What if your narrator’s profession is author and she wants to include her writing process/specific chapters as part of her story?
Does it get too confusing if you include the narrator’s short story that she is writing within the body of her main story?
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1 answer
It is not unusual for the main character, or the POV character (not necessarily the same thing) to be a writer. There's even a trope for this: Most Writers are Writers (tvtropes link).
A famous example is Dr. Zhivago. Zhivago is an aspiring poet and novelist. Throughout the novel, we read excerpts from his journal - those form an integral part of understanding the story through his eyes. Through his philosophical musings, we experience the struggles of the post-revolution life. And his struggle to become a "successful writer" is a major plotline. In the face of the madness of the Russian Revolution, writing is what he wants with a passion. A normal want in all the madness.
Dracula, Bram Stoker's work, is presented as a series of journal entries, a guide to dealing with vampires. The book exists within itself, its writing is part of the plot. Similar to how the stories about Sherlock Holmes are "written" by Dr. Wattson, only used to stronger effect. Though perhaps this goes a bit further than what you intend - as I understand it, the Dr. Zhivago example is closer to what you had in mind.
One very important note: the story your character writes must not, cannot, be independent from the story you tell about the character. The second must shed light on the first, or the first on the second (depending on which is the "main" story - the subsidiary must shed light on the main). It needn't be as straightforward as the play within a play in Hamlet, but there must be a reason why those two stories are woven together.
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