!!Characters involved in production

* ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'' is composed of both stories from the life of Kesh people, and their fiction. Sometimes it is a poem a couple of lines in length, sometimes a novel on its own.
* ''Literature/ArabianNights'': All tales are told by Scheherazade to King Shahryar.
* ''Literature/TheCalfOfTheNovemberCloud'': Konyek's grandmother knows many tales which are enjoyed by her tribe's kids: the beginning of the world, the story of the first Masai, "The Children of the Sycamore Tree", "The First Dorobo Hunter", the birth of the Kilimanjaro, the story of the rain gods, the tale of the kid who killed the demon who ate his whole village...
* ''Literature/MaxHavelaar'' has fun with this trope. The main story, of which Havelaar is the protagonist, is presented as a book written by the character Stern, based on essays written by "Sjaalman" ("Shawl Guy") who is heavily implied to be the same character as Havelaar... Oh, and there's a second ShowWithinAShow, the love story of Saïdjah and Adinda, which is also written by Stern. And did we mention that at the end of the book, the author himself takes the stage and [[InteractiveNarrator shoos his characters away]] to deliver an AuthorFilibuster, thus essentially making Stern's story a ShowWithinAShow as well, and Havelaar's a [[ShowWithinAShow Show Within A Show Within A Show]]?
* The Literature/{{Redwall}} books have Plays Within A Book occasionally, notably in ''Marlfox'' with the [[MundaneMadeAwesome Duel of Insults]].
* ''Literature/TheRollingStones1952'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein. Roger Stone's primary source of income is writing a space opera television serial. The rest of the family "helps" with brainstorming plotlines. At one point, Roger turns over writing duties to grandma Hazel and youngest son Lowell.
* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', Daphne is competing in a dream universe competition with a romantic, fairy-tale universe. Her LaserGuidedAmnesia leads to her being surprised at getting high points for external relevance.
* Half of ''Literature/PeterPaysTribute'' is this. The main character is writing a novel, and that novel is half wish fulfillment, half allegory for his own troubled existence.
* In Matthew Dicks's ''Something is Missing'', the protagonist, [[spoiler:a career burglar who finds himself moved to help his victims after helping himself to their possessions]], begins writing a novel about a character with a similar vocation to his own. (If Dicks himself were such a [[spoiler:burglar]], the recursion would have been perfect.)
* In ''Rodrigo y el libro sin final'' (''Rodrigo and the unfinished book''), the titular character, a nine-year-old boy, helps a novelist suffering from writer's block to find an ending for a book he borrowed from the library. This is also an example of Types Three (because the story revolves around this) Four, because some events in that book (which tells the story of a pirate who reaches old age) can be put in parallel with the writer's own life.
* There are several in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series: ''Moving Pictures'' has a large number of snippets/scenes from the "clicks" (movies) being produced, most of which parody either specific films or film genres; ''Wyrd Sisters'' features a Macbeth-like play and a Macbeth-like plot, also mixing in various Shakespeare tropes; ''Maskerade'' does much the same with Phantom of the Opera; and ''The Fifth Elephant'' frequently alludes to an opera about the semi-mythical founders of the dwarven kingdoms.
* Tanya Huff's [[Literature/SmokeAndShadows Smoke]] series involves mostly characters involved in the production of ''Darkest Night'', a show about a vampire private detective. Considering that the protagonist of the novel has an ex who's a vampire, this leads to some interesting situations.
* Jeff Vandermeer's ''Shriek: An Afterword'' and ''City of Saints and Madmen'' both put a huge amount of emphasis on these; appropriate given that many of the characters are academics, artists and the like. ''Shriek'' itself is an afterword to a short guide to the early history of Ambergris featured in ''City of Saints''. ''City of Saints'' is made up entirely of various shows-within-a-show. [[UnreliableNarrator Some of them are fake]].
* "A Story by John V. Marsch" the second story in ''The Fifth Head of Cerberus'' by Creator/GeneWolfe is written by a character who appears in the other two. This just adds to the MindScrew off the book.
* Because Earth's music is so awesome, the rest of the universe in ''Literature/YearZero'' tends to emulate our other art forms (despite the fact we are so bad at everything else). Thus ''Sonny and His Sirelings'', a (highly scripted) RealityShow based in part on ''Series/TheOsbournes'', is the highest rated program in the universe.
* The plot of ''Literature/HeartInHand'' is set in motion by the reality show following the lives of Darryl and Alex. Later on, [[spoiler:it changes its format to focus entirely on Alex and the aftermath of him coming out of the closet]].
* The main character of Rosemary Edghill's ''The Warslayer'' is the lead actress of a Buffy/Xena-style fantasy series; the book includes an episode guide to the series, including fannish commentary and backstage anecdotes.
* In the Creator/RobertRankin novel ''Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls'', Poole and Omalley put on a show based on the novel ''Armageddon: The Musical'' by, er, Robert Rankin.
* ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'': David's writings, especially once [[spoiler: he gets published.]]
* Each of the first three ''Literature/DreamPark'' novels alternates between a live-action Game with its own plotline and characters, and an investigation storyline that unfolds behind the scenes. The fourth novel starts out that way, until the behind-the-scenes plot crashes into and disrupts the Game's course.
* ''Literature/ToBeOrNotToBeThatIsTheAdventure'', Ryan North's {{Gamebook|s}} version of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', turns ''The Murder of Gonzago'' into a Choose Your Own Adventure book within the larger work.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has a Braavosi play "The Bloody Hand", which is based on recent events in the series. It turns Tyrion Lannister into a scheming villain who [[spoiler:murders his nephew]] (which is the official version of what happened), basically being a take on the notorious HistoricalVillainUpgrade in "Richard III".
* Creator/VladimirNabokov had two major examples: his 1938 Russian novel ''The Gift'' is about a young writer trying to make a name for himself, and in chapter three, the writer decides to write a biography of the 19th century writer and activist Nikolay Chernyshevsky. Chapter four consists of that biography in full (for which Nabokov did a ton of original research.) His 1962 novel ''Literature/PaleFire'' purports to be a critical edition of a fictional poem of that title, by fictional poet John Shade, along with a critical commentary by the editor Charles Kinbote, supposedly a close friend of the poet; all is not as it seems, though.
* In ''Literature/TheGrayHouse'', which takes place in a boarding school, the students of the school publish their own magazine, called ''Blume''.
* ''Literature/LaBreche'' is about a fictional American RealityTV show from the 2060, named ''You Were There'', consisting in shooting the past with the help of TimeTravel. The novel focuses on the latest issue: [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Allied landing on Omaha Beach]]. While most of the story is about the two persons sent in the past (a war reporter and a World War Two historian), the story also has parts about the making of the show itself. [[spoiler: The time travellers unintetionally cause a time paradox on the beach, which nearly results in Germany winning the war and controlling the world. After they return, the show is cancelled.]]
* Several of the stories mentioned in the works of Creator/KurtVonnegut are ones created by AuthorAvatar Kilgore Trout. Several of them, by Vonnegut's admission, were story ideas he had that he either couldn't fully develop or ones that he felt dissatisfied with when he did. ''God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater'' has one character turns out to be a big fan. In at least a few cases, these also crossed into other types such as in ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' and ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive''.
* One of the stories in ''Literature/AboutVeraAndAnfisa'' has Vera's parents and their colleagues stage ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' on New Year's Eve. This being an amateur production and a warm-up for the upcoming party, it is naturally heavily [[{{Bowdlerisation}} bowdlerised]], most notably including [[ItMakesSenseInContext Buckingham's mischievous pet monkey]]. The actors, however, put a lot of effort in developing it, deal remarkably well with the rehearsals and the actual performance getting disrupted, and finish to a standing applause.
* The main characters of Tempe O'Kun's ''Literature/{{Windfall}}'' are former actors on a Buffy/X-Files-esque paranormal adventure show called "Strangeville". The story starts with them reuniting a few years after it was cancelled in the LovecraftCountry town that inspired the show, which turns out to have been more accurate than they expected.
* ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'': The main plot is interleaved with chapters from the Master's novel, telling the story of Pontius Pilate.
* ''Literature/TheGreatOpposition'': A lot of the novel’s first part is about the shooting of ''The Angry Muzhik'', a historical film set in UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars. Sima plays one of the lead parts in the film. And there is another show within ''The Angry Muzhik'' itself, a pastoral musical staged by one of the characters.
* ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' within the books its established that WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends exists in universe, and although the "real" locomotives aren't stars of the TV show their TV likenesses have made them even more famous; and as such the "real" Thomas is invited to an event at the National Railway Museum to celebrate his fame.
* Literature/TheStarcrossed by Creator/BenBova is a [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture nominally SF]] satirical novel about the making of ''The Starcrossed'', a stand-in for his own experiences as science advisor to the [[TroubledProduction notorious]] series ''Series/TheStarlost''
* In Jean Robinson's ''The Strange But Wonderful Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon'' Duffy's uncle is the host of a children's TV show called "Captain Smiles".
* In ''The Elizas'' by Sara Shepard, main character Eliza Fontaine has written a soon-to-be-published debut novel, ''The Dots'', and for a while the book itself starts alternating chapters that further the narrative with ones that are supposed to be excerpts from ''The Dots''. Eliza's book ends up being very relevant to the plot, as Eliza keeps finding parallels between her own fictional work and reality, and even finds herself in specific locations she ''thought'' she made up for the book's setting [[spoiler: because her novel actually recounts her own repressed childhood memories]].
* In ''Literature/TheInkBlackHeart'' from the ''Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels'', ''The Ink Black Heart'' is an animated television series within the novel that starts out on Website/YouTube and later gets popular enough to go to Creator/{{Netflix}} and have a movie. ''Drek's Game'' is a fan-made game based on it. The novel's plot focuses on both and people involved in the production of both are important characters within the novel.
* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** Haruhi and the rest of the SOS Brigade film a MagicalGirl movie for the SchoolFestival with Mikuru and Yuki as the heroine and villain, respectively.
** At the same festival, Koizumi's class puts on a performance of ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead''.
* In ''Literature/{{Maoyu}}'', Witch Girl is the author of a series of novels titled "Pleasant Serial Killers". Hero and Demon Queen are both fans.
* ''Literature/{{Under Suspicion|Series}}'': In-universe, ''Under Suspicion'' is the title of the true crime show main protagonist Laurie produces, with the cases featured on the show forming the central mystery of each novel.
* A somewhat meta example occurs in the works of Creator/JeffreyArcher. His Clifton series features a series of novels written by the main character, Harry Clifton. The main character of these novels is a police detective by the name of William Warwick. After Archer finished the Clifton series, he started on a new series of novels ... in which the main character is a police detective by the name of William Warwick!
* Shane from ''Literature/TheOtherBoy'' is working on a graphic novel called ''Hogan Fillion Saves the World'', about a space explorer and his alien sidekick Willoughby. [[spoiler:During Shane's HeroicBSOD, he rips up every page. Once he recovers somewhat, he decides to write an even better comic. This time he gives Hogan and Willoughby a friend named Selena.]]
----

!!Characters are fans

* The story of Kelly Link's award-winning novella, ''Literature/MagicForBeginners'', describes one episode of an unnamed (presumably) television series about an ordinary boy named Jeremy Mars and his circle of friends, who are obsessively devoted to a pirate-television fantasy series called ''The Library''. This show-within-a-show is broadcast irregularly on the otherwise "snowy" channels. Each episode is portrayed by different, non-credited actors and features advertisements for non-existent products. Much of the plot involves the actions and resulting interactions between the two shows.
* Several in Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's Literature/VorkosiganSaga:
** As a child, Miles Vorkosigan was a big fan of a holovid action/drama serial about Lord Vorthalia the Bold, Legendary Hero from the Time of Isolation. As an adult, he can remember most of the 9 verses of the theme song. It's likely that he picked up some of his KnightErrant tendencies from this.
** A Marilacan production company attempted to hire [[SecretIdentity Admiral Naismith]] as an consultant for a holovid docudrama about the [[GreatEscape Dagoola IV breakout]]. For security reasons, Miles declined to participate.
** Nikolai Vorsoisson is fond of holovids featuring Captain Vortalon, a jump pilot who has galactic adventures with Prince Xav, smuggling arms to the Resistance during the Cetagandan invasion.
** Beta Colony produced a film based on the Escobaran War and Cordelia Naismith's role in it called ''The Thin Blue Line''. Their portrayal of Prince Serg upsets Elena Bothari, because most Barrayarans view Prince Serg as a [[HeroicSacrifice hero]], not as a [[TheCaligula Caligula]].
* ''Literature/HandsHeldInTheSnow'' has all sorts of fake book titles of increasing silliness, and thanks to the main characters being [[{{Bookworm}} big book lovers]], a lot of them pop up.
** Beatrice's study books about religion are usually very interesting and silly. One is ''Fourteen Essays on the Study of the Soul and its Inherent Properties'', and another is called ''Theoretical Uses of Magic If One Were to Tap into the Soul Itself (Which Is of Course Impossible).''
** Emi and Beatrice's dad are both fans of a book series called ''The Elf Cycle'' that pops up every now and then.
* ''Literature/DonQuixote'': ''"The Ill-Advised Curiosity"'' is a true independent novel within the novel of ''Literature/DonQuixote'', and [[ThoseTwoGuys the curate]] found it in the Inn and reads it to all the guests completely through two entire chapters of the first part.
* Played with in the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' novel ''Border Princes''. Throughout the novel, frequent mention is made of the band Torn Curtain, the animated series ''Andy Pinkus, Rhamphorhynchus'' and the science fiction drama ''Eternity Base''. It turns out [[spoiler: this is all created by a subconcious RealityWarper, evidenced when Gwen leaves Cardiff, and suddenly a magazine article about Glenn Robbins of ''Eternity Base'' becomes about Jolene Blaylock and ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''.]]
* In ''Literature/TheGirlsSeries'' by Creator/JacquelineWilson, the book ''Girls in Tears'' features a subplot about Nadine becoming a fan of a fantasy TV show called ''Xanadu'', an obvious pastiche of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''. It features near the ending of the story when [[spoiler:Nadine goes off alone to meet her internet boyfriend whom she got talking to on a fanboard for the show, forcing Ellie and Magda to repair their friendship to go after her. Unsurprisingly, the guy turns out to be a DirtyOldMan who's not quite as young as he told Nadine.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Fangirl}}'' by Rainbow Rowell, the protagonist Cath is a fan of the Literature/HarryPotter-esque ''Simon Snow'' books, to the point of writing SlashFic about [[FoeYayShipping Simon and his nemesis Baz]].
* ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'' by Creator/PhilipKDick is set in an AlternateUniverse 1962 where [[DayOfTheJackboot Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan won World War 2]], and subsequently conquered the Allied nations, turned them into puppet states, and entered a Cold War scenario. In this book, one of the characters reads a novel, ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'', which is an AlternateHistoryWank from the Axis perspective where the Allies win World War 2... ''in 1947'', and the world is split up between the United States and [[spoiler:a deeply racist and authoritarian British Empire run by Winston Churchill - the Soviet Union of our own timeline is a non-entity here, [[InferredHolocaust due to the Nazis winning and exterminating the entire Slavic population]]. What's worse, this evil alternate British Empire ends up defeating the United States and conquering the entire world]]. [[CrapsackWorld This is still arguably an improvement]] over a post-war world dominated by Nazi Germany, who have reached borderline OmnicidalManiac levels of lunacy in their quest for racial purity.
* In Creator/CatherynneMValente's novel ''Literature/{{Palimpsest}}'', one of the main characters is a fan of a children's novel called ''Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking''. In an example of {{Defictionalization}}, Valente later wrote and published the book in real life, and a number of sequels.
* In ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'', Kel Cheris is a great fan of {{troperiffic}} dramas, and often relaxes by watching them, accompanied by drones who seem to enjoy them as well despite all the HollywoodStyle going on.
* In ''Literature/WarlocksOfTheSigil'' there is a series of young adult books of which Quinn is a fan and Kole was a fan.They argue about them.
* Jack from ''Literature/TheresMoreThanOneWayHome'' is obsessed with a ''Franchise/PowerRangers''-esque show called ''Crime Conquerors'', about a group of high schoolers chosen to act as color-coded superheroes.
-->The forerunner of ''Crime Conquerors'' was a Japanese program and the American version used some of the same stock footage. In every episode a new monster tore down a street full of cardboard high rises. By the following episode the high rises had not only been rebuilt to identical specifications but formed a skyline that rivaled Chicago's. The stock footage made the Godzilla movies look like ''Film/CitizenKane'', but I found it even more amusing that intergalactic villains would choose as their primary target for destroying the earth Bedford Falls, the small Midwestern town in which the series was set.
* The bizarre ''Binkan Salaryman'' in the even more bizarre ''Literature/BludgeoningAngelDokuroChan''.
* ''Literature/YouLikeMeNotMyDaughter'': Ayako is obsessed with ''Love Kaiser'', a MagicalGirl anime series that she originally watched with Miu, but got more into it than her daughter, who lost interest as she got older. She wears a cosplay of her favorite character, Love Kaiser Solitaire, to try and convince Takkun that she's lame and he won't have fun with her, but he turns out to be a fan of the show too.
* ''Literature/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'' has {{sentai}} show ''Iron Striver''. Nyarlathotep (yes, [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos that one]]) is a huge fan.
* ''Literature/LadiesVersusButlers'' has ''Magical Diva'', a MagicalGirl who solves problems with violence and her trusty hammer.
* ''Literature/{{Oreimo}}'':
** ''Stardust Witch Meruru'', a magical girl anime (which clearly parodies both ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' and ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'') of which Kirino is a fan. At one point, she makes Kanako dress up as Meruru for a cosplay contest, and Kanako easily wins. The anime adaptation includes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1-MjWIN-Y real opening credits for the fictional anime]].
** Also ''Maschera: Lament of the Fallen Beast'', which appears to be a mixture of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' and ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack''. Kuroneko is an especially big fan of that series.
* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'':
** Index and Hyouka Kazakiri are fans of the show ''Magical Powered Kanamin'', a MagicalGirl series.
** Later, a director named Beverly Seethrough is introduced and several characters are shown as fans of her movies.
** In New Testament Vol. 1, Shiage and Rikou go to the theater and watch a film clearly based on ''Literature/HeavyObject''.
** In New Testament Vol. 11, a show based on ''Literature/TheZashikiWarashiOfIntellectualVillage'' is shown on TV.
* In ''Literature/TheManyMysteriesOfTheFinkelFamily'', aspiring KidDetective Lara's inspiration is the fictional detective Georgia Ketteridge, the protagonist of Lara's favorite book series.
* ''Literature/ThePlantThatAteDirtySocks'': Book 1 mentions a book that Michael owns, "The Glob That Ate Outer Space", and the "Swamp Monster" films are mentioned a few times throughout the series. Book 7 introduces an unnamed series of kids' horror novels that Michael and his classmates are fans of.

----
!!Show is plot point
* ''Literature/OneQEightyFour'':
** ''Air Chrysalis'' is a short novel dictated by Eriko Fukada (aka Fuka-Eri) and reworked by Tengo Kawana. It follows a ten-year-old girl who lives in an isolated religious commune. She's tasked with taking care of a sacred blind goat, but when the goat dies, the girl is punished by being locked in a warehouse for ten days with the dead goat's body. After a couple days pass, beings called the Little People enter the world by using the goat's corpse as a passageway. Together with the Little People, the girl weaves an air chrysalis. Once the chrysalis is done and it breaks open, the girl sees a copy of herself sleeping inside. Some time later, the girl manages to escape the commune.
** "Town of Cats" is a short story by a German writer that Tengo reads. In it, the protagonist is traveling aimlessly when he stumbles upon a seemingly deserted town. Despite no one living there, there's no signs of it being derelict or otherwise in ruin. Upon nightfall, the protagonist sees why: cats have taken over the town. Aside from their large size, all of them look just like a regular house cats but act similarly to humans. Too amazed by what he's seeing, the protagonist stays for a few days in the town to observe this strange town, hiding out in the tower during the night. One night, the cats notice something off and almost stumble upon the protagonist. After this close shave, the protagonist decides to leave, but finds that the train he'd arrived on isn't making any stops at the town's station; he is essentially trapped in the town of cats forevermore.
* All three ''Literature/DreamPark'' novels take place during complex live-action adventure games, which a park security man must join to conduct a murder investigation. Successfully playing out the game in-character is necessary to solve the mystery, and each game's outcome is impacted by the investigators' and perpetrators' hidden agenda.
* Laurence Sterne's novel ''The Life and Opinions of Literature/TristramShandy, Gentleman'' is the eponymous character trying to relate his life story to the reader. However, he is rather poor at explaining things, and thus ends up on a tangent so frequently - the net result of this running joke being that there's very little of Shandy's own life in it. In a nine-volume set published over ten years, we finally reach his birth in the ''third''.
** This formed the central joke in ''A Cock And Bull Story'', which is [[{{Mockumentary}} about the making of]] a film adaptation of the novel (widely considered unfilmable), thereby becoming a recursive instance of this trope -- a film-within-a-film whose subject is a book-within-a-book.
* ''Literature/OnTheRun'': Aiden and Meg constantly save themselves in dangerous situations by using tricks from the ''Mac Mulvey'' HardBoiledDetective novel series, with Mulvey being a fictional character who their father created.
* The quiz show in ''Literature/QAndA'', which is so obviously a Bland Name ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' that [[Film/SlumdogMillionaire the film]] just uses the real show.
* ''Literature/JimSpringmanAndTheRealmOfGlory'' has ''The Realm of Glory'', a wildly popular fantasy story written by Jim Springman's sister. The story involve's Jim's hometown merging with the fantasy world of ''The Realm of Glory''. HilarityEnsues.
* The Jack O'Connell novel ''The Resurrectionist'' features a comic book series about a carnival freak show in fantasy Central Europe called "Limbo." "Limbo" is a multimedia franchise in the book's world, and the hero's comatose son was fascinated by it. The word is also an [[ArcWords arc word]] outside of the comic.
* In ''Literature/AnElegyForTheStillLiving'', the author interrupts his character's journey to tell him a story. That story also contains a story within it.
* In the Creator/RoaldDahl story "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar", the title character discovers a FictionalDocument which is an account of a doctor in British India and how he encountered a man with real yogi powers: said document is quoted in full, as a story-within-a-story. Furthermore, the document itself includes the complete life story of the yogi himself, making that a story-within-a-story-within-a-story.
* The romance novels of "Rosie M. Banks" in ''[[Literature/JeevesAndWooster The Inimitable Jeeves]]''. Since they're all centered around [[UptownGirl inter-class love affairs]], Jeeves advises Bingo Little to read them to his uncle, in the hopes that the power of suggestion will prepare him to fund Bingo's pending marriage to a lowly waitress. HilarityEnsues when the uncle becomes a huge fan, and Bingo furthers the ZanyScheme by [[SeeminglyProfoundFool introducing Bertie to him as the author]]. [[spoiler:And when the real author turns up, Bingo ends up marrying her instead]].
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', the Tale of the Three Brothers is included and important.
* The title character of ''Ack Ack Macaque'' is also the central character of a very popular MMPORG set in a DieselPunk version of WWII.
* ''Literature/SophiesWorld'' has a bit of a twist: [[spoiler:The majority of the book ''is'' the show within the show. The novel doesn't diverge from the in-universe version of itself until Sophie escapes into the "real" world.]]
* In the web series ''Literature/{{Relativity}},'' there is a comic book based on the exploits of the original Black Torrent. Reading the comic helps inspire Michael to become the new Black Torrent.
* At one point in ''Literature/TheDragonHoard'', the heroes are captured by a sorcerer who demands they tell him a story or being killed and eaten. The story they tell is quoted in full.
* ''Literature/{{Thud}}'': It's a plot point that Vimes reads book-within-a-book ''Where's My Cow'', a kiddie primer on animals and the sounds they make, to his son at precisely six o'clock. Specifically, when he's separated from his son by plot events, he starts yelling out the words in an attempt to let Sam Jr. hear them. While fighting underground. [[PunctuatedPounding THAT! IS! NOT! MY! COW!!!]]
* ''Literature/DrakeMaijstral'': Drake's own exploits (like those of most of the top allowed burglars) are the basis of a loosely fictionalized and very popular show. Drake himself doesn't watch the show, which offends the young star who plays him when they finally meet.
* ''Literature/ANecklaceOfFallenStars'': As a storyteller, Kaela naturally tells tales throughout her journey. The first one she relates is part of a bargain: if she tells a satisfying story, Kippen's captors will let both him and Kaela free.
* Initially in ''Literature/ATouchOfJen'', the spiritual self-help book ''The Apple Bush'' is simply a book that Jen is a fan of. Its spiritual talkings of Signifiers, Consumate Results, and Toxic Antagonists, however, [[spoiler:end up being completely real and based on the ''The Apple Bush'' author's real experience. A "Fully Manifested Toxic Antagonist" called a Paranormalgus attacks Remy after Alicia's death, and the final act of the novel is his attempts to defeat it.]]
* ''Literature/SmallGame'' follows the cast of the first season of ''Civilization'', a reality show about five strangers surviving in the wild and rebuilding society from the ground up. The "show" breaks down when the survivors are abandoned.
* ''Literature/StoryThieves'':
** A weird version in that Story Thieves is actually a series in the fictional world and you, the reader, are in fact fictional. [[spoiler:Or not, as it turns out that at the end of the last book that James Riley (The real one) publishes the book in the non-fictional world. So there's a 50-50 chance of you being fictional.]]
** A more traditional example shows up in the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, the Doc Twilight comics, The Doyle Holmes books, Earth Girl, and The Time Prison.
In ''Literature/TempleMatthewReilly'', we get to read the manuscript.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** "Literature/TheAuthorsOrdeal": The poem outlines a ScienceFiction plot to show the [[TheMadnessPlace obsession with writing, to the exclusion of everything else]].
** "Literature/TheSecretSense": The martians greatly respect ''portwem'' composer Bar Danin, and will play "Canals in the Desert" while the human character can perceive it.
* ''Literature/KaneSeries'': In ''Dark Crusade'' Erill and Javro get back to Ingoldi, where they find employment with the Theater Guild and take part in the production of patriotic pageant ''The Invincible March of the Sword of Sataki.'' This allows Javro to get into Orted's citadel and talk to his love Esketra, which he's been dreaming of for months [[spoiler: and, since Esketra is an OpportunisticBastard, which brings doom onto Erill and her friends at the Theater Guild]].
* ''Literature/XanaduStoryverse'': A few of the works people cosplayed for [[BecomingTheCostume and thus were turned into characters from]], such as ''The Adventures of Young Arkadais'', ''Gamimon'', and ''Traps & Treasures'', were created purely for the stories.
----

!!PlotParallel

* The PassionPlay in the novel ''Christ Recrucified'', by Nikos Kazantzakis, reflects the fate of all characters who take part in it.
* A major plot point in ''Literature/{{VALIS}}''. Kevin convinces his friends Horselover Fat and Philip K. Dick to go watch a movie named ''Valis'', and the three of them realize that the events in the film parallel the bizarre visions that Fat has been having. Before, they had been able to dismiss these visions as hallucinations, but seeing the film convinces them that someone really was contacting Fat, and this same someone had also contacted the filmmaker.
* The Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse has "Battlecruiser ''Vengeance''", a Klingon space opera featuring the adventures of a Klingon starship captain and crew.
* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Psychic Investigator'', in which the main characters are strangely similar to Richard Jeperson and himself, only adjusted for an AwfulBritishSexComedy. Flicking through it, he's a bit annoyed that "Robert Jasperson" gets all the action, while "Bert Royal" spends his time peering through keyholes.
* In Dahl's ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', the Oompa-Loompa song that follows on from Violet's gum-chewing-based undoing is primarily the GreekChorus recounting the sad, cautionary tale of one Miss Bigelow. She had a similar habit and wound up ''biting her tongue in two and going mad'', and the Oompa-Loompas promise that they will try to ensure Violet won't go down a similar path. (Adaptations usually drop this bit.) In the sequel ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', they recount a similar story involving a little girl and powerful laxatives in the wake of the grandparents (aside from Joe) taking too much of a FountainOfYouth pill.
* About half of ''Literature/TheGhostWriter'' is filled with them. However, only one of them is the mostly connected with the life of the protagonist and his mother, Gerard and Phyllis, respectively, the story that simply titled as "The Ghost".
* ''Literature/TheReader2016'' has the exploits of Captain Reed and his crew that Sefia reads about in the book, until she finds out that they're all real and she's been reading their history.
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