Typewriter in the Sky

Typewriter in the Sky is a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, originally published as a magazine serial in 1940.

After pulp novel writer Horace Hackett bases the villain of his new swashbuckling novel on his friend Mike de Wolf, Mike finds himself sucked into the novel and forced to act out the role. He struggles to survive in a strange, arbitrary and badly-written new world.


 * Creator Cameo: In the sequence where Hackett goes to show his editor the manuscript in progress, he briefly meets one of his fellow writers, Rene Lafayette -- that being one of the pseudonyms of Lafayette Ron Hubbard.
 * Executive Meddling: In-universe. Partway through, Hackett's editor starts complaining that the villainous Miguel de Lobo is not villainous enough (not to mention being more well-rounded and charismatic than the novel's intended hero), and imposes a set of rewrites.
 * Designated Villain: Invoked; Miguel de Lobo comes across as this due to Mike lacking enthusiasm for the role.
 * Fourth Wall Shut-in Story: Variation: an author bases a character in his new novel on a friend, and the friend gets sucked into the novel and forced to play the role of the character.
 * Genre Deconstruction
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty: Miguel de Lobo with the captured heroine of the novel. Mike is not happy about it.
 * Inferred Holocaust: At the end, we see what happens to the world of Hackett's novel when the story's over; left unstated, but not unimplied, is that Hackett's "real world" will shortly undergo the same fate.
 * Meaningful Name: Hackett the hack writer.
 * Rage Against the Author: Mike, rather a lot.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: In-universe, Hackett struggles with Miguel de Lobo (the only rounded character in a world of cardboard cut-outs) stealing the spotlight from the novel's intended hero.
 * Swashbuckler
 * Trapped in TV Land: Mike, trapped in the novel.
 * Tuckerization: In-universe, Hackett basing Miguel de Lobo on Mike de Wolf.