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  1. Steak-Ums

    Steak-Ums New Member

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    How do you have a book...in a book?

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Steak-Ums, Oct 26, 2007.

    Okay, the protagonist of my story, The Making of Nothing: Dementia and Grim
    is Bryant Evans, filmmaker, novelist and ect.

    Now in the 'series' which I use loosely, because it's a peeve of mine to say it will be a serious when I'm not even half way into it. I want him to have success in both fields, film and novel.

    But I want the reader to really know what he's writing. Not just know a breif snyopsis on it, and guess along the way, but I want them to know his beginning, middle, and end.

    Has a book within a book ever occured in the writing field? Would I be the first (I doubt it) any pointers?

    As for the film aspect of my book; he and other various characters will be portraying the 'fictional' characters as well, which I now know will require an amazing amount of imagery.
     
  2. secularzarathustra

    secularzarathustra New Member

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    It has occurred innumerable times; however, that is no reason that you cannot create something fresh/new/interesting/&c. Reviews of non-existent works abound, even Rabelais did it back in the day. For short stories check out Borges' Collected Fictions, he does this many times, and each story is so unique that there is nothing trite or redundant in his themes. There are also fictional ethnographies &c. Novelists as protagonists are quite common, and in many of the stories, their stories play integral roles. Are they writing themselves? Are they themselves written by another author? What would that do to an author's confidence to find out he is a character being written as is his character? Where does free will exist in such stories.

    All of these themes have been done time and again; however, they can be among the most fascinating and imaginative.
     
  3. Steak-Ums

    Steak-Ums New Member

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    I know it's been done, but what I mean is, a complete story?
     
  4. Crazy Ivan

    Crazy Ivan New Member

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    Well, how long would you guesstimate your Making of Nothing story is, and how long would you say the story-within-a-story is? If it's long enough, you could just make it its own story...
     
  5. SAGMUN

    SAGMUN New Member

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    How do you have a book…in a book

    Use a portable recording device. "Book: Matt's bedroom. Matt said, " …

    This idea is from a 1940s Larraine Day movie. In the movie she is an author of romance novels. She and three stenographs are pacing back as she shifts back and forth between the dictating of three stories.
     

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