7 Day Story Writing Challenges: A Brief Guide to Writing Meta-Fiction
This guide is all about meta-fiction. What it is, tips for writing it, and a list of meta-fiction stories you can read online for free. We also discuss the difficulties, limitations, and pitfalls of writing in this genre. This guide is a must-read for anyone assigned meta-fiction in a 7 Day Story Writing Challenge, or for anyone wanting to explore new or unfamiliar literary genres!
Looking for more writing competitions to enter? Check out our ‘Big List of International Writing Competitions’.
What is Meta-Fiction?
For the purposes of our 7 Day Story Writing Challenges, we’re defining meta-fiction as a story that actively reminds the reader that they are reading a work of fiction or draws the reader’s attention to the process of writing through the writing itself. This can be achieved by a number of techniques such as openly addressing the reader in the narrative, eluding to or discussing the process of writing in the story, including a narrator or characters who are aware that they are fictional, rewriting the narrative several times over within the text, or indicating to the reader that certain parts of the story have been exaggerated or made up. While the goal of most fiction is to make the reader forget that they are reading a story, meta-fiction is an experimental form of writing that subverts this convention.
Difficulties, Limitations and Pitfalls of This Genre
The main difficulty of this genre will be coming up with the idea for your metafictional story and executing it, all within the time constraints of the challenge. Also, making sure that the story is still engaging and enjoyable for the reader even as you subvert their expectations.
Top Tip for This Genre
If you’re stuck for ideas, try copying Margaret Atwood’s format from ‘Happy Endings’. The idea of retelling a story several times is not quite unique enough to raise eyebrows if you do the same! Just make sure that the similarities and differences between each telling of your story says something interesting, has a wider point, and isn’t just the same story told in different ways for the sake of it. Don’t forget to tie it all to the theme of the challenge! If you do decide to go this route, check out this article on ‘Happy Endings’ that provides a little analysis of the story.
Meta-Fiction Short Stories you can Read Online
‘A Continuity of Parks’ by Julio Cortazar
‘Happy Endings’ by Margaret Atwood
(we also recommend reading this analysis of ‘Happy Endings’)
‘The Harvest’ by Amy Hempel
‘How to Tell a True War Story’ by Tim O’Brien
(be advised, this story includes violence and cruelty to animals)
‘The Fifth Story’ by Clarice Lispector
‘How to Become a Writer Or, Have You Earned This Cliche?’ by Lorrie Moore
‘Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote’ by Jorge Luis Borges
(we also recommend reading this analysis of ‘Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote’)