience. A background simulation of a thunderstorm and every sound in that atmosphere would help add a dimension to the feeling of the story (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlOJr1csOR4).

2. Picture of Thunder (linking to rest of story)

While I read through the e-lit selection “These Waves of Girls” I took note of the images that accompanied the story. While reading anything accompanied by an image, I automatically think about the ultimate purpose of the image and if it reveals anything about the story. If I were to introduce a picture of some uniquely colored lightning storm, clicking on the picture would symbolically take you in to the rest of the story and tell you more about what is occurring. This takes the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” to a new level. In “These Waves of Girls”, clicking on a picture takes you to another portion of the story and helps the reader understand how everything is connected to the overall story and picture itself.

3. Action Music

Reading a book is like being the director of your own movie. One thing that really makes an impact in a movie is the soundtrack or musical score used within the film. In a physical book, having the reader imagine the same scene you do is already a tough task. If you want them to imagine the same sounds/background music as well then you are venturing towards something very difficult to achieve. A link to a really intense musical selection would add another important element/dimension to the story. In regards to my story, a really intense rock song (such as Fully Alive by Flyleaf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d3RYW0YoEk&feature=relmfu) would really immerse the reader right into the action. This, combined with the thunder audio track I mentioned earlier would be a great combination.

4. Hyperlinked Latin Words

When the average reader sees a word they don’t know, they may become distracted if the definition doesn’t reveal itself. I think it would be beneficial to the author and reader to hyperlink the word to its definition/translation. In the case of foreign words, this is especially true. Linking these words would also draw more attention (and emphasize them) since they would now look different than the words in the rest of the story. Deena Larson’s Fun Da Mentals site really exemplifies this. Even though the description of whatever word she describes follows the word, the hyperlink to pages that expand on the word really do help gain a better understanding of the words she uses while drawing more emphasis to them.

5. Embedded Video Beam Struggle

There is one part in my narrative where the two brothers fire their bolts of lightning at each other. When I picture this, I remember some of the fights from a favorite childhood show of mine: Dragon Ball Z. More specifically, when two blasts of energy clash in the show, it is called a beam struggle. If I could get them to view that part of my narrative the same way I pictured it when I thought of Dragon Ball Z, the action in the narrative would be more intense than it would be if it were just read on paper. The best way to have them see this beam struggle would be to present it in the way of an embedded video right after I mention the bolts of lightning striking each other (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjalIqCl_fg).

I wrote “When in Fire”, an action story about a routine Fire suit test gone wrong. This story is meant to take the reader on a journey through the emotions of Laura, the protagonist, during her time trapped in the fire chamber. Laura experiences fear, anxiety, and panic through the trials she faces in escaping.

I believe turning this story into an e-lit could enhance the reader’s experience by not only making the emotions in the story more realistic, but by helping create greater depth to Laura’s character. The following e-lit features would help improve the story.

1) Hyperlink

Much like in “These waves of girls” I would like to use hyperlinks as a form of story segmentation. Hyperlinks would be an effective way to incorporate Laura’s flashbacks of moments with her research team. This would improve the story by making Laura and her team more three-dimensional and realistic.  I would like to hyperlink into the main story small little memories Laura has about working on the project and spending time with her teammates.

2) Video

To enhance the reader’s visualization of the story I would embed a video of an actual fire suit test. These videos can appear very dramatic which I’m sure would increase the reader’s emotional commitment to the story. The visual of fire actually burning a human-like figure would hopefully evoke a greater feeling of distress for the protagonist. The one detail I want to be careful with is the length of the video. I would not want the video to be so long that the reader becomes disconnected to the story.

3) Pictures

Pictures will likely have a similar effect on the reader as a video, except that they provide a more brief addition to the story. I expect the reader to spend no more than a few seconds viewing the photo which is why I believe the choice of photo is important. For my story I would add a picture of a fire suit after the first two lines. Later in the story when Laura starts panicking, I would add a picture of droplets of sweat on a forehead. These two pictures would improve the reader’s image of the moment and hopefully help them become more engulfed in story.

4) Sound effects

I would like to add sound effects to the e-lit version of my story because I believe the more human senses involved, the greater the reader attachment to the plot. I would like to add audio of the initial explosion and of the moment where Laura breaks the window creating an escape for herself.

5) Change in font (Ex: Bold, italics)

Changing the font appearance to emphasize a word can have an effect on the reader’s reaction to the story. I would like to bold works such as pounding and crash because I feel it will add to the startling effect of the word itself.

E-lit is a very interesting form of writing that I was not aware of before this class. I like how e-lit can involve a combination one’s vision, hearing, and imagination to convey a story.

Here’s a link to my original story: http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/?p=491

I believe that my story can have many branching paths if it were to be converted into an E-lit. I would have my E-lit mimic the format of “These Waves of Girls”. I would like it to have an older style of HTML to give the user the freedom of what links to further explore, and which were of less importance. Even though the user has their own freedom of depth of exploration, the branching paths would still place them back at the same conclusion.

One thing that I would try to avoid while creating this e-lit is making the seperate pages to lengthy. One of the main problems that I had with “These Waves of Girls” was that it took me awhile to sift through a lot of the content on the pages. I really began to lose interest before I could see how these branching paths would end up re-connecting. Although the style of the website did seem a little bit outdated by today’s standards, its simple aesthetics actually were the first thing to catch my eye. The website had a bit of a retro feel to it.

To begin to set the mood for my E-lit, I would have a repeating image of cherry blossom petals falling in the background. I would also like to have a Japanese Koto playing in the background (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxo2skx59lU). This would begin to set the mood of an older Japanese theme. Setting is a major feature that I want to focus on. In a book, the setting is described to you. That imagination of the setting may be slightly different from person to person. In my e-lit, I want to show the viewer the exact setting that I envisioned in my head.

Within my first paragraph, I allude to a Revolution that has previously passed. This was referring to the Meiji Revolution that happened in Japan. It has been alluded to in certain Japanese anime and manga such as Rurouni Kenshin. To find more about the causes and consequences of the Meiji Revolution, I would link them to a page such as this one: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/japan/japanworkbook/modernhist/meiji.html I would also show videos of the Meiji Era in pop culture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ2IODnJOiM (There would also be a pause button for the Koto music in order to accommodate the users viewing the video).

I would also like the viewer of my e-lit to research some more information on both the protagonist and antagonist.

(http://www.japanese-armor.com/images/products/b005.jpg)

This is a picture of typical Japanese samurai armor. Within this picture, I would like a link that would redirect the user to this webpage: http://judoinfo.com/samurai.htm. Here the viewer can view background information on samurai while the main characters are introduced. To the average user, this webpage may seem a bit wordy, so if I could, I would find a way to highlight certain sentences to accommodate some of the curious users.

After the introduction the setting of the battlefield is described. I would place a “continue” button at the bottom of the page where the user is re-directed to another web-page I have created (I do not think that my story progresses fast enough to copy the same format as 21 steps). Instead of cherry blossom petals in the background, and calm music playing, it is replaced by a more obscure theme. There is a full moon placed centered in the background with the sound of wind blowing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3PJjdcL6cQ). As the battle in my narrative continues, the tension heightens. In many shows and movies, when this happens, there is an audible heartbeat. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNEeJT51PoQ) A sound just like this will be playing as the reader reaches the paragraph where Rai-Shin sizes up his opponent. I also want to make a big contrast between these two pages. The first page has a calmer atmosphere as it tells you the background and setting. Because my narrative isn’t exactly a fairy-tail, I want the viewer to feel the tension that I have built within the narrative.

In the next paragraph, I mention a sword technique dubbed “Ryu Shou Sen”. Assuming that Google translate is correct, I would replace the English words with the Japanese letters (龍翔セン). If these were bold, the reader would be more drawn to it and less likely to skip over it. Once clicked, they would be directed to Google translate (http://translate.google.com/) where they would be free to copy and paste the characters into the website.

In my final paragraph, I have Rai-shin break Lee’s thumb. As many people know, samurai live by the Bushido code. Those who lived by this code felt that the greatest nirvana was experienced when death was incurred on the battlefield. In our eyes we have truly consider Rai-Shin a hero for sparing his best friends life. But in the times of the samurai, that was almost unheard of. Do you think that Rai-shin made the best decision to spare his friend? With a crushed thumb, it may have been difficult for Lee to perform Seppuku (Japanese ritual suicide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku) Although I did not specifically allude to this in my narrative, I would definitely include this in my e-lit. Rather than just accompany  my narrative, I would like my e-lit to help spark some interest in the older feudal Japanese traditions and cultures.