How to beat TOAH 99 ? pictured tesarion , gildong and aria can only 6 one of these <| sep |> Thanks for the reply . I ' d like to answer any questions , as well as provide insight . I think meta characters and dialogue which breaks the 4 th wall is very interesting and underused , especially in short stories and novels . To give you an example , I ' m working on a sortof mock drama right now where the character knows he is in a play , and wants it to go well . He gives direction to the script in which he tries to end up with the leading lady , defeat the primary antagonist , etc . He doesn ' t know he ' s the protagonist though , and once he realizes , it throws him for a loop and he has to cope with everything a hero represents because I ' ve also made him a type of person who hates the limelight . Outside of this , I ' ve also written characters who are given texts or objects to allow them to know what is happening at any given time . Kind of a cheat and a plot device , I know , but otherwise like you said it ' d be very difficult without . I ' ve also written characters from death talking about their lives , but the reader didn ' t know they were dead .