Novel within a novel

John Irving has done it (not exactly the same way). So you're in good company.

That's actually a pretty complex and enlightening idea. I like the sound of that.


"We've got to go deeper."

"Deeper? What do you mean."

"A dream, within a dream, within a dream."


You catch my drift. Of course I'm paraphrasing, here (quite possibly making up lines of dialog), but Inception was an awesome story.

I would keep reading if I came across something like this. But the writing has to be good. (That's the most important part)

It depends on the tone of the piece overall. Is the story meant to be comical? Is it full of fourth wall-breaking irony and self awareness? I think we'd need more contextual information.

I quite like the idea.
I think it would be hard to write well, but if you can then definitely do =)

I've always liked the story-within-a-story idea, but it all depends on the execution. One of my all-time favorite books, The Solitaire Mystery, has a story within the story which unfolds and intertwines as the main plot progresses. It worked extremely well.

The Blind Assassin is a novel within a novel within a novel. Or something like that. I don't remember the details, but I remember liking it more than some of the other stuff I've read by Atwood.

This is sorta what I'm doing with my WIP. Stories within stories that relate and interact with each other. The two main stories eventually join into one. It's very challenging but enormous fun to write.

LJD said:

The Blind Assassin is a novel within a novel within a novel. Or something like that. I don't remember the details, but I remember liking it more than some of the other stuff I've read by Atwood.

Click to expand...

I really wanted to read the "novel within a novel" in that book. Sometimes I liked it more than the actual book.

J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst collaborated on something similar to what you're describing. It's been done a few times before, but like everything else in writing it depends mostly on the execution.

Nicole Krauss did it in The History of Love, which was a finalist for the Orange Prize. (And which is brilliant.)

Misery, by Stephen King.

In The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner includes quotes from the imaginary book, The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death. It works brilliantly, because it ties into the plot several different ways.

Love it.

All the King's Men by Robert Warren Penn. His novel within the novel is key to the plot. And, it's considered to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Sometimes it works. Maybe the most famous example is The King in Yellow (though that's a play within a story). There are plays within plays, like The Taming of the Shrew (though nobody performs the bookending "outer" segments anymore).

In The Thousand Nights and a Night there are, of course, stories within stories within stories within stories.

John Gardner had a couple of books within books. In October Light, definitely, and also, if I recall, in Freddy's Book.

If I'm not mistaken, The Lord of the Rings did something similar to this (it's been so long since I've read any of the books that it might have been made up for the movies for all I know, but it's a fair point nonetheless). I think it's awesome. Do it!

PandaMan said:

This is sorta what I'm doing with my WIP. Stories within stories that relate and interact with each other. The two main stories eventually join into one. It's very challenging but enormous fun to write.

Click to expand...

I'm doing something similar. In revision now.

It hasn't been easy, but I rather like the end product.

It reminds me of The Princess Bride in a way. Goldman didn't it differently, but it was also a novel within a novel.

Ah, good question

I could have posted this question, too. In my WIP one character is missing in action, so to speak, lost in a foreign country. The story is told by the woman left behind who had been writing a journalistic series about the missing man. To present the story she has the missing man's journal and some of his short stories and poems. She sorts it all out for the reader and adds her own narrative along with interviews she completed with the missing man from earlier. He's her subject; she's also in love with him. She hopes the story will help locate him.

It seems so complicated. How does a writer keep it straight for the reader so they can follow the thread?

I'm currently working on a novel-within-a-novel story as well, though mine is more of a grown-up Neverending Story type thing, with just about equal amounts of time spent in the "real world" and "story world". I'm really enjoying writing it so far.

Actually, my main concern is how to properly format such a manuscript--I feel like using alternating fonts would be annoying, and potentially mess up my word count if I use the traditional 250/page counting method.

I would definitely read that because it sounds so original.

The Great Gatsby
Seven Psychopaths

They're the only ones occurring to me right now, but both of them did it really well.

The Haunted Book is a book within a book within A Book (those capitals are important).

As long as you work hard on avoiding pretentiousness and write it VERY well, it could be a good thing to try.