Totally Meta

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I've been blogging about ways in which you can make any piece of writing more literary.  One kind of fiction that has become increasingly popular is metafiction, which is, according to the Oxford dictionary, fiction that acknowledges its own "artificiality or literariness by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions." In other words, it's a piece that breaks down the fourth wall and acknowledges itself as a piece of writing or some other kind of media.  Metafiction can make for fun parody and/or a meaningful piece that makes statements about its a genre and/or life. 

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Children's book authors employ metawriting in order to show children the power of words.  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster is all about making literary conventions literal, thereby drawing attention to them as self-aware constructs within the novel over which the protagonist (i.e. the reader) can have influence.  A popular movie from the eighties was based on Michael Ende's The Neverending Story.  It's a movie about a boy reading a book in which the characters go on a quest to seek the boy reading the book.  By this, the reader within the book and (by extension) the reader of the book (or watcher of the movie) become part of the Neverending Story.  Through its meta nature, the book makes statements about the destructive nature of decreasing interest in books and the imagination in the modern generation.  In a similar way, Cornelia Funke's Inkheart draws attention to literary conventions by having characters capable of reading characters out of books, making the characters come to life.  The main villain comes into being in this way.  One of the characters is even able to make things happen through writing.  The Inkheart trilogy draws attention to the power of reading and writing to shape the world.  A popular meta children's book that explores its own world through self-aware meta techniques is Shannon Hale's Ever After High, especially book three.  The characters listen to and interact with the narrator, who goes mad and then must be replaced by some of the characters.  Since the characters can control and manipulate the story through their words and actions, the reader gets the feeling he/she, too, could have magical powers endowed by the power of writing.  Metafiction is a potent technique in writing. 

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Meta stories have become increasingly popular for adults in various media as well.   There is humor in breaking down that familiar fourth wall, that division between audience/reader and the protagonist and the events surrounding him/her.  Ferris Bueller talks right to the audience on a regular basis throughout "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."  This is part of the charm and humor of this movie.  The same technique appears throughout "Deadpool."  Self-awareness like this deconstructs the divisions between fiction and reality and can disarm and fascinate readers and audiences within every media, genre, and age group.   When we start "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," we're swept up into a medieval fictional search for the grail.  These scenes are interspersed with scenes wherein modern investigators are trying to track down a murderer.  (Spoiler alert)  The movie ends on a very meta note wherein the main characters are arrested for the murder by those modern investigators, which would make no sense if the story weren't so very meta.  Metafiction blurs the divisions between reality and fiction and makes us question what we think we know.

Think of ways that you can use metafiction in your writing.  My son's book involves characters who reference chapters, talk about the children reading the book, and interact with the author at various points.  The books are "illustrated" by one of the major characters.  Would your story work with meta aspects?  How would the use of meta techniques change or influence your story?