Story within a story

Brainstorming here…Does anyone know of any examples of a story within a story? Or have any opinions on whether it could work? I’m not talking a subplot, I’m talking about a complete storyform separate from the main storyform, occurring between Acts 2 & 3 (or somewhere thereabout). Or it could be a complete storyform told from the perspective of the Impact Character that weaves through the main storyform. This is for a novel, so plenty of time/space to explore fully (not limited to the length of a film).

Yes. I’ve seen it done. Finding Nemo is a good example. It’s got both a main story about finding Nemo (MC-Marlin IC-Dory) and sub-story about escaping the aquarium (MC-Nemo IC-Gill). If you are writing a book, there is so much latitude to do basically whatever you want. Game of thrones got multiple storyforms running simultaneously. Just let the audience know who the MC and IC are in each story.

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Depending on how much you want the inner story to reflect the outer story, you might want to consider matching the Overall Story Concern or Signposts to the 3rd and 4th OS Signposts of the outer story.

First Example

For example, outer storyform Overall Story plot progression is:

Understanding - Learning - Doing - Obtaining

Inner story Overall Story plot progression is

Doing - Learning - Understanding - Obtaining

Second Example

If you’re more into Journeys then your OS plot progression for the outer story is

Understanding to Learning
Learning to Doing
Doing to Obtaining

Then the OS Concern and Goal for the inner storyform is Doing.

You don’t have to do it this way, though I have found it easier and natural to connect the inner with the outer when you do it this way. The Overall Story Concerns of the first two seasons of the Tangled animated series correspond with the first two Signposts of the storyform for the entire series.

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I’m reading a book now, and the first 15 pages are dedicated to kicking off the novel – a murder that must be solved!

I’m 100+ pages past this, and it has been nothing but backstory. Setting up our protagonist, mainly, which includes him going after a different antagonist than the one set up in the first 15. Then it transitioned to setting up how he teams up with a buddy over a third antagonist, whose entire backstory is also laid bare. Then there’s another backstory tucked in there: that of the buddy.

Yes: four completely developed backstories.

It is entirely possible that one of them could have been expanded into a full GAS relatively easily. It would not have thematically related to the novel, I don’t think, but it would have tucked neatly into something like “The motivations and purpose of the Antagonist (of the backstory of the OS Protagonist)”

[Man, this novel is tiresome. I hope these backstories pay off…]

So, did the backstories payoff?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_within_a_story covers examples of things I have not read. The Moby Dick one sounds interesting, and It might be what you are looking for, where Ishmael shows off his speaking abilities.

Not yet. I’m still in them!

One is threatening to become the main story, but I don’t totally see how that is going to work.

I, so, admire your restraint. I would have read the last two pages, by now. But it is good to get the intended experience. This reminds me of my reading the first pages of Ben Hur out loud to slog through them. That sure paid off, with one of the most exciting reads of my life.

Haven’t done any Dramatica analysis of these to know for sure if the stories are complete (been a long time since I read them), but the two novels that popped into my head are The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and Misery by Stephen King. Both have people telling or reading pretty long and involved stories to other characters. Oh, and John Gardner’s October Light

But these are meta-fiction examples - that might not be what you mean.