1. Shbooblie

    Shbooblie Senior Member

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    Style Format Question.

    Discussion in 'General Writing' started by Shbooblie, Jul 6, 2015.

    I'm writing a fake confessional autobiography which includes three specific time periods: 1940's, early 2000's and the present day.

    The story is written non linear, I am going to include extracts from his therapy diary at the beginning of each chapter giving a little more insight into his life. I want to include what was said in his therapy sessions as well but I'm struggling on how to do this without writing an excessive amount of dialogue. I came up with the idea that perhaps he could steal his file from the therapists office and then include a copy of the sessions as a script style piece of writing.

    I've been reading a book called I'm Jack which includes police interviews written in such a way and I find it very effective. I'm just wondering what you all think about this sort of style.
     
  2. sprirj

    sprirj Senior Member

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    Sounds really interesting to me, I'd have a go at it. I really like the idea of the mc stealing his records.
     
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  3. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    Sounds interesting. I remember reading an old 60's book Up the Down Staircase - the whole novel was comprised of school paperwork, teachers & students notes, and bits of homework.
    No harm in giving it a try.
     
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  4. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    I remember the film. Sandy Dennis was in it, I think.

    I believe the method is called "epistolary". I've seen it used effectively, but I would advise doing so sparingly.
     
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  5. psychotick

    psychotick Contributor Contributor

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    Hi,

    Like the others I've seen it done, and sometimes effectively. It is an interesting approach. But it can easily go wrong, with the different pieces of "source" material jarring me as a reader out of the story itself.

    There was one book I read a long time ago - a space opera - which was done superbly in this manner. And the funny thing was that the prologue to each chapter was done as a sort of historical record from much later on, and was always innacurate. So you would read about the hero in the short excerpt and all the amazing / terrible things he'd done, and then you'd read the hero's journey part and find out it was completely different - it just started and ended in the same place.

    Cheers, Greg.
     
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