: Scale: How to handle a personal story set in an epic war? In both my last writing project and my current one, I have found an unexpected problem. Both tales are focused on a single character

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If removing the frame does not affect the story, then remove it.

If the story lacks, then harness the frame.

Case I. There is a disconnect between frame and story

The epic tale of wars is a frame to your story. In principle the frame set some basic constraints to your plot. In your case, during a war time there may be scarcity of food, there may be heightened social tension, and there may even be the ever lurking shadow of death hitting all the characters near and dear to the MC.

In other words, the frame serves a purpose, and the purpose is to give the reader a reference to sustain their immersion in your story. It gives them a world around your characters, and provides clues and cues as to the characters intentions, dreams, and choices.

If the frame has no impact on the characters whatsoever, then the reader will feel the presence of two distinct stories: your main story, and the background story. They will pick the more interesting of the two, and dedicate less attention to the other. I suspect this is what happened here.

A solution is to drop the frame. Another possibility is to rethink your plot to connect it to your frame.

Case II. There are two parallel stories

It is also possible that you have a very good connection between the frame and the story. However a frame is merely a background picture and as such it moves at a significantly lower speed and with a greater lack of details compared to the main story. If both stories move at the same speed and with equal amount of details, then again your have two parallel stories. If this is the issue, a simple solution is to blur the frame. Give some references, but skip intermediate steps, summarize events briefly, in a dismissive manner. Show the reader that things have happened but that you as author did not quite give them as much importance as your main plot.

Case III. There is no story

Finally, even with a well connected frame, which remains static in the background, you may still have a very stiff story. Imagine a minimal plot, full of long descriptions of irrelevant details, plodding through the narrative at a slug pace. Three pages in, and you may wonder what happened around that interesting set of epic wars that the author just mentioned in the passing.

In this case, the frame is there to help you. You have epic wars and the characters are involved in them. They may not change the course of wars, but they will have some intense experiences, deep inner conflicts, and even traumas. Enrich your plot with these elements at the intersection of the frame and the main story, and drag them into your story to create more tension.

For instance, send one character to the front, and keep the other in the safety of their home. Get one character to develop trench-trauma. Or make one into a heavy smoker after their have been on the battlefield as a way to hide the profound sense of guilt of having killed someone in cold-blood. The possibilities are endless.

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