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33 Writing Terms You Should Know

By Simon Kewin

As with all activities, writing fiction involves getting to grips with professional jargon. The following are some of the more common terms you may come across as you learn your craft and market your writing.

POV Point of View: the eyes through which the events of a story are seen.

MC The main character in a story.

WIP Work in progress : the thing you are currently working on.

Simsub Simultaneous submission : submitting the same piece of work to more than one magazine/publisher at the same time.

Multisub Multiple submission : sending more than one work to the same magazine/publisher at the same time.

MG Middle Grade – generally speaking, readers between 8 and 12 years old.

YA Young Adult – generally speaking, readers between 12 and 18 years old.

MS/MSS MS means manuscript. MSS is the plural : manuscripts.

GL Guidelines, describing what a publisher is interested in seeing.

DL Deadline: the cut off-date for a submission.

Query Letter A concise (one-page) pitch of an idea to an agent/publisher, to see if they are interested in reading a manuscript.

Bio Biographical details as supplied to an agent or publisher, including, for example, any previous writing credits.

Slush/Slushpile A pile, often large, of unsolicited manuscripts sent to a publisher or editor.

Beta Reader A secondary reader (after the writer) who checks a work with a view to spotting mistakes or suggesting improvements.

Copy Editor Someone who edits a manuscript for grammatical mistakes as well as spotting plot inconsistencies etc.

Proof Reader A person who checks that the proof of a work (the version ready for printing) matches the original manuscript.

NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month – actually fairly international these days. Participants attempt to write a complete novel in one month (November).

The following are the definitions of the lengths of short stories, novels etc. employed by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Others may use different definitions.

Short Story A work under 7,500 words

Novelette A work of between 7,500 and 17,500 words

Novella A work of between 17,500 and 40,000 words

Novel A work of 40,000 words or more

Other fiction lengths :

Flash Fiction Very short fiction. Definitions vary, but less than 1,000 words and can be as short as 100 words or even less.

Twitter Fiction Fiction short enough to fit into a Tweet, i.e. up to 140 characters long.

Finally, the following are some of the abbreviations you may come across to describe the various genres of fiction :

SF Science Fiction (or Speculative Fiction).

HSF Hard Science Fiction

SSF Soft Science Fiction

F Fantasy

EF Epic/High Fantasy

DF Dark Fantasy

UF Urban Fantasy

MR Magical Realism

H Horror

GH Gothic Horror

Science Fiction Writers of America

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

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Original Post: 33 Writing Terms You Should Know

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on March 07, 2010 (boomark / email).