From an original article How to Write a Frame Story that Works, posted at Graeme Shimmin, spy thriller and alternate history writer

So, if you’re wondering how to write a frame story, here’s the lowdown.

What a Frame Story Is

A frame story is where most of the action takes place as a story within a story.

The ‘world’ of the frame story is different to the main story.

Three Types of Frame StoryGlue

If the author writes a novel that comprises multiple short stories, then a frame story can bring them together into a coherent whole. I call this a ‘glue’ frame story.

This type of frame story is as old as storytelling. The ancient Egyptians used ‘glue’ frame stories, as does the Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata.

John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy has a glue structure. The main character is missing and the search for him is a frame story for a narrative where the characters tells anecdotes about the main character’s life.

Similarly, Dan Symonds’ Hyperion has a frame story about an expedition. As they travel, the expedition’s six members tell stories about their backgrounds. These six stories make up the bulk of the novel.

Skipping the Boring Bits

This type of frame story is similar to the glue type, but the author uses the frame story as an opportunity to skip ahead by using narrative summary. Something like:

‘So what happened after that?’

‘I didn’t see him again for two years and then we bumped into each other on the street…’

And back to the main story.

Bookends

Sometimes an otherwise complete narrative opens and closes with a frame story. I call this a ‘bookend’ frame story.

The Eagle Has Landed, for example, opens with the author discovering the graves of German paratroopers in a Norfolk churchyard and trying to find how they came to be there. The bulk of the story is then the tale of those paratroopers, and the final part of the novel goes back to the frame story so the author can wrap the story up and deliver a final twist.

Similarly, 633 Squadron opens and closes in a pub in 1955, whilst the bulk of the novel occurs in 1943.

Out of the Frame

Also fairly common is a frame story which bursts out of its frame. It has the opening frame at the start, but the closing frame is at the end of the second act and then the story continues.

For example, in Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, the Chinese have captured Pitt’s character. A frame story of Redford’s character being interrogated links multiple flashbacks to explains Redford and Pitt’s relationship and why Pitt was in China. After the interrogation ends, Redford attempts to rescue Pitt.

What a Frame Story Isn’t

A frame story isn’t any time a novel has two timelines or multiple characters or several threads of the story going on at once.

For example, Ian M Banks novel Inversions has two separate, but linked story-lines and alternates between them. Part of the fun of the novel is for the reader to put together the clues and determine how the stories are linked, but there’s no frame story.

What’s the Point of a Frame Story?

A frame story can:

Lead the reader into the main storyProvide a second point of viewExplain parts of the storySet up the world of the storyAdd context, meaning, or alternative perspectivesCreate initial suspenseProvide a final twistMake the story seem more believableCall the validity of the story into question

Authors often use frame stories for stories set in the past to link the past to the present, and so make the story seem more relevant.

Frame story as False Document

A bookend frame story can also have the same purpose as a false document, adding a preface and afterword, from the ‘editor’ or ‘recipient’ of the story where they explain how the story came into their possession and the likely fate of the author.

They both have the same purpose: helping people suspend their disbelief in the story.

The story Lost Horizon uses a frame story to cast some doubt on the accuracy of the story.

Why Frame Stories are Hard to Get Right

The main thing is that there has to be a point to your frame story.

A ‘glue’ frame story can come across as a transparent attempt to string a bunch of unrelated short stories together.A ‘bookend’ frame story can just seem pointless.A ‘Bursting out of the Frame’ story can end up just going over the back-story before the action starts.

For example, Jack Higgins uses the opening frame story in The Eagle Has Landed to set up a mystery that makes the reader want to read on and the closing frame story to deliver a clever twist. This is a great use of a frame story. However, when Frederick Smith tries to do the same thing in 633 Squadron, there’s limited mystery and the final twist is unremarkable. This is a poor use of a frame story.

So, think about precisely why you have a frame story and what it’s adding to your novel. If the answer is “not much”, then ditch it.

How to Write a Frame Story that Works

So, this is the trick with a ‘bookend’ frame story: use the first chapter to set up a mystery and only fully resolve it in the final chapter. Also, make sure the final reveal isn’t an anti-climax.

The trick with a ‘glue’ frame story is to use it to gloss over the boring bits with a bit of narrative summary.

Make sure the frame story is interesting in its own right. Scheherazade is fighting for her life in the frame story of The Arabian Nights, for example.

Things to DoMake a note of some of your favourite novels or movies that have frame stories.Identify which type of frame story they used.Identify which of those frame stories worked and which didn’t and think about why.Consider if any of your own work would benefit from a frame story:Could you link some of your short stories together with a ‘glue’ frame story?Might a ‘bookend’ frame story be useful for your novel or screenplay?Might a ‘false document’ frame story help your readers suspend their disbelief?Experiment with a frame story for one of your own stories.Help!

If you need help with your frame story or any other aspect of your writing, please email me. Otherwise, please feel free to share this article using the buttons below.

Original article How to Write a Frame Story that Works, posted at Graeme Shimmin, spy thriller and alternate history writer