Adaptive Music for Fiction: Writing Multi-Sensory Short Stories in a Digital Age

Abstract

Since 2011, it has become commonplace for individuals and large companies alike to attempt to create a more immersive reading experience on a digital platform. While their efforts have yielded interesting and impressive results, attempts to intersect books and soundtracks have never been generally embraced as a viable alternative to simply reading. Conversely, video games have been constantly improving the integration of music to encourage more immersive gameplay by using adaptive music that reacts to user input. Using this approach, I have written a collection of five short fictions entitled Sheltered Home: Creaturely Stories and composed accompanying music for each story using a vertically layered method. The objective of this creative thesis project is to combine short fiction with reactive music on a digital, eBook-like platform to encourage a more immersive multi-sensory reading experience.