Introduction to the Nancybelle Project

This weblog is part of a research project in multi-threaded storytelling conducted by Kim Pearson in collaboration with Ursula Wolz.

The Research Project

We seek to discover whether it is possible to create a storytelling engine that provides users with an immersive, multimedia experience of a non-fiction narrative. The life story of Nancybelle Valentine, a retired design pattern-maker who played a key role in the early years of the Liz Claiborne Corporation will serve as a prototype narrative.

The goal of the Nancybelle project is to create a new form of scriptwriting for interactive, database-driven journalistic narratives. My method is an iterative re-visioning of a magazine profile as a dynamic multimedia presentation. I am using a prototype story that would normally be suited to a magazine feature, but is of sufficient complexity and depth that it can be constructed along several story threads.

There will be multiple story threads that will serve as points of narration. The writing method that I am working to create will integrate the conventions of journalistic storytelling with the structural requirements of database content, for incorporation into a storytelling engine being developed by my colleague Ursula Wolz, a computational linguist and veteran game developer.

Using this method, I posit that users are likely to achieve a level of reader engagement with complex nonfiction narrative that is comparable to what readers experience from reading literary nonfiction in print. The goal is not to supplant print literary journalism, but to complement it by creating a genre suited to media consumers entranced by videogames and social media. Further, because the tools and techniques to flow from this project will allow news consumers to easily experience a story from multiple vantage points, it should facilitate civic engagement by immersing readers in evocative stories told from more than one point of view. I also believe that this form of storytelling will have applications for educational simulations.

Evolution

This project began in early 2005 as a conventional, web-based narrative, based on interviews conducted with Ms. Valentine in Spring, 2005. Two students from The College of New Jersey, Robert Burnett and Kerby Vincent, served as my photographer and research assistant, respectively. Charlene Rivers and Steven Thomas shot additional video and still images. However, readings on procedural storytelling, as well as studies charting declines in news consumption among people under 40 prompted me to think about more dynamic ways of presenting a story.

My colleague Ursula Wolz also urged me to think about less hierarchical, more dynamic story structures. In researching this topic, I became particularly intrigued by the design of A is for Apple. In the summer of 2006, with support from my employer, The College of New Jersey, I was able to enlist two more students, Nia Haqq and Eve Roytshteyn in the creation of more media artifacts, and a design document for the ultimate web-based presentation.

At the end of the summer of 2006, Ursula and I sketched out the plan for the creation of an engine for multi-threaded non-fiction storytelling. At that point, we realized the need for the kind of scriptwriting I am currently trying to invent.

In the fall of 2006, Haqq and Roytshteyn were joined by Scott Hoover and Gemma Waylett, who created more artifacts for the project, including a dynamic interface. I expect to incorporate some version of this design into the final product.