Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic on-line literature, characterized by the use of Hypertext which provides a new context for non-linearity in "literature" and reader interaction.
The first hypertext fictions were published prior to the development of the World Wide Web, using software such as Storyspace and Hypercard. Michael Joyce's Afternoon, a story is generally considered the first hypertext fiction.

The Typographer (the movie) 1999

Metafiction is a term applied to works of fiction that are concerned with the nature of fiction or the process of writing fiction in order to explore questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. Proponents of metafiction reject the concept that language reflects a coherent and objective world; instead, they assert that language is a complex, arbitrary system that can create its own forms and meanings. Their work intends to analyze the relationship between this linguistic system and the outside world. The Typographer is a good example of a metafiction based on potential future events. It folds in on itself by using the main protagonist as a metaphore for the structure of language. At the same time Singleton's text reminds us that meaning is in flux like Derrida's aporia.

Constructing a Metafiction

What is metafiction?
These particular conventions are employed in the construction of a metafiction:

• reality is no longer understandable; history is just fiction (or constructions) (Fran Hilfigure - "Theories for a New Era")
• language as an arbitrary system (J. T. Singleton - "The Typographer")
Jane Singleton’s book entitled “The Typographer” is a science metafiction where reality dovetails with unreality. Part cyberpunk it considers certain aspects of Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto and blends this with the scholarship of Derrida by way of negative capability. That is to say, that doubts and the grasping at meaning are suspended - but we are still left in suspense.
• the paradoxical status of author--power or no power (Franz Hidlberg -"Little Green Men")
• foregrounding the fiction of fiction and reality (Jane C. Hornby's "Bridges")
• intertextuality (Paul Johnson - "Earthquakes")