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* 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.
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* In the 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.
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* In the RobertRankin 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.
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* ''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. 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 the Nazi-dominated post-war world]].
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* ''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.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 improvement]] over the Nazi-dominated a post-war world]].
world dominated by Nazi Germany, who have reached borderline OmnicidalManiac levels of lunacy in their quest for racial purity.
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* ''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. 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 the Nazi-dominated post-war world]].
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* 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 [[FoeYay Simon and his nemesis Baz]].
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* In ''Literature/TheGirlsSeries'' by 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.]]
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* In ''Literature/TheGirlsSeries'' by JacquelineWilson, 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.]]
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* 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".
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* ''Literature/DonQuixote'': ''"The Ill-Advised Curiosity"'' is a true indepent 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.
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* ''Literature/DonQuixote'': ''"The Ill-Advised Curiosity"'' is a true indepent 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.
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* 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.
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* ''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.]]
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* The title character of ''Ack Ack Macaque'' is also the central character of a very popular MMPORG set in a DieselPunk version of WWII.
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* The quiz show in ''SlumdogMillionaire''.
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* The quiz show in ''SlumdogMillionaire''.''Literature/QAndA'', which is so obviously a Bland Name ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' that [[Film/SlumdogMillionaire the film]] just uses the real show.
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* "A Story by John V. Marsch" the second story in ''The Fifth Head of Cerberus'' by GeneWolfe is written by a character who appears in the other two. This just adds to the MindScrew off the book.
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* "A Story by John V. Marsch" the second story in ''The Fifth Head of Cerberus'' by GeneWolfe Creator/GeneWolfe is written by a character who appears in the other two. This just adds to the MindScrew off the book.
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* In HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows, the Tale of the Three Brothers is included and important.
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* In HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows, ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', the Tale of the Three Brothers is included and important.
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* The story of Kelly Link's award-winning novella, ''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.
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* The story of Kelly Link's award-winning novella, ''MagicForBeginners'', ''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.
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* ''Literature/ToBeOrNotToBeThatIsTheAdventure'', Ryan North's ChooseYourOwnAdventure version of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' turns ''The Murder of Gonzago'' into a Choose Your Own Adventure book within the larger work.
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* ''Literature/ToBeOrNotToBeThatIsTheAdventure'', Ryan North's ChooseYourOwnAdventure version of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', turns ''The Murder of Gonzago'' into a Choose Your Own Adventure book within the larger work.
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I\'m adding an example.
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* ''Literature/ToBeOrNotToBeThatIsTheAdventure'', Ryan North's ChooseYourOwnAdventure version of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' turns ''The Murder of Gonzago'' into a Choose Your Own Adventure book within the larger work.
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* 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.
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* [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]: David's writings, especially once [[spoiler: he gets published.]]
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal 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.
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal 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.
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator'', in which the main characters are strangely similar to Richard Jeperson and himself, only adjusted for an AwfulBritishSexComedy.
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal 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.
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator'', who's main characters are strangely similar to Richard Jeperson and himself, only adjusted for an AwfulBritishSexComedy.
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator'', who's in which the main characters are strangely similar to Richard Jeperson and himself, only adjusted for an AwfulBritishSexComedy.
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* In the Literature/DiogenesClub short story "Soho Golem", Fred Regent finds a paperback in an adult bookshop called ''Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator'', who's main characters are strangely similar to Richard Jeperson and himself, only adjusted for an AwfulBritishSexComedy.
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* 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.
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* In the Creator/RobertRankin 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.
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* 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.
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* 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.
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* 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]].
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* Tanya Huff's [[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.
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* Tanya Huff's [[SmokeAndShadows [[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.
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* ''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.
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* ''JimSpringmanAndTheRealmOfGlory'' ''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.
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*Half of PeterPaysTribute is this. The main character is writing a novel, and that novel is half wish fulfillment, half allegory for his own troubled existence.
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!!Examples of type 1 (characters involved in production)
* ''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 {{Redwall}} books have Plays Within A Book occasionally, notably in ''Marlfox'' with the [[MundaneMadeAwesome Duel of Insults]].
* ''The Rolling Stones'' 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 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.
* 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; ''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 [[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.
* JeffVandermeer'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 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.
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!!Examples of type 2 (characters are fans)
* The story of Kelly Link's award-winning novella, ''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 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.
** Avoiding type 1, 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/DonQuixote'': ''"The Ill-Advised Curiosity"'' is a true indepent 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 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.]]
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!!Examples of type 3 (SWAS is plot point)
* All three Dream Park 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.
* The quiz show in ''SlumdogMillionaire''.
* ''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 ''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 HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows, the Tale of the Three Brothers is included and important.
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!!Examples of type 4 (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 StarTrekExpandedUniverse has "Battlecruiser ''Vengeance''", a Klingon space opera featuring the adventures of a Klingon starship captain and crew.
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* ''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 {{Redwall}} books have Plays Within A Book occasionally, notably in ''Marlfox'' with the [[MundaneMadeAwesome Duel of Insults]].
* ''The Rolling Stones'' 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 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.
* 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; ''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 [[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.
* JeffVandermeer'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 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.
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!!Examples of type 2 (characters are fans)
* The story of Kelly Link's award-winning novella, ''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 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.
** Avoiding type 1, 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/DonQuixote'': ''"The Ill-Advised Curiosity"'' is a true indepent 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 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.]]
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!!Examples of type 3 (SWAS is plot point)
* All three Dream Park 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.
* The quiz show in ''SlumdogMillionaire''.
* ''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 ''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 HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows, the Tale of the Three Brothers is included and important.
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!!Examples of type 4 (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 StarTrekExpandedUniverse has "Battlecruiser ''Vengeance''", a Klingon space opera featuring the adventures of a Klingon starship captain and crew.
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