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{{trope}}
{{quote|The Serbian writer Milorad Pavic may win the prize: he has attempted novels disguised as a crossword puzzle, a tarot book and even a clepsydra, an ancient water clock (at least conceptually; the pages are dry).
|''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/books/05cata.html The New York Times]'' review of ''[[Important Artifacts And Personal Property From The Collection Of Lenore Doolan And Harold Morris]]'' (not by Pavic).}}
A story whose text is largely, if not solely, composed of multiple contemporary [[Fictional Document|in-story documents]] to form the narrative. All the [[Narrator]] has done is put the supposedly pre-existing documents in order. This style of writing used to be commonplace, because of its inbuilt explanation of how the narrator knows so much, but had been largely superseded by the Victorian period. However, it is still sometimes used.
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Compare [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]], [[Mockumentary]]. See [[Diary]]
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The third volume of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', titled "The Black Dossier," is two interwoven stories: the contents of the Black Dossier itself, a
* The narration of the comic ''[[Superman: Secret Identity]]'' is written as a never-published autobiography of the main character.
* An ''[[Aeon Flux]]'' graphic novel called ''The Heroditus File'' was released in this format, as a variety of historical texts, letters to and from Trevor Goodchild, interview transcripts, photographs and other fictional sources that document the first encounter between Trevor and Aeon. Or, at least, [[Multiple Choice Past|one of the first]].
* The ''[[Abadazad]]'' series has been released in small graphic novels, each an enchanted <s>diary</s>log in which she details her adventures to this point. The "enchanted" part comes to play when the book records things she wasn't around for, as well as turning from text to pictures and back, and bringing in full pages of the "original" ''Abadazad'' books whenever someone reads or refers to them.
== [[Fan
* The ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' [[Fan Fiction]] ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3982345/1/ Comic Book Heroes]'', which takes the idea that Joshua is {{spoiler|mentally damaged and stuck with the mind of a child}} at the end of the anime and turns it on its head by having him become a comic book writer as an adult. The story is told through excerpts of interviews with his children, reviews of movies based on his work, letters and journal entries written by Joshua and his friends, and an essay discussing the portrayal of female characters in his
* The [[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]] fanfiction [[The Shoebox Project]], which incorporates letters and notes written between the main characters to wonderful effect.
** Likewise, the hilarious ''The Naked Quidditch Match'', comprised of "m-mails" exchanged among characters, with a news story wrapping it up.
== [[Literature]] ==
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** Although odds are it starts some time before [[Beowulf]] goes to a colony of dwarves for advice.
** Given that, sadly, not all of Fadlan's writings about his travels in the northern lands survived to modern times, the historical parts end after he gets abducted by Norsemen during his visit to the tribe of the Rus.
* From [[A Series of Unfortunate Events]], ''[[
** ''The Beatrice Letters'' present letters from Lemony to his lover Beatrice (before the series began) and {{spoiler|those sent to Lemony by a [[Dead Guy, Junior|young child named after]] the deceased Beatrice, some years after the main series ended}}.
* [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[Hocus Pocus]]'' is [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|presented as]] the collection of hundreds of varying scraps of paper written on by the protagonist, Vance Hartke, while he was in prison.
* ''[[Dangerous Liaisons]]'' consists of letters written by 10 or so people to each other.
* ''[[
* The ''[[Warhammer
** Games Workshop did this previously for ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' with ''Liber Chaotica'' and ''The Loathsome Ratmen And All Their Foul Kin'' The latter was previously introduced in the ''[[Gotrek and Felix]]'' series, and the handwritten notes added into the Real Life version suggest that it's based on the very copy that appears in the novel.
* The ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''') series is presented as a compilation of Cain's actual memoirs published by Inquisitor Vail, with excerpts from other books (like [[Purple Prose|Sulla's autobiography]]) added in to clarify points Cain left out (such as things that weren't specifically happening to him).
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* Also used in ''[[Warday]]'' by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka.
* ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
* ''[[Up The Down Staircase]]'' by Bel
* ''[[Letters From Camp]]'' and ''[[Regarding The Fountain]]'', two children's novels by Kate Klise, consist entirely of (fictional) newspaper clippings and letters.
** She also co-authored ''[[Trial By Journal]]'' in the same vein with her sister, Sarah.
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* ''Ella Minnow Pea'' by Mark Dunn is constructed entirely of letters written by and to inhabitants of a fictional island just of the coast of the USA. The island's most famous son is the author of the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog", and the novel concerns the fate of the islanders as various letters are stricken from the alphabet.
* ''Dear Mr. Henshaw'' features [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|letters to the author]] followed by [[Diary]] entries of the protagonist.
* ''[[Go Ask Alice]]''. [[Alice in Wonderland|Not that one]].
* The Wilkie Collins novel ''[[The Moonstone]]'' (widely held to be one of the first detective novels) is a compilation of letters, journals, and testimonies of many different people. [[Justified Trope|Justified in that]] the novel focuses on the investigation of a theft, and in the interests of setting the record straight, one of the main characters decides to gather up all the accounts of the event.
** Collins' earlier novel ''[[The Woman in White]]'' also consists of a collection of narratives.
* ''[[Important Artifacts And Personal Property From The Collection Of Lenore Doolan And Harold Morris]]'' by Leanne Shapton is a novel in the form of an auction catalog.
* ''[[
* "The Riddle of Castle Cain" in ''The Making of [[Jonathan Creek]]''. It opens with a single page in comic book format, in which Jonathan and Maddy are asked to investigate a decades-old murder. The rest of the story, scattered throughout the book, is told in the form of the various documents Jonathan has peiced together; lab reports, press cuttings and so on. Finally there's a two panel comic in which Jonathan announces he's solved the case (but not what the solution is, because the story was written as a readers' competition).
* ''[[Feeling Sorry for Celia]]'' is told through various letter and notes from and to the protagonist.
* ''[[We Need to Talk About Kevin]]'' is composed entirely of letters from Kevin's mother to his father.
* ''Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told through Stuff'' tells the story of a young girl in 7th grade through diary entries, notes, cards, school assignments, receipts, shopping & to-do lists, etc.
* ''[[Hemingway's Six
* ''[[The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls]]'', in the same way as ''Shoebox Project
* ''I Can't Tell You'' begins just after the protagonist decides that he should stop talking to people, because [[Noodle Incident|blurting out words led to a very painful situation]]. We see both his diary entries, and the notes he writes to other people (and in an effort to make him feel comfortable, many of those people write notes back to him.) Interesting in that a): some of these notes are canonically destroyed, and b): we also see patterns of splotches and burn marks, some of them made on clothing rather than paper, with descriptions of how those marks were made.
* Tolkien may have intended ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' to end up this way, since most of the texts that went into go beyond [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] by having their own in-universe authors, and sometimes being written at specific times and places. However, since he didn't come close to finishing, it had to be patched together posthumously in a way that destroyed the effect.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' clanbooks are presented as compilations of documents relating to each of the clans.
* The three [[GURPS]] adaptations of [[Old World of Darkness]] games each begin with a collection of documents related to the subject of the particular book, as part of the story of someone named Taylor who was moving from magical subculture to magical subculture to at first protect himself, and then gain power to defend himself against his pursuers. Presumably it would have reached some kind of conclusion had the series of adaptations been completed.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Just about every entry on the [[
* A number of [[Vlog Series]], including:
** ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' and its sequel, ''[[LG15: the resistance]]''.
** ''[[Kate Modern]]''.
** ''[[
** ''[[With the Angels]]''.
* The [http://laridian.livejournal.com/913230.html Tellerman Legacy] is comprised of journal entries, letters, and one documentary, collectively chronicling ten generations in the life of one family.
* Most of ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' is footage found on a bunch of tapes the main character got from his friend before said friend disappeared. Eventually he starts shooting his own footage and uploading that.
* A great deal of [[Alternate History]] timelines consist of a combination of quotations and extracts from history books published within the fictional setting coupled with some our-world commentary to help explain it, and perhaps occasionally segments written in story form. Probably the [[Ur Example]] of this is ''[[Decades of Darkness]]''.
* The now defunct ''[[Torchwood]]'' series 1 website had various cases from the Torchwood Archives (related to each episode) told in the form of diaries, letters, press cuttings, and official reports. The still-accessible-if-you-dig-for-it [https://web.archive.org/web/20120211014510/http://www.bbc.co.uk/torchwood/sites/arg/pages/episodes.shtml series 2 website] does much the same, although more along the lines of adding background detail to the televised stories, rather telling than original but thematically similar ones.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110527045155/http://www.drunkduck.com/Hero_By_Night/index.php?p=101795 Hero By Night]'' consists of diary excerpts and newspaper clippings.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]
[[Category:
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