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{{trope}}
This is where someone [[In
Note that this is for narration, not a [[Prophecies Are Always Right|prophecy]]. Compare [[Thinking Out Loud]]. Contrast [[Present Tense Narrative]].
{{examples
== Anime
* This is the [[Verbal Tic]] of the Sisters clones in ''[[A Certain Magical Index]].'' They will say a sentence then go on to describe what they're doing or feeling at the time as if reading it from a book.
* ''[[Bokurano]]'' starts with narration that seems to look back from sometime after the events in the story. {{spoiler|then the narrator dies and the narration stops.}}
* ''[[
== Comic Books
* [[Depending
== Film
* ''[[The Invention of Lying]]'': Mark has created a document he pretends to have "discovered" which tells a magnificent story of aliens, ninjas, and robot dinosaurs, which was allegedly written in the 14th century. The document ends with:
{{quote|
* In the movie ''Eat and Run'' the main character, Detective McSorely, would often [[Private Eye Monologue|narrate the events of his own life]]. Most of his monologues end with someone asking him who he's talking to.
* ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'' is on the border. The "narrator" in that case is actually the author and is thus making things happen, not just narrating on them. It could be argued that she's just writing what she "sees" as many authors claim to do, but it is largely implied that she is the creator of the events in the story, and not just the reporter.
* ''[[The Incredible Shrinking Man]]'': Scott narrates the entire movie, but it's strongly implied at the end that he'll shrink down to a subatomic size - so when does he have time to write down what he's saying?
== Literature
* ''Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars'' by [[Daniel Pinkwater]]: Leonard & Alan buy a manuscript on Hyperstellar Archeology and read it, in which it mentions them by name buying the manuscript and reading it.
* In ''[[Discworld]]'' the books in Death's library write someone's life as a
* ''[[The Night Circus]]'': (major spoiler) {{spoiler|At the end of the book we find out that Widgett, a character whose magic manifests as being able to read people's pasts, is actually retelling the story to Mr. A. H-- because he's collected the pasts of all the characters involved in the story.}} Doubles with a healthy serving of [[Mind Screw]].
== Live
* Omnipresent in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[The Verse|franchise]], where [[Captain's Log|Captains Logs]] are recited even when there is no recording device anywhere near and the Logs tend to narrate what's going on at that precise moment. No matter how urgent the matter, there's [[Talking Is a Free Action|always time to make a log about it]] - and no matter how dire the situation, it will be logged in a deadpan tone. In the ''TOS'' episode "The Naked Time" Kirk says that something is
{{quote|
* Ultimately subverted in ''[[Supernatural]]'' where it turns out Chuck really is a Prophet and not just a bad author, as he thinks of himself.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': the first episode of "[[Doctor Who
* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' sometimes has Sam giving a past-tense narration in voiceover, although it's unclear when he would have found time to go back and write any of these events down. There's one particularly odd moment in the episode "Play It Again, Seymour:" Sam [[Got Me Doing It|catches himself using hard-boiled detective slang]] in the narration, and Sam-on-screen reacts to this, leading to the [[Fridge Logic]] conclusion that Sam just walks around mentally narrating his own life in the past tense.
* In Episode 33 of ''[[
{{quote|
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' has Calvin appear to do this in many an [[Imagine Spot]].
==
* In ''Sword And Sarcasm'', it's common knowledge that mysterious invisible beings called the Choral Djinn secretly chronicle all the events of our lives. Part of Herbert's curse is that he and anyone standing near him can hear them. That is, they can hear the comic's caption boxes.
== Web Original ==
* This is an unconscious habit of the man known as [[Haruhi Suzumiya|"Kyon"]] from ''[[Fenspace]]'', who keeps up an unconscious running commentary of his life under his breath.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Family Guy]]'', in a [[Manatee Gag]] where Peter spent two weeks narrating his life. We see him walk into the kitchen and say aloud:
{{quote|
* An episode of ''[[
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