Initially, I thought this narrative would be difficult to convert into a piece of E-Lit; but after mulling over the possibilities, I realized there are a lot of elements of E-Lit that would add substantial depth to the story.
Because this story is about a race, it would be ideal to have it formatted similarly to The 21 Steps. Allowing the reader to see where the competitors are at all times on a map would heighten the sense of urgency the narrator tries to convey. The map would have to be a much smaller scale than that of The 21 Steps, as the runners only cover a span of about 3 miles, and there would have to be two paths to follow instead of one–but the paths will be very close since the runners are neck-in-neck. Every several hundred feet they move, more blurbs of text will show up, continuing the story.
Next: audio. A major example of imagery in the story is the description of the sounds the narrator’s shoes make as he runs. “Squish. Thud. Squish. Thud.” I can image how effective it would be to have that sound sequence playing while the reader reads. The sounds could easily be synthesized and played in a loop which would begin the moment the page was opened, diving the reader straight into the action. The pacing could speed up when the reader reached the part of the story where the runners reach the final half mile of the race and accelerate.
Another element would be hyperlinks. These would be especially effective in construing the backgrounds of and the relationship between the narrator and his main competitor Derrick Smalls. A link on Derrick’s name could take the reader to a page with Derrick’s profile, listing all of his (fictional) statistics, honors and awards. Since the reader really does not know anything about Derrick other than he is fast and he beat the narrator in the previous year’s race, this would allow the reader to gain some information about why Derrick was such a fierce competitor and why it was so important to beat him. The same would be done for the narrator. What would be most sufficient would be these links opening up sidebars on the screen, so the reader may still “watch” the race as he or she reads up on the runners’ stats.
Video would be a fourth E-Lit device that would transform this story. A video that shows (probably in animation) the race from last year when narrator lost to Derrick by two mere seconds would give the reader stronger contextual insight.
The final E-Lit feature would be a choose-your-own-adventure ending. When the reader gets to the part where Derrick trips and falls, the reader then will be given two choices: continue the story with the narrator going on to win the race, or, the actual ending,with the narrator forfeiting and helping Derrick get up.Two very different morals can be achieved this way.