Executive Summary: This proposal outlines my plan to compose a short story about one man’s dream to mass-produce a solar-powered vehicle.  The story will be presented in four iterations and the first pass will contain only text.  The second pass will introduce graphics and photos; the third pass will include audio and video; and the fourth pass will provide interactivity in the form of links to solar energy web sites and events.  The second, third, and fourth passes will be presented in an online format, similar to a PowerPoint presentation, but developed in Authorware to control the display of text and incorporate multimedia elements.

Solar Dreamer is a work of realistic fiction (genre) and is based, in part, on actual people and events. I chose this type of story since my best friend is passionate about solar energy and has developed a solar-powered vehicle. In the story, the main character is facing a quandary and must make a life-altering decision, but the resolution is open-ended and the audience is left to make their own interpretation as to what decision he makes.  The intended audience for this story is everyone who believes that alternative energy is the great hope in saving our environment.

The story will be temporally arranged in a non-linear format, commencing with the quandary faced by the main character. The story will then take a nostalgic look back at the key people and events that helped to shape the main character’s life, including the personal struggles and sacrifices he has made.  The story will end with the main character choosing between his ‘solar’ dream and a conventional lifestyle.

 The story will be told from the perspective of a heterodiegetic, or non-character narrator and will include some character dialogue. As the story progresses from the ‘text only’ version to the versions that include multimedia, the focalisation will continue from the perspective of the heterodiegetic narrator. However, the rhetorical arrangement and style of the story will be dramatically enhanced in the multimedia versions when dialogue is supplemented with images, sound, and music since the appropriate combination of these elements in conjunction with dialogue will heighten the ethos of the main character and the pathos of the lead female character. In addition, the rhetorical tools of hyperbole, metanoia, and apophasis will also be employed in the dialogue for the main character since these are devices that are frequently used by the real-life individual upon whom this story is based.  

The challenges presented by this project include condensing the initial ‘text only’ version and supplanting text with multimedia without compromising the flow and totality of the story.  To meet this challenge, I plan to structure the online version in scenes, much like adapting a novel to a movie, in order to highlight the key story elements.  Another challenge is both identifying and creating the multimedia elements needed to replace text in each pass of the story. To meet this challenge, I plan to interview my friend (main character), attend a solar energy conference with him, take photos, and create A/V clips using a camcorder.