Antichapter 5: A Small Plot Change

The adversary was making progress. He had created the first several antichapters and created an antimuse to help him carry out his plan. Now he had to take the next step: to get the the antimuse into the metanovel.

To do that, he planned to get the author to imagine a muse in the metanovel and substitute the metamuse in her place. Once the metamuse was in the metanovel the adversary would be well on his way to taking control.

To get the author to want a muse in the metanovel he’d have to convince the author that he needed a muse to help him.

Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, he thought.

To convince the author he wanted a muse to help him he’d need a metaomniscient metanarrator, very much like the one that had already appeared on page 43 in Chapter 9, Finding a Publisher. Then he’d need the metaomniscient metanarrator to make the tiny, tiny change it had already made in the already-written Chapter 11, The Greatest Publisher In The Metauniverse, on page 46, by adding to the Publisher’s words, “You need some professional help. I suggest you get an editor,” the words “On second thought, a muse. Yes. A muse. Much better than an editor. A muse is exactly what you need. Get a muse!.”

Then, when the author was suggestible, he’d have to have to suggest that the author reread Chapter 11. That was the hard part, because the author was almost never suggestible. He listened to no one else’s suggestions, and regularly ignored his own. He was suggestible at only at one time: at a certain point, as he moved from unconsciousness to consciousness.

Right now the author was unconscious. He had been unconscious for all four of the previous antichapters and so far had been unconscious, during this one. Like all unconscious entities, he was metaunconscious—unconscious of his own unconsciousness. And he was unconscious of that, too. Once you go unconscious, it’s meta all the way down.

But the author would not stay unconscious for much longer. He was now on page 73. When he got to page 77 he’d start a chapter that he could only write when conscious. So he started to become un-uncounsious. In one more sentence he’d at the point of maximum suggestibility. The adversary made the suggestion now, and the author accepted it now, and Chapter 12 which a moment ago would have been called Getting An Editor had it existed, would now be called How To Create A Muse Without A Muse, once it existed, which it would shortly.

The deed was done. Chapter 12 was about to start. The adversary’s plan to start the subplot that would get the antimuse into the metanovel, where she would convince the author to destroy all that he had written, and eventually give him control of the metanovel, the author’s life, and possibly the entire world, was working, despite 38 words between its subject and its verb.

“Mwah hah hah hah ha!” The adversary typed, ending the antichapter.

Refs:

4Antimuse Redux

6I’m In!82

Bad Feelings

“I’m getting very bad feelings about this adversary,” said the metanovel. “If his plan works and he gets you to throw away what you’ve written, what happens to me?”

“I’m sorry,” typed the adversary. “The number that you’ve reached is no longer in service. Please check the number and try again.”