Writing a Frame Story

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Writing a Frame Story

• Creative Writers Craft
• Chapter 12

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Frame Story

• Popular story telling device
• Story within a story

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Popular Frame Stories

• Cantebury Tales
• A group of travelers make a pilgrimage to
  Cantebury
• Each traveler tells a story during the journey

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Popular Frame Stories

• Frankenstein
• Robert Walton writes letters to his sister
• In the letters he tells the story of Victor
  Frankenstein and his monster

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Popular Frame Stories

• The Princess Bride
• Billy is sick with pneumonia
• His grandfather sits on Billys bed and reads him
  a story
• From time to time, Billy interrupts which
  indicates to the readers two stories are taking
  place
• A grandfather connecting with his grandson
• Princess trying to reunite with her first true
  love

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Popular Frame Stories

• The Arabian Night
• The Sultan Shahriar is convinced that all women
  are unfaithful. He marries a new wife each
  evening, then in the morning has her put to
  death.
• A new bride wins a temporary suspension by
  starting a story on her wedding night and
  maintains his curiosity about the outcome

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Popular Frame Stories

• As such, the following tales were told
• Ali Baba
• Aladdin and his Magic Lamp
• Sinbad the Sailor
• The Thousand and One Nights
• Many others

10 minute read
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A Sloppy Story

• What is the frame? What problems and conflicts
  does the narrator face?
• The story is about a man with a story, perhaps a
  writer or TV / film business
• He wants to sell the story to someone need the
  money
• Has many encounters in which he repeats the story

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A Sloppy Story

• His problem/conflict is failure failure to sell
  the story and failure to maintain a love
  relationship with Pam, the girl he meets on the
  street

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A Sloppy Story

• What is the tale?
• First time he tells the tale he is trying to sell
  it to someone
• The story he tells is so sketchy and sloppy that
  it is not clear what happened (This guy comes in
  and says to me and I say to him and he says and I
  say)

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A Sloppy Tale

• Each time he repeats the tale, he includes what
  happened to him since the last time he told it.
• Second time He includes his telling the tale to
  them the first time
• It becomes clear that the tale he tells is the
  story of his life a story that keeps changing
  and growing as new things happen to him.
• This intensifies the conflict each time he fails
  to sell his story. He and his life are being
  rejected.

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A Sloppy Tale

• How many times does the narrator tell the tale?
• Five times
• Two partners in their office twice told
• Outside he gives Pam shelter of his umbrella and
  buys her coffee
• Meeting her friend when he sells it
• Bartender when he and Pam stop to celebrate the
  short-lived sale

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A Sloppy Tale

• What is the relationship of the frame to the
  tale?
• With each telling the narrator includes in his
  tale things that happen to him in the frame since
  the last time he told it.
• The frame and the tale become mixed by the end of
  the story. They are both the story of his life,
  and, thus, become one tale.

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A Sloppy Tale

• How many references to weather occur? What is
  the function of this weather detail?
• Dixon weaves images of an umbrella, rain, and sun
• The weather with its abrupt changes functions as
  a metaphor for the tumultuous, unstable life of a
  stuggling writer.

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Experimenting with Conflict and Character

• We all have stories that we retell repeatedly
• Who we are depends on the fact that we remember
  these stories and tell them over and over
• Telling the story is an act of recovery, an
  assertion of your identity

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Experimenting with Conflict and Character

• Dixons story is about a man with a story
• The man wants to sell the story to someone he
  needs money
• He has multiple encounters in which he tells the
  story he would like to sell

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Experimenting with Conflict and Character

• There is a frame will he make the sale and get
  the money he wants
• There is a tale The story he would like to sell
• In each instance, he takes the listener to the
  scene of his tale (as poor as it is)

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Experimenting with Conflict and Character

• In this story, the reader cannot tell who the
  characters are or what exactly is happening, but
  it is clear the narrator is telling someone this
  story and that this story is expanding as he
  adapts the story to each new character he
  encounters

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Writers Practice 12.1

• Part A
• List four or five possible characters to sue as
  the teller of a tale. This person will repeat
  the story several times
• List possible subjects or incidents that these
  characters wants to, needs to, or is forced to
  tell others.
• Indicate the reason why each listed story is
  important.

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Writers Practice 12.1

• Part B
• Choose one of your ideas from Part A
• Answer the three questions
• How is the speaker involved with the situation
• What other characters are involved. Describe
  them
• What happens as the incident occurs. Describe
  the essential action.

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Write in Your Journal

• Write a one two page narrative showing two or
  more characters involved in a conflict.
• Only worry about the conflict scene, not any
  other part of the story