Hanging a lampshade, sometimes referred to as hanging a lantern, is a technique where the story consciously recognizes something as being weird or cliché. Sometimes they can feel like the story is winking at the audience; a little “see what we did there.”
2017
An Evening Listening to Neil Gaiman – Author Toolbox Blog Hop
Recently I had the chance to attend a live talk with Neil Gaiman.
“Digression is the sunshine of narrative,” he said with a laugh, politely reassuring the speaker that no one should ever apologize for digressing.