In this class we will explore the experimental, technological, and highly creative world of Digital Storytelling. Digital Storytelling is a genre which contains many forms of multi-media based literature, from hypertext (links within a story/poem that transport you to other connected stories), to merging video, sound, photography, and language in a digital space. Other forms of electronic literature engage the viewer/reader through online textual games, the use of sound to control the words on the screen, and even movements of the body to interact with text.

Even though we might use highly advanced forms of digital communication/storytelling everyday (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogsites, texts and emails) we often don't consider that these same technologies can be used to create fictional stories, poems, creative non-fiction, and multi-media art. In this class we will learn to utilize these technologies creatively, producing our own works of electronic fiction. We will read a wide selection of electronic literature as a way to begin our own creative works in digital storyelling. We will study the craft of creative writing, examining traditional elements of plot, character development, and language as a basis to experiment with more non-traditional forms. Throughout the semester we will read one another’s electronic stories/poems and workshop them, highlighting the strengths of the pieces as well as suggesting ways for the author to strengthen their work even further.