A post on Industrial Scripts examines the bookend technique and how it has been used effectively in celebrated screenplays. While focusing on film, the approach has applications for prose writers as well.
The bookend technique is a framing device that links the beginning and end of your story in some way. The opening and closing scenes might mirror each other, might be straight duplicates, or simply similar. The technique is used in circular storytelling, where the protagonist returns to where the story started, but finds themselves and their circumstances changed. The bookend technique is also tied to the dramatic principle of Chekhov’s Gun. When you show an important element early in your story, you must return to it later.
The article examines a number of films that successfully utilized the bookend approach, including Whiplash, Memories of Murder, The Searchers, Forrest Gump, 1917, Gone Girl, and The Truman Show.
