What’s metafiction?

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Metafiction is any type of storytelling in which the creator is actively trying to make the audience think that they are experiencing a fictional tale. This could be handled through the use of many different narrative devices, including cases where the artist speaks directly to his or her audience or some cases where the creator becomes a character in the adventure and talks about the story writing process. Reasons for metafiction vary widely, with some authors doing it to elicit a particular reaction in the reader, while others do it specifically to comment on the narrative-making process. Metafiction is actually common in film and theater as well, but most people use the term to describe the techniques employed by authors of novels and short stories.

There are many different ways metatechniques can be employed in fictional narratives, and they can be subtle or very obvious. For example, some authors will gradually make the audience aware of a certain skew in the narrator’s voice in a third-person story, and over time, the narrator may actually begin to feel like a character. In the end, the author of these stories can sometimes reveal their identity and directly comment on the things that are happening in the story. Another common method is for the author to create a character modeled after himself, or actually create a character of the same name, and for the character to talk about the story-making process the reader is experiencing. A more subtle example would be for the author to address the reader directly about the writing process of a certain passage or section before quickly returning to the normal narrative.

Storytellers have many different reasons for wanting to explore metafiction. Some of them are simply interested in making the reader step away from the story to think critically about everything they’ve been told. There are some authors who feel that the process of creating a believable narrative can be too emotional in a way that could dull a reader’s senses and prevent the person from seeing important intellectual points. Others create metafiction as a way to explore the actual process of creation in a potentially entertaining and revealing way while simultaneously telling a story.

Some fans really dislike any kind of metafiction. Some of them feel that it is somewhat pretentious and may feel that the author is intentionally insulting them by pulling them out of their suspension of disbelief. Others simply find that it disrupts the flow of a story and makes fiction less enjoyable. On the other end of the spectrum, those who love metafiction are often very fond of it and may actively seek out works in which metafiction techniques are employed.

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