In the past, the use of storytelling was almost exclusively conducted through one medium, telling the story

as it was meant to be told and leaving it as a complete and independent creation. While most stories in today's world exist in the same way, there is a new technique called transmedia storytelling being used to create stories that exist across various media (especially digital ones). With transmedia, the author, or more commonly authors, can build on past stories told by adding to the narrative more wor . !he pieces that ma e up a larger transmedia narrative don't necessarily rely on each other to create a complete story, but they pieces do fit together one way or another whether they merely fit in the same setting or tell the stories of alternate characters. In this particular transmedia pro"ect I utili#e $dgar %llan &oe's '!he (as of %montillado) to create an interactive spin on the original which allows the reader to engage with both an abridged version of the original as well as some other potential paths that may have fit the story originally created by the author. !he result is a story that is altered constantly by the decisions of the reader themselves in the form of a &ower&oint slide show that traverses many results and decisions throughout the process of reading it. !he literacies required to create, understand and engage with &oe's narrative and my own creation are quite different, and the contrasting qualities each of them possess tell us a great deal about authorship and literacy across various media. *y loo ing at this transmedia pro"ect through a digital literacy lens and by utili#ing my account of acquiring new literacies through its creation, we can gain a better understanding of how digital literacy and transmedia storytelling play a role in our world. +f the many aspects of digital literacy that can be understood through its role in this pro"ect is that of authorship. It should come as no surprise to anyone that something li e transmedia storytelling confuses typical ideas of authorship, and this piece of wor is a prime example. In creating this narrative, I both utili#e something created by &oe as well as invent my own parts of the story, yet they are mixed so as to be inseparable. ,urther, while the audience doesn't create anything in the story, they play an active role in unraveling it and controlling the direction it ta es. -espite the confusing nature of this, the distinction in being an author lies in the creation of written wor to be shared, and that ma es

both me and &oe authors. In the past authorship has been a more exclusive title that was oftentimes never achieved by most people, but today almost everyone composes and publishes wor online whether through blogs, email or even social media conversation. %uthorship is not something that is exclusive to certain people or uncommon any longer, and the creation of this pro"ect that builds on &oe's original wor is an indication of that. %nother part of digital literacy that comes into play here is the idea that different literacies are needed or are more effective when utili#ing or creating different media. *etween &oe writing his short story and me writing my interactive story, it shouldn't be too much of an assumption to say that there are a vast number of differences between the s ills that are involved in the creation of the two different pieces. ,or example, writing something li e &oe's original story relies heavily on s ill in prose, while my creation requires s ill with technical wor li e formatting &ower&oint slides correctly and incorporating sound files. While these may seem to be incredibly different s ills, they are both part of literacy because they give use the ability to communicate with and pass meaning to others better in certain situations. !he technical s ills and comprehension that went into my creation of this pro"ect made it possible for me to communicate in the way I did by composing this piece of wor . ,urther, there are shared literacy s ills that go into both the creation of &oe's wor and my own, such as creativity and understanding of thematic elements. .ot only that, but there are many literacy s ills that the reader's need and benefit from in reading both wor s that also share and differ between media. !hrough this it is easy to understand how these literacies played and continue to play roles in the creation and comprehension of these separate pieces. In addition to loo ing to the complete wor s for understanding of different literacies, it is also helpful to loo at the learning process and adaptation that I went through in the process of developing this wor . +ne example of this can be seen in how I learned how to use /icrosoft &ower&oint in ways I did not previously now how to use it. I learned how to do things such as add sounds that will trigger at certain times, add ambient noise to loop while a slide is up and hyperlin certain ob"ects in one slide

to ta e the person who clic s on them to another slide among other things. I new how to use &ower&oint from previous experience, but I did not now how to use these features, and learning how to use them gave me the means to communicate my retelling of this story in new and better ways. !his is completely disregarding the trouble and inevitable learning I encountered when trying to find resources (such as free sounds) on the internet and establish my own permanent web page to host my pro"ect on, which was at least as trying and at least as informative. !hrough using these new techniques and s ills to create my pro"ect I have learned not "ust how to communicate in new ways, but also how to do so more quic ly. Where initially I couldn't even find out how to play my sounds on each slide properly and too a long time figuring it out, I can now go into &ower&oint and embed a sound of my choosing as well as control when and how it plays with extreme ease. &eople constantly acquire and use new literacies and s ills through experiences such as this one. !hrough the experience of creating this pro"ect I gained s ills in navigating the internet, using &ower&oint and generally became more digitally literate. While being able to convert story ideas for something li e the interactive story found here may not seem li e something that would be traditionally considered part of being 'literate,) it is easy to see how the s ills associated with completing this pro"ect have allowed me to share them with others in a way that I would not be capable of doing without them. ,urther, this pro"ect illustrates how transmedia wor s as established story elements transfer between media without conflicting or relying on each other. !hrough the use of technology and digital media we can successfully create meaning in new and different ways that can fit different audiences and situations, and this is exemplified in the execution of this pro"ect.