THE NOTEBOOK’S NARRATIVE FRAMING STORY & MY UPCOMING SHORT STORY  SIMILARITIES?  

Everybody has seen or read Nicholas Spark’s the Notebook right?

Well if you haven’t, you should. I’m sorry I’m telling you what to do but as a writer it is a great book and of course movie to learn from on how to write the narrative framing story  .  

THE NARRATIVE FRAMING TECHNIQUE

Why do I say this? Because Nicholas Sparks created his story using  the narrative framing technique. The thing about this story that Nicholas Sparks tells is it’s not just a regular flashback story or framing story.  It’s a story within a story each with their own conflict and structure . At the beginning you see an older man read a book to an older woman about a young couple , Noah and Allie falling in love, falling apart and then finding their way back together. And it turns  out that the  story that the older man is telling is of their own relationship.

This story is thus a mastermind and great example for the narrative framing technique as the main story is in the past. And then we later learn why the older Noah is reading the story.  It is because the older Allie suffers with Alzheimer’s disease .

Even though my  upcoming short story , IN THE HOUR OF HUMANITY  is a completely different genre all together I couldn’t help but recognize the similarities to the Notebook .

SIMILARITIES

• They both use the framing technique in the same way. Where each story , the one in the past and the one in the present have their own conflict and structure . 
• They  both have older main characters that tell their story  about  when they were  younger.
• Both stories . The Notebook and my short story have storylines that have characters dealing with  Alzheimer’s disease.

DIFFERENCES

• The Notebook is a romance fiction novel  where my story,  In the  Hour of  Humanity  is a fantasy short story .
• The Notebook  takes place in the present real world  where as  my  short story  takes  place  in the  ancient past  of another world .
• The Notebooks framing is through Noah reading a notebook while my short story’s framing is through my main character Zios’s  eyes  as he  recollects  scattered memories

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BUT FIRST LET’S START A DIALOGUE

WHAT  DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE  USE OF THE NOTEBOOK’S FRAMING  DEVICE  IN  THE MOVIE  OR FROM  READING THE BOOK?

 I  want to know so let me know in the comments  below.

Check out  the teaser  of the  upcoming  short  story , IN THE HOUR OF HUMANITY  COMING  SOON