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== [[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 [[Scrapbook Story]] about the history of the league from its founding under Prospero to the events of volume 1 and 2 and its subsequent dissolution; and a frame story about Mina and Alan stealing the dossier and reading it. The book changes from one to the other when Mina opens or closes the book in-story. To further muddy the waters, the book's cover, under the dust jacket, is exactly like the one on the in-story book, and the various scraps have marginal notes scribbled in blue pen by the dossier's compiler addressed to the current head of British Intelligence services. The actual scraps are pastiches of comic strips, erotica, text pieces, a "lost" [[Shakespeare]] folio, a mashup of Bertie Wooster and [[
* 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 ''[[
== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* 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 work--all fictional, of course.
* The [[Harry Potter (
** Likewise, the hilarious ''The Naked Quidditch Match'', comprised of "m-mails" exchanged among characters, with a news story wrapping it up.
* [[Troper Works/The Private Diary Of Elizabeth Quatermain|The Private Diary Of Elizabeth Quatermain]] is...well, [[Exactly What It Says
== [[Literature]] ==
* A large portion of ''[[Carrie]]'' is excerpts from books, magazine articles or investigative reports relating to various characters and events.
* ''[[Dracula (
** There's a metafictional twist, as late in the novel it becomes clear that Mina is actually assembling the documents to help the heroes defeat the eponymous monster.
** ''Bloodline'' by Kate Cary is also written in this way, as it is another writer's "unofficial sequel" to ''Dracula''.
* In its original form, ''[[Frankenstein (
* "[[Cthulhu Mythos|The Call of Cthulhu]]" is written in this style, which [[
* ''The Documents in the Case'' by [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] (Sayers' only detective ''novel'' not to feature [[Lord Peter Wimsey]], although it does feature a couple of minor characters in common with the Wimsey books).
* Mark Z. Danielewski's ''[[House of Leaves]]'' has, besides the main part of the book, ''The Navidson Record'', photographs of Zampano's things, sketches by Johnny Truant and letters from Truant's institutionalized mother, all expanding on the natures of both Zampano and Truant (the latter of which sent in the materials to the "editors" and told them what to do [[The Faceless|completely over the phone]]).
* ''[[World War Z]]'' by Max Brooks is presented as transcripts of a series of interviews.
* [[Michael Crichton]]'s novel ''[[
** Although odds are it starts some time before [[
** 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]], ''[[Lemony Snicket the Unauthorized Autobiography|Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography]]'' is made up of often random seeming photographs, newspaper clippings and diary entries, made all the more difficult to decipher by the frequent use of codes and [[Arc Words]].
** ''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.
* ''[[
* ''[[Rant|Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey]]'' by [[Chuck Palahniuk]] consists entirely of fake interviews (one of the last chapters includes material from a few ''actual people,'' and also a completely unexpected [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Fight Club]]''). For added verisimilitude, {{spoiler|it's implied at one point that the events of the book might alter the timeline so that the universe becomes the "real world" and the book becomes a work of fiction.}} It's also loosely implied that the book itself was written by that world's Chuck Palahniuk (nighttimer).
* The ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' book ''Xenology'' is essentially a collection of journal entries by a puritanical Inquisitor investigating a site where a radical Inquisitor was conducting studies on various aliens. Also included are journal entries from the resident Magos Biologis, as well as various documents, audio records, and observations complied by both Inquisitors.
** Games Workshop did this previously for ''[[Warhammer]]'' 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).
* [[
** Except the biblical examples were, presumably, not intended to be fictional. Instead it is the kind of work which this trope seeks to emulate in a fictional universe.
* The ''[[Densha Otoko]]'' book is basically a printout of the original 2ch forum posts, ASCII art and all.
* The [[Daniel Pinkwater]] story ''[[Slaves Of Spiegel]]'' is mostly made up of fictional diaries, reports, speeches and the like, but also includes a short chapter memorably titled "An Unnamed Third Person Who Knows Everything That Happens In This Story Speaks."
* Several of [[
** A similar story, written as an homage to Borges, is titled ''The Complete Novels of Jorge Luis Borges''. Borges never wrote a full-length novel.
* ''[[
* The ''[[Soldier of the Mist|Soldier]]'' novels by [[Gene Wolfe]] consist almost entirely of the 'translated' journals of Latro, the soldier of the title, who has to read them daily to make up for the loss of his long-term memory. Likewise, ''The Wizard Knight'' is a pair of novels purporting to be very long letters from the protagonist to a friend. In fact almost all of Wolfe's first-person narratives use this device, combining it with the fact that the writers always [[Unreliable Narrator|distort, mistake or falsify]] their accounts.
* [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''A Perfect Vacuum'' (''Doskonala [[Pr Ã]]³znia'') is a series of reviews of non-existent literature. Basically, he was a real critic of books that no-one wrote (some of which would have been quite interesting, anyway). The follow-up ''Imaginary Magnitude'' (''Wielkosc urojona'') consists of introductions to non-existent books.
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* This was used by General Sir John Hackett in ''[[The Third World War]]'' and sequels.
* Also used in ''[[Warday]]'' by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka.
* ''[[
* ''[[Up The Down Staircase]]'' by Bel Kaufman -- with the exceptions of the first and last chapters, the entire novel consists of school bulletins, students' notes and letters from the heroine to her colleague at home.
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Faction Paradox|Dead Romance]]'', by Lawrence Miles, is made up of three notebooks written by the [[First-Person Smartass|main character]], chronicling [[The End of the World
* Wallace Markfield's ''You Could Live if They Let You'' consists of a biographer's interviewers with a [[Borscht Belt]] comic and his circle, excerpts from the comic's performances (including one near the end of the book {{spoiler|during which he [[Fatal Method Acting|literally dies on stage]]}}), transcripts of the comic's autistic son, and other documents. Markfield's final book, ''Radical Surgery'', has this structure also.
* Margaret Atwood's ''The Blind Assassin'' contains excerpts from the eponymous novel and various newspapers. It also turns out that in the end, Iris is actually writing all this down and intends for it to be given to her granddaughter after she dies.
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* ''[[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' short stories sometimes take this form. For example, "Policy to Invade" by Ian Mond, in the collection ''Short Trips: Transmissions'' takes the form of a government report on a planetary invasion company, including interview transcripts and copies of internal documentation. Putting it all together leads the reader to a conclusion about what ''really'' happened that the report itself refuses to even consider.
* The prologue to [[Exorcists]] is like this.
* [[
* ''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
* ''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 ''[[
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Ratmans Notebooks]]'' consists entirely of the main character's diary entries.
* "The Riddle of Castle Cain" in ''The Making of [[
* ''[[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.
* [[
* [[The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls]], in the same way as Shoebox Project.(changing between illustrations, normal chapters and letters)
* ''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.
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* Much of the backstory in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series is told in this way.
* Most of the story of ''System Shock 2'' and its "spiritual successor" ''Bioshock'' is conveyed through audio logs found by the player as they explore a (mostly) deserted location. A handful of characters are actually still alive in both games, but the entire backstory of the fall of Rapture and other subplots in Bioshock can only be found by listening to the audio logs. You don't necessarily need to listen to every audio log (only some contain in-game hints like lock combinations), but skipping them would really be depriving yourself because the novel-quality story is half the fun.
* Most of the background exposition in ''[[Sid
* An early example of this narrative structure in a computer game is ''Portal'' (no, not [[Portal (
* In the [[Metroid Prime]] series, most of the actualy story reveals itself as you scan computers and ancient writing, leaving players hesitant to exit Combat Mode clueless as to what is going on.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* At the beginning of each chapter of ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' you are given a handwritten disturbing fairy tale that is missing a page, that will be added at the end of the chapter, completing each story.
* ''[[Amnesia:
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Just about every entry on the [[Web Original/SCP Foundation|SCP Foundation]] site.
* A number of [[Vlog Series]], including:
** ''[[
** ''[[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 ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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