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ElizabethEarle@sh.itjust.works

Know of any books which tells a story across distinct snippets of someone's life, rather than a continuity? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 22 hours ago by FavouriteShapes@sh.itjust.works to c/writing@sh.itjust.works

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a work of fiction that i really enjoy/ed is The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, which is a choose-your-own-adventure story supported with character stats to game-ify it. in it, every chapter is a defining memory randomly from the MC's life, with a choice at the end for the reader

Clearly this is quite particular to the game mechanics they wanted to create; since i haven't read many traditional novels which do that sort of thing, i presume it actually makes it harder to tell a story.

Diaries do this i guess? The Diary of Anne Frank and Jeff Kinney's *Diary of a wimpy kid *(weird to put them together in a sentence) are 2 things i've read which match this style.

But I am quite interested if any traditional-style novel does it. Or would it just de facto become a fictional diary if you told a story in that way, since you'd feel compelled to date each event or provide a chronology?

I'd love examples if anyone has them.

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[–] imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago

Spitballing, Faulkner's Sound and Fury is somewhat like that, also As I Lay dying, though more defining events told from different perspectives.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a lot like that, jumping through a man's life to examine the most defining moments.