literature

The Story - Frame and Meaning

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Frame


Edger Allan Poe wrote many poems and stories that he thought would make him famous. In his time, they didn't. His life can seem like a tragic story; if you could read his autobiography, he might tell you that his work is under-appreciated. From a broader perspective however, his works went on to influence many people; future biographers would say his works did get the fame he wanted. Of course, the tragic story of his life and the broader story of wide renown are just that, stories. You can also tell the story of the happiest day of his life. Was Poe tragic, famous, or happy? Is any of those the true story?

Consider the iconic painting of a fruit bowl. An actual bowl of fruit does not exist without someone placing it there. People had to make that bowl, grow that fruit, and bring them all together to finally be painted. The fruit bowl painting shares none of those outside details, because the fruit bowl painting is not about how the fruit bowl came to be. The fruit bowl painting is about the colors and textures of that fruit in that bowl. What if the fruit bowl was only one speck in a grand festival scene? What if the painting was at the atomic level, so the fruit looked nothing like fruit?

If you set up a camera to film a busy room for one entire day, what story would be created? What feelings and emotions? How would that story be different if the camera was in an empty and forlorn room? If the room was a family kitchen? If the room was a lovers's bedroom? And after the filming was done, what story could we create by altering the film? By taking out stills so that people seem to teleport around? By rearranging stills so that everyone walks backwards? By photo-shopping stills to that everyone looks pale and sickly?



Meaning exists because of the frame. High school teachers say that Poe's life was tragic. “Don't be a drunkard artist,” they say, “If you do so you may end up like Poe.” College professors say that Poe's life brought him great renown. “Be an artist,” they say, “If you do so you may end up like Poe.” We use frames on real people because we want to find meaning within real life. The truth is, we are the ones assigning the meaning. We are choosing the frame to further our social agendas. In real life there might be no such thing as the “true” frame.

But in a story, there is meaning because the author put it there by placing the frame. Art is, in many ways, all about the frame. What is shown? What isn't shown? How is it shown? Why? The frame gives an artist the power to make Poe happy. The frame gives an artist the power to let others feel the texture of fruit. The frame gives an artist the power to direct everything from a kitchen romance to an amateur porno.

The frame exists in many forms. The frame can be small and focused in scope, or large and epic. A story might be about three people, or three hundred. A story might cover the events of one freaky day, or one hundred war-torn years. A story might convey a single emotion or tone, or every feeling known. A story might be five words long, or fifty-thousand. Each decision creates the frame. The storyteller chooses their frame, from which things like meaning and theme emerge.

In writing the most obvious frame is a novel, because we are sold the novel and we look for meaning within. But a trilogy of connected novels is also a frame. Even an entire series of connected trilogies set within one sprawling universe might be a frame. Or we can go smaller. A chapter is a frame. A scene is a frame. Even a paragraph or sentence is a frame. To write is to choose letters and words, fit them within a frame (hopefully with some specific meaning in mind) and then (probably) stack multiple frames beside each other to form a larger and more complex multi-frame.



How does the frame create meaning? Honestly there are many ways; writers should learn these tricks by writing and reading. These three are definitely not exhaustive. The most obvious may be Endings, when the finale of the frame ties together all the loose threads into a tidy message. There is also Structure, when the style contributes to how strongly the reader feels the contents of a frame. And probably the most interesting is Repetition, when multiple occurrences of the same sort of thing within a frame become interesting for their differences.

When the story reaches its conclusion, the reader will forgive some cheesy bits. When the narrator tells the reader that the couple lives happily ever after, we believe them. And when the narrator explains why the hero was successful, that can become a message of meaning. In a good story the reader can now go back and see all the instances where that meaning was subtly reinforced before the finale. The theme was always present, but someone had to point it out for our sakes. And this is true for any frame, so perhaps that moment of meaning will come at the end of every chapter, or at the end of certain paragraphs. Of course, if we change the frame we would change the meaning. If a story started as the heroes won the day and ended when villains rose to power again, the theme might be very different.

Different sentences have different power. Short sentences are stronger. Long flowing sentences that stretch out for what seems like an infinity can often feel like they have lost something in the process. To give special meaning to one sentence within a paragraph, try making it shorter than the others and see if it stands out. And length is only one aspect of Structure. A subtle rhyme can make a sentence feel musical, and so it will stand out. Challenging the reader with hyperbole always causes them to stop and think. Dialogue creates many opportunities to give meaning, because different styles of speech have different degrees of trustworthiness. If an important sentence doesn't hit hard enough, try changing the style or the source.

Say something enough times and any reader will pick it up. Similar scenes or ideas coming up again and again become more potent. (Although remember the Rule of Three: the second time something happens it's funnier, the third time it's funniest, but after that it's less so.) Perhaps the frame shows us every time in the hero's life when they visited a certain evil castle. The hero may have a life outside the castle, but the story will revolve around their adventures within the castle and any lessons they learn there. Or think of Repetition as like trials in a scientific experiment. Everything might be the same except for one detail, and so that detail must be important or worth thinking about. Perhaps the story begins with the hero fighting and losing to their rival, and the story ends with the hero fighting and defeating their rival. The meaning becomes what changed in the hero between those two points in time.



Meaning


Different kinds of meaning exist within a story, and each is important to consider for its own reasons. Again the three here are not necessarily exhaustive. There is Audience Meaning, that which is discovered by the audience due to the frame. There is Realism Meaning, that which must be within the frame for the sake of realism. And there is Authorial Meaning, that which belongs only to the author of the frame. To highlight these three, we can consider what might be called the Problem of Emergent Themes.

What is Audience Meaning? If the purpose of storytelling is to pass along some message, then the meaning of everything within a story should be focused on what message the audience will receive. Some of the best stories focus on just one Audience Meaning and it becomes the theme of the story. Audience Meaning is ignored at the author's peril, and yet can be incredibly difficult to see in the process of writing. To see the Audience Meaning one must imagine how any one person might read the story, presumably for the first time and with their own personal thoughts and beliefs. Audience Meaning is the strongest reason for asking others to read your work before publishing; they will see things you cannot, because you are too close to the other forms of meaning.

What is Realism Meaning? There should be internal consistency within the story, and sometimes the meaning for something is only to satisfy that realism. Of course this can be ignored; consider the so-called Rule of Cool, where realism is temporarily ignored because of how cool something was. Readers will accept unclear or missing Realism Meaning if they are too engrossed to spot those plot holes. The author should know the Realism Meaning for everything within the story, or at least within a story that is realistic. The reader won't know every Realism Meaning at first, but they can and often should learn them before the end of the story. Realism Meaning is the strongest reason to read your own work again before publishing, to fact check the internal consistency.

What is Authorial Meaning? Outside of a story, the author will have their own reasons for what happens within the story. But these reasons should be subtle; when Authorial Meaning supersedes other meanings and becomes obvious, the audience stops caring. And why should they care? The story is no longer about higher truths or world consistency, the story has simply become a vehicle for the author's will. Authorial Meaning should be hidden behind the scenery of the story like a director is hidden behind the scenery of a play. The average reader must not see the Authorial Meaning; other writers occasionally will because of their writing experience, which is why writers have a hard time reading work that is too “obvious.” Authorial Meaning is another good reason for asking others to read your work before publishing; if they see the Authorial Meaning, hide it better.



In an action adventure, our weary hero has been chased out of town for causing trouble in pursuit of a villain. Where do they go? The story is about the strength found within family, so they should head for their hometown to rest and regain their strength. If going home again is always the best choice they can make throughout the story when things look worst, and doing otherwise leads to further trouble, that Audience Meaning will become clear as the theme. But a young adventurous person doesn't want to go back home where it is safe; they want to go where the danger is.

So for the sake of Realism Meaning (youthful impetuousness and to let things cool down back in the town) they walk into a deep dark forest to train. In the middle of the forest they find a happy family of lumberjacks whose warmth and kindness remind the adventurer of their hometown. Our hero regains some of their strength, returns to the town, sorts out the villain with a little lumberjack wisdom, and goes home again after their adventure.

But why was there a family of happy lumberjacks? Turns out the lumberjacks live near the town in trouble, only a day away in fact, and the villain was planning to do something bad in a week's time. The hero's hometown was two weeks away. The Authorial Meaning, hidden behind realism and higher truths, was that the hero couldn't save the town if they went home.



In a romantic comedy, our young hero can't seem to talk to the girl of his dream. He always falls flat on his face when approaching her. Maybe he's clumsy, maybe he lacks confidence, maybe his school is full of discarded banana peels. He can talk to other girls just fine, in fact there's this one girl who's been his friend for a long time. She gives him a mission: perform ten amazing feats, and then he will be ready to talk to the girl of his dreams. If he can't perform the feats, he doesn't deserve the girl and he must give up on her.

The Realism Meaning is obvious; each amazing feat helps him become more confident, and it wouldn't hurt if one of those tasks was to clean up all the discarded banana peels. While completing the tasks he meets and talks with many other people, and he learns to be more empathetic and open and kind. The Audience Meaning slowly emerges as well; love can only be found after becoming a better person yourself. In the end he is confident and open enough to approach the girl of his dreams.

But why a female friend to help him along the way? Because a romantic comedy needs a funny, happy ending. The girl of his dreams turns him down, she just doesn't think of him in that way, which is realistic since she never showed interest in him throughout the story. Then his friend reveals her own growth (she was doing the feats along with him after all) and confesses her feelings for him. The Authorial Meaning for that female friend was to have a true love interest in the story from the start.



In a spy drama, our cunning hero discovers a secret he can use to undermine the villain's plans. The author doesn't want to reveal that secret to the audience yet, to keep the hero's plan dramatic. Right away there is Authorial Meaning to contend with, which needs to be hidden. The author certainly wouldn't want to break the fourth wall and tell the audience, “You shouldn't know this yet, sorry.”

A crumpled note hits the hero, containing a coded message that only the hero can decipher with their spy training. Realizing this, the hero memorizes the code and destroys the message. The Realism Meaning becomes that the secret was very sensitive and so would be made difficult to understand if found by the wrong person. If only the audience was within the hero's mind, they would know the secret message; they are not, so they will have wait.

The hero creates a plan dependent on the secret they have learned, and assembles a team who will work together to defeat the villain. But the hero knows someone on the team might be a traitor working for their enemy. And so the hero tells them all that his plan will work because he knows a secret, but he cannot share the secret with them. The audience will learn the secret at the same time as the team, along with an Audience Meaning that working together requires trust but not complete knowledge.


The Problem of Emergent Themes is when, in the course of creating some meaning, another meaning emerges and creates a theme the author wasn't intending and doesn't want. Perhaps something happens in the story to fulfill a Realism Meaning, but it takes the audience in a thematic direction the author didn't expect. Or to create an Audience Meaning some aspect of realism must be ignored, setting up a theme that defeats the story's message. Or a Meaning of one type gets misinterpreted, changing the theme again. The Problem of Emergent Themes is a third strong reason to ask others to read your work before publishing. For the creative writer, there is almost always some fix for the problem.

The villain has made everyone think the hero committed a crime and (for Realism Meaning and drama) they are being chased by the police. Does the hero fight the police, or flee from them? Again these options are realistic choices for a person to consider when being hunted, but what if the author doesn't want to create a theme of treating the police as adversaries? Give the hero a friend in the police who knows he is innocent and helps keep him out of their sights, and in the end the hero clears his name.

The princess has been taken by a dragon for supper. The hero follows to save her without much preparation; the author is creating a Audience Meaning of facing your problems quickly. But dragons are ferocious, and our hero only has his trusty armor and steed. What realistically is the hero supposed to do after he arrives at the dragon's cave? The author doesn't want to negate their Audience Meaning with the counter point that sometimes jumping in quickly will lead to downfall. Along the way the hero discovers a dragon-killing spear.

A sci-fi hacker hero gains access to the villain's data. The author knows that the Realism Meaning for this is the hero's skill and preparation before performing the hack, but the audience might misinterpret the hero's easy success as the villain wanting the hero to have the information, as the setup to a trap. So now the audience is expecting a trap to be sprung, and they are going to be disappointed when that dramatic scene doesn't happen. If there was more evidence beforehand of the hero's great skill and preparation, the audience wouldn't jump to the wrong conclusion.

The villain succeeds at a task that the hero fails at, under much the same conditions. What Audience Meaning will be passed along? The author plans to show that the villain cheated, but only when they can also reveal how succeeding hurt the villain, all of which supports the intended Audience Meaning of cheaters never prospering. The audience however thinks the villain succeeded where the hero failed because the hero didn't have any luck charms. The author isn't happy when they learn their story is making people believe in luck. Maybe they should reveal the villain's cheating sooner.





Artists choose and use their frame to give meaning to their art. There are many kinds of frames. There are many ways in which the frame creates meaning. There are many kinds of meaning. There are many reasons why you should ask someone to read your work before publishing. If I've shown anything with this piece, perhaps it is only that writing is a complex form of art.
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