The Story That Eats Itself
The Story That Eats Itself
Whiteout Narrative
Whiteout Narrative
A story is supposed to build—words stacking into sentences, sentences into meaning. But what happens when a story begins to consume itself? What happens when words disappear, when meaning collapses, when the structure that holds a story together starts erasing itself?
Your task is to write a Whiteout Narrative—a story, poem, or play that removes itself piece by piece as it unfolds. Maybe whole sentences disappear. Maybe words are redacted, leaving only fragments. Maybe the narrator starts doubting their own thoughts, crossing them out, rewriting them, then removing them altogether.
The story should decay as the reader moves through it. It may begin clear and structured, but by the end, what remains? A whisper? A void? A single word?
Erasure as Meaning – The story should lose words with purpose. What is being hidden? What is being forgotten? What is left behind?
Use Formatting Creatively – Words can fade, be crossed out, be replaced with empty brackets or blank spaces. Maybe some words are barely visible.
A Story in the Absence – Even as the text disappears, the reader should still feel the presence of what is missing—like a ghost of meaning.
Decay with Intention – Does the narrator’s mind unravel? Does history erase itself? Does the act of writing destroy the message? Let the structure match the story.
What does the reader lose as words vanish? How does that affect their understanding of the story?
Who (or what) is removing the words? The narrator? The author? A force within the story?
Does the story completely disappear, or does something remain at the end?
How does this technique connect to themes of memory, loss, censorship, or destruction?
House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) – A novel where text erodes, words disappear, and footnotes contradict themselves, creating an unstable reading experience.
“The Snowman” (Wallace Stevens) – A poem about absence, where meaning feels like it is dissolving into blankness.
A Humument (Tom Phillips) – A book where words are literally erased or painted over, creating new meanings from what remains.
Blackout Poetry – A technique where parts of a page are blacked out, leaving only certain words to form a new story.
The History of Forgetting (Norman M. Klein) – A nonfiction exploration of how erasure shapes history, memory, and place.