What Does Metafic Mean?
Fic TypeFanfiction that is self-aware about being fiction — characters discover they're in a story, read fanfic about themselves, or interact with their author. Distinct from 'meta,' which means analytical essays about fandom.
Metafic in Practice
Metafic plays with the fourth wall in ways only fanfiction really can: a character stumbles onto the archive and reads what fandom writes about them, or the narrative acknowledges the tropes it's executing in real time. The mode ranges from pure crackfic comedy to genuinely unsettling existential horror about characters trapped in someone else's plot. It overlaps with recursive fanfiction, where fans write fic of other fics. Because the joke depends on shared fluency in fandom conventions, metafic tends to be written by and for very online readers.
Example usage
"It's a metafic where the captain finds the crew's AO3 accounts and has to pretend he didn't read the omegaverse one."
Related Terms
Meta
Analytical fan writing about a canon, character, ship, or fandom itself — essays, close readings, and theory posts. Meta is fandom's nonfiction genre, sitting alongside fic as a primary fanwork form.
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Recursive Fanfiction
Fanfiction of fanfiction: a work based on another fan's fic rather than (or in addition to) the original canon. The fic-of-the-fic treats someone's AU or original elements as its source material.
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Crack
Deliberately absurd fanfiction — premises and events too ridiculous for canon, written for pure comedy. The name implies you would have to be on something to write it, or that the fic itself is addictive nonsense.
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Fourth Wall (Fandom)
The norm of keeping fanworks — especially RPF and shipping content — out of the view of the celebrities and creators they depict. 'Breaking the fourth wall' means fan content reaching its subjects, usually to fandom's horror.
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