Project Title: Down the Rabbit Hole

Essential Question(s):

How I can use the medium of web fiction to effectively tell a story, using the medium to the best of its ability to convey that story? How can I use the tools in the program Twine to improve my web fiction storytelling skills?

Statement of Purpose

For my Senior Project, I will write a piece of web fiction that utilizes interactive and visual elements in its storytelling. I want to use this medium to tell a story about a girl who discovers a book that will grant her omniscience if she finds and reads the other two books in the series, but will otherwise rot away and die from the power of even a fraction of that knowledge.

Overview: Describe your topic and project to the committee.

The main element of my senior project is exploring how a unique medium for storytelling can be used most effectively. I want the medium of the story to be key to its telling and for my story to use elements of its medium that could not be communicated a short story. These essential issues interest me because I think that the full capabilities for using computers as artistic tools have not fully been explored yet, particularly in writing. As this is a big project, I see myself being able to complete the draft of the story over senior project, with notes about the images and links I will include. If I have time I will start working on creating the more multimedia aspects of the story. I think that this is an achievable goal for this project that will allow me to focus in particular on its most difficult part.

This story will be framed as the main character “going down the rabbit hole” as she discovers more and more about the history of the books and about the nature of the world around her. It will include text as well as images I create meant to mirror the look of both websites and historical documents. I plan to outline the story and complete the draft, and to begin working on the image elements if I have more time, as well as the coding for the story. I think the coding will challenge me but I have decided to use the program Twine, which has many accessible tutorials. I also plan to speak with my aunt’s dad, Bill Bly, who is regarded as a pioneer in hypertext fiction, to give myself more perspective on how I can tell my story and what I can learn from earlier hypertext fiction.

How will you measure your success?

• Become proficient in Twine (the program I am using to write my story)
• Become more experienced in web-based art/writing
• Improve my writing skills, particularly in sustaining a large project and maximizing accessibility in a web format

Resource List

Key Reading: Homestuck by Andrew Hussie, (2009-2016)

Other Books:

• The Briar Archive series by C.J. Bernstein (2018)
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
• The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the World by John Dickie (2021)

Web Fiction:

• 17776 by Jon Bois (2017)
• We Descend by Bill Bly (1997)
• The SCP Foundation

Video Games:

• One Shot, developed by FutureCat (2016)
• Gone Home, developed by The Fullbright Company (2013)

Podcasts:

• The Magnus Archives, by Rusty Quill (2016-2021)
• Archive 81, by Dead Signals (2018-2020)

Films:

• Dark City, dir. by Alex Proyas (1998)
• Evil Dead, dir. by Sam Raimi (1983)
• The Conversation, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (1974)
• The works of Jan Svankmejer (1964-present)

Daily Plan & Schedule

My general idea for my plan is that between 4/6 (or 4/12 if I start my project then) through 5/3, I will work on drafting my story, writing and creating images or other multimedia elements as I go. Between 5/4 and 5/13, I will work on revising and working out any technical issues I have, while also getting feedback from trusted mentors. Between 5/14 and 5/23, I will begin to polish my story, showing it to more people for feedback on accessibility. I work better when I have a set schedule so here is my plan for what I will do each day:

• 10 am: Wake up
• 10 am – 10:30: Get ready and eat breakfast
• 10:45 – 1:45: Go to a cafe and work
• 1:45 – 2:45: Lunch
• 2:45 – 4:45: Free period (go to a museum, see a movie, see friends, etc)
• 4:45 – 7:00 : Return to cafe and work
• 7 pm: Go home and finish working for the day

Documentation Plan

I plan to write an artist statement to accompany my work, and perhaps include some of the outlining work or other preparatory materials if I feel they are relevant. I also think I would like to create a bibliography of works that inspired me or that heavily influenced my story.  I will write these during the polishing stage, and additionally keep a journal of my work as I go to document my process and difficulties.

Material Needs

Materials: Scrivener

• Reason for item: I have used the free trial of Scrivener to begin outlining my story and have found it very useful to me in keeping my work organized
• Notes: For students/institutions, it costs $42 for a year.
• Resolution: If this is approved I will use scrivener as my main drafting tool.

Backup Plan

Worst comes to worst I will feel lost on my initial goal and I will focus more heavily on getting feedback from those with experience in this field and work harder on drafting the project, even if all of the elements are not finished by the end of the 6 weeks.