My daughter found this great example of what happens when the author enters the story from a children’s book:
‘Am I supposed to know you, boy?’ Auburn Sally asked.
Conner was shocked by the treatment he was receiving from his own characters. He had expected a warm and gracious welcome, but instead the heroine of his story was holding a gun to his head. Without him none of them would even exist! He wondered if this was what an underappreciated parent felt like.
He held his hands up and backed away from the pistol. ‘Okay, time out!’ he said. ‘Everyone just calm down and let me explain! My name is Conner Bailey, and this is my sister, Alex. I know this is hard to believe, but I’m your creator! We are living in a short story I wrote for my eighth-grade English class!
Auburn Sally looked at him with more perplexity than that of all her crew added together. ‘He’s got yellow fever,’ she said. ‘Prepare the plank! We need to get him off the ship at once!’
‘I’m not sick, either!’ Conner said. ‘Fine! If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it!’
He then proceeds to call out each character by name to prove that he knows them/created them. The response:
…’There’s only one explanation for how a young man we’ve never met before could possibly know so much,’ Auburn Sally said. ‘He’s a warlock! Tie him and his sister up! We’ll burn them at the stake on the next island we find!
– from Chris Colfer, The Land of Stories: An Author’s Odyssey, pp. 114-116
