Metafiction says something. It has to do with taking a large fiction itself and writing within it; that kind of self-reflecting writing that emerges from it can be thought of as metafictional.
— Robert Coover
If Realism called it like it saw it, Metafiction simply called it as it saw itself seeing itself see it.
― David Foster Wallace
Why do I covet metafiction so much? Why do I nurture a style that David Foster Wallace purportedly exploded in the late 1980s, that is derided by most literary theorists as passé, that people tend to agree serves no worldly, moral purpose other than to draw attention to the writer’s own navel? Because, dammit, metafiction is relevant to today.
― M.J. Nicholls
Day two, workshop three was On Metafiction, facilitated by Kevin Chong, who is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia. I don’t mind admitting I had no clue what was meant by “metafiction”. But I soon found out
Get ready to subvert convention! While most stories hope to suspend the reader’s disbelief, metafiction actively reminds the reader that they are reading a work of fiction. In this workshop, you will explore examples and discuss techniques such as talking to the reader, alluding to the process of writing the story, writing characters who are aware that they are fictional and more.
This workshop was another one with a slow start due to technical difficulties. But obviously it didn’t hold things up for long because I have lots of notes. A little spotty and often incomprehensible notes, but there were lots of them.
Mr. Chong began by telling us about his fourth novel, The Double Life of Benson Yu, which is shortlisted for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize. The book has Yu telling twelve-year-old Benny’s story, a version of himself growing up in 1980s Chinatown. Then Benny enters the story as a real person.
Jacob Queen defines metafiction as any kind of storytelling where the creator is actively trying to make the audience think about the fact that what they are experiencing is a fictional account. The term was first coined by William H. Gass in 1970.
Why do writers use metafiction? To comment on how stories shape experience. To call attention to the artifice of storytelling. To dramatize the tension of the writer’s life. We exist in two worlds at all times; we live in two realities. Sometimes you’re in both at once, and sometimes you’re in neither place.
Writing Exercise: Write a one page story about two people planning to steal a painting.
“So, what do you think?” Biff had laid the plan out carefully, going over every detail.
“I don’t know, Biff,” Joey said, shaking his head slowly. Of course everything about Joey was a little slow.
“I tell you, it’s easy pickings,” Biff said, taking a swig of the beer he’d brought with him out to the front stoop. “We can be in and out of there before old lady Krantz even knows what’s what.”
“Yeah, but stealing from an old lady?” Joey shook his head again and took a drink from his own beer. “It just ain’t right, man.”
Biff held onto his patience by a slim thread. The job wasn’t possible without Joey. “Wasn’t old lady Krantz the one who ratted you out to your wife about you stepping out with that stripper named Polly?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And your wife done left you.”
“Yeah, she did.”
“And didn’t old lady Krantz tip off Levi Goldman that you were taking extra breaks out on the loading dock?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Joey said, sitting up a little straighter.
“You lost your job over that one.”
“I sure did,” Joey said indignantly. “What’s an old lady like her doing owning a painting worth so much?”
“I don’t know, Joey.”
“I say we should take it from her and sell it. We can split the profit. What do you say, Biff?”
Biff just smiled.
Famous examples of metafiction include the French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles. The narrator becomes part of the story and offers several different ways to end the story. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde creates an alternate 1985, where detective Thursday Next chases a master criminal through the 1847 world of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. The movie, Stranger Than Fiction tells the tale of Harold Crick, who suddenly begins to hear an author inside his head, narrating his life. When he discovers that the author always ends her books by killing off the main character, he begins a journey to find her and change her mind.
Other books can be considered metafiction, even if they’re not described as such. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is one. The hero reads too many stories and goes mad on his quest to become a knight. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has a famous epilogue that takes place in the future. Atonement, by Ian McEwan is set in three time periods, and at the end the character reveals she is the author and has changed the ending so it’s happy.
Techniques of metafiction:
One, the author directly comments on the story, addressing the reader.
Two, the author comments on the writing process.
Three, the author interacts with the characters.
Metafiction versus Autofiction
Autofiction is a term used to describe a group of writers who blended fiction with autobiography. Some of these writers include Sheila Heti, Ben Lerner, Rachel Kusk, and Karl Ove Knausgård. Like metafiction, autofiction often uses characters who have the same name as the authors. Autofiction trades more on the distinction between truth and reality. Metafiction is more concerned about the artifice of storytelling. It features more parody and pastiche. Finally, autofiction is rarely ever plotted. It’s almost like an essay.
Writing Exercise (part two): Take your first scene and add a metafiction element to it. You could address the reader, talk about how the story differs from a “real life” account, or discuss the painting.
“So, what do you think?” After laying out all the details, there weren’t anything to think about, as far as I was concerned.
“I don’t know, Biff,” Joey said slowly. God, everything Joey did was slow, even shaking his head at me.
“I tell you Joey, it’s easy pickings.” I took a swig of my beer to keep from smacking him upside the head. We was alone out here on the stoop.
“Yeah, but stealing from an old lady?” Joey took a drink from his own beer. “It just ain’t right.”
Man, if I didn’t need him to disarm the alarm system, I wouldn’t be wasting my time with him, you know what I mean?
“Wasn’t it old lady Krantz who ratted you out to your wife when you was stepping out with that stripper?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
You can’t let guys like Joey think too much, and I’m on a roll. “And wasn’t it old lady Krantz who tipped off Levi Goldman that you was taking extra smoke breaks out on the loading dock?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“So she ruined your marriage and got you fired. So what do you owe her?”
“Yeah, what do I owe that old bat.”
Finally, I got a fire lit under him. You see the smoke?
“I’ll do it!” Joey said.
I just smiled. I knew he’d cave. What about you?
Is metafiction right for you? It works for you if you want to comment on story telling or you want an immersive story. It won’t work if you want a straight forward story. But give it a try – you never know . . .
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
WORDAGE REPORT
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is . . . struggle. I was having sinus problems, which I figured was allergies, but it morphed into a sinus cold. A really, really bad sinus cold. So I spent most of my week popping sinus medication, which tends to cloud my already befuddled brain.
The weather is still pretty crappy, which I guess is really just typical for November. We’ve had a couple of hints of sun, but mostly it was grey and murky, sometimes windy. Wednesday night we had freezing rain but there was no sign of it by Thursday morning.
The cats have been weirdly affectionate lately, and it makes me wonder what’s up. I mean, they were cuddly as kittens, then kind of grew out of it, and now they’re starting to be more cuddly again. Dinsdale never gave up curling up with people (when he was in the mood) but now Khaos has been snuggling up with me when I’m in my recliner, and one night after I went to bed she curled up on my chest! None of the cats I’ve ever had has ever done that before.
NaNo has also been a bit of a struggle, but I started falling off the wagon when I came to the Nottawasaga stitchery retreat. Unlike the writing retreats, this one starts early, runs later in the day, and although we’re not chained to our stitching by any means, there’s not a lot of alone time for writing.
NEW WORDS:
2605+689+347+1057=4698 DOWN: 482 – words
Like the weather and my mood, the words have been pretty up and down lately. One week I seem to be up, the next I’ll be down. A little consistency might be nice.
Goals For Next Week:
Keep up the good work with the blogs
NANOWRIMO:
Day 5 – 1699
Day 6 – 1572
Day 7 – 1276
Day 8 – 2272
Day 9 – 628
Day 10 – 1488
Day 11 – 876
Total for week 2 – 9,811
Total for month – 16,567
I hate to admit it, but I’m still not all that keen on the story I’m working on. And I also hate to admit that it would be a lot easier to work on if I had some kind of outline. And as you can see, going on a stitching retreat in the middle of NaNo did not help my word count.
I’m also beginning to have my doubts if this story will go the distance. The beginning is more detailed than the original idea, and it’s set up nicely for the ending I envisioned. However, I’m beginning to see a few problems with the ending, such as there’s really no motivation for anyone to come back to this planet to “discover” the missing (and presumed dead) main character.
And how am I supposed to fit in the murder he’s supposed to have committed? AND the female main character is the key witness to what really happened, but she was shot and unconscious at the time. *sigh* I see many plot holes to be filled in my future.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep making the daily quota; catch up ASAP.
POETRY:
It was really helpful, having new poetry forms ready to go. All I had to do was schedule one of them to appear at the designated time on Wednesday. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. :-)
I think even after NaNo I’ll try to have a form or two ready for emergencies, like if I get called away for something and run out of time, or (like this week) I’m feeling like crap.
Goal For Next Week:
Think about doing the remaining three example poems.
CRAFTING:
Having nothing better to blog about, I really wanted to do a blog post on my woven fabric basket. But that meant I had to finish it first. So that’s how I spent my Sunday, taking pictures as I worked on it. The final picture on the post showed it woven together, but with pins still in it at the top.
Tuesday morning I finished the hand stitching around the top of my basket before going to the library for some more stitching. Everyone was suitably impressed.
Despite knowing I wouldn’t have my zentangle finished in time to make a tote bag out of it, I did do a bit more work on it as well. If I keep plugging away at it, I’ll have it ready in time for the next retreat.
Friday morning I loaded up the car, drove across town to pick up one of my guild sisters, and we hit the road for the Nottawasaga Resort for a stitchery retreat. You can read the full story on my Monday post (on my other blog).
Goal For Next Week:
Sew the brown bag; work on zentangle.
WHAT I’M READING:
I kind of stalled reading The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, and the reason for this is because I was enjoying it so much that I didn’t want to take the chance of binge reading it. LOL
On the Kindle I finished Dead Even, by Patti Larson, and started The Guest is a Goner by Carly Winter.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the moderate reading habits.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
Honestly, that new leaf of mine is probably struggling as much as I am. This cold is kicking my butt big time. But, like that new leaf, I’m hanging in there.
The fact that I didn’t spend as much time in the office as I might have liked had more to do with my recliner being more comfortable than anything else. Plus the recliner was handy if I felt a nap coming on because of the cold medication I was taking.
As much as it’s fun to get away, it’s always nice to get back home again and get back into my routines. You know, as soon as I’m able to kick this darn cold to the curb and establish my routines again.
Seeing as it’s NaNo season, I’ll probably go with one of the new poetry forms I have in my “to be used” folder. That’s what I did them for, after all. Although I’d still like to work on the example poems to go with the other forms as well.
There’s a regular meeting of the stitchery guild on Tuesday, and this time we’re being offered the choice of a class making small Christmas trees out of fabric yo-yos, or folded fabric stars. I opted for the stars.
One of the things I absolutely have to do this week is tear my office apart to look for my idea notebook. This is a large, top wire bound notebook (think oversized steno pad) that I wrote down long ideas and notes on several of my unfinished books. And I cannot find it. It’s got to be in the office somewhere, I just have to find it.
Something non-writing that needs to go on the list this week is indoor gardening. I need to get rid of three dead plants – or is it four? And rearrange the plants on top of the tall bookcase in my office. I also need to pot the coleus clippings I took from my garden. I’m impressed with how quickly they rooted. And there are a couple of plants that need to be repotted.
And, of course, I need to catch up on my NaNo. At the writing of this (late Saturday night) I’m behind by almost 2000 words. *sigh*
So, lots to do this week. Let’s just hope I find the ambition to do it all.
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