Metafiction is fiction about fiction.

Metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. (Waugh 2)

By 'laying bare' the artifice through which fictional texts mean, metafictions can also lay bare the conventions through which what we think of as 'reality' is represented and ascribed with meaning. (McCallum 144)

In metafiction, the ontological flap between fiction and reality is made explicit; that is, the fictionality of the events, characters and objects referred to is foregrounded. (Waugh 140)

Metafictive children's texts can foster an awareness of how a story works and implicitly teach readers how texts are structured through specific codes and conventions. (Mackey 181)

Metafictions appropriate and parody the conventions of traditional realism in order to construct a fictional illusion and simultaneously expose the constructedness of that illusion (Waugh 6).