ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Metafiction

Metafiction is a type of fiction that focuses on itself. It’s like a book about a book. For example, a metafiction story might be about a character who reads a book and then finds themselves inside the story of the book. Metafiction can also be about characters in a story who realize they’re in a book and talk about the story they’re in. Metafiction can also be tricky, because the books and stories they talk about might not really exist. They’re just made up! So metafiction can be like stories inside stories that don’t really happen.
Related topics others have asked about: