SWRT 281 | Bookends

September 28, 2023

person typing on MacBook Pro on brown wooden table during daytime photo

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida and Kathryn discuss bookending a story, drawing on our recent discussion of Ethan Frome. Edith Wharton masterfully uses prologues and epilogues to frame the story and provide meaning. We analyze how the framing devices are essential to understanding the themes and events. Then explore examples of other books that also use framing devices well to provide narrative distance and allow readers to understand the story’s significance.

VIDEO

AUDIO

SHOW NOTES

What we talked about:

Why did Wharton use this narrative device in Ethan Frome? (0:54)

These types of devices must be essential. (2:38)

The “let me tell you a story” device. (3:36)

The shift. (5:52)

Using your framing device for theme. (9:09)

How do you know whether your story needs a framing device? (12:15)

Shift in narrator between the frame and the main story. (16:55)

LINKS

Get Alida’s Writing Tips here.

Things we mentioned:

The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah
A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

Have thoughts, questions, other examples? Join the conversation at the Story Works Writers Facebook group.

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About Your Hosts

Alida Winternheimer is an award-winning author with an MFA in writing from Hamline University. She pursues her fervor for all things story as a writing coach, developmental editor, and teacher. Three times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, she is also a notable in Best American Essays and winner of the Page Turner Award. Author of The Story Works Guide to Writing Fiction Series, Alida lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She camps, bikes, and kayaks in her free time. Unless it’s winter, in which case she drinks chai by the fire. You can find more at www.alidawinternheimer.com.

Kathryn Arnold writes fantasy and anything else that sparks her creativity from her home in Kingston, Washington. She currently earns her living as an insurance underwriting assistant, where she also creates marketing and web copy. When not writing, she plays (and teaches) piano and keyboard in a band (or two), and is working on starting a ministry team with her husband. You can find Kathryn at www.skyfirewords.com.

Robert Scanlon was born in Australia, but whisked off to England when only a baby. After many years complaining about the weather, he did the sensible thing and moved back to Australia. Despite a career in the music industry, followed by decades teaching public speaking, Robert is an introvert who adores reading. Robert grew up on a diet of sci-fi masters, eventually discovering he had read the library’s entire science fiction section. Now he has to write his own. Robert is the author of Constellation, book one of the Blood Empire space opera series. Find out more at www.RobertScanlon.com