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.