Common Jargon for New Writers

  New to writing? Here is your quick guide to writing terminology, in alphabetical order.

Active/Passive Voice The active voice refers to a sentence structure where the subject acts upon the object. The passive voice refers to a structure where the subject is acted upon. Example:

Active: Bob threw the ball.

Passive: The ball was thrown by Bob.

Backstory All relevant events that occurred before the story began.

Character Any person who populates your story.

Character A Placeholder term (often used in writing prompts) that refers to an unnamed, usually ungendered character. If there is more than one such character, other letters such as B, C, and D are used.

Character Arc The development of a character's personality or moral fiber throughout a story or series. Can be positive (character grows and improves morally), negative (character fails and regresses morally), or flat (characters ends up where he began).

Climax The highest point of the story, where the conflict comes to a head, and the main character must triumph, or all is lost. See also Conflict.

Conflict The problem in the story that the main character must solve.

Crisis The point in the story at which everything is going wrong for the main character, and the climax becomes inevitable. See also Climax, Story Structure.

Denouement The end of a story, where all the strands that make up the story are tied up, the arcs are completed, etc. See also Story Structure.

Element The building blocks of a story: time, place, characters, important items, etc.

Exposition Any explanation or description in a story, usually conveyed through telling. See also Showing/Telling.

Fanfic An abbreviated form of "fan fiction." Refers to stories that are written by fans of a certain existing published story, movie, etc., and set in that story's world or using that story's elements (characters, races, system of magic, etc.). Sometimes further abbreviated to "fic."

First/Second/Third Person Refers to the point of view used in a piece of writing. Example:

First Person: I threw the ball.

Second person: You threw the ball.

Third Person: Bob [or he] threw the ball.

Freytag's Pyramid A story structure in which the story progresses from set-up, through rising action and the climax, and finally ends with the denouement. See also Story Structure.

Genre Refers to what kind of writing one does. Examples include fantasy, science fiction, poetry, historical fiction, realistic fiction, etc. See also Subgenre.

Headhopping When an author writing from the third-person limited point of view jumps from the thoughts of the POV character to the thoughts or experiences of another character. See also POV, Omniscient/Closed.

MC Short for "main character."

OC Short for "original character," used in fanfiction or fan art to denote that this character is the author's own creation.

Omniscient/Closed Refers to the third person point of view. If the third person narrator is omniscient, the reader can see the thoughts of all the characters. If the third person narrator is closed (also called "limited"), the reader can only see the thoughts of one character. See also Headhopping, POV.

OTP Short for "one true pairing." Mostly used in fan fiction, this refers to the author's preferred relationship between two characters, whether it exists in canon or not. See also Ship.

POV Short for "point of view." Refers to who is narrating or whose thoughts we're seeing. See also First/Second/Third Person.

Ship An abbreviated form of "relationship." Another fanfiction term. When used as a verb, this means to root for two characters to get together. See also OTP.

Showing/Telling Refers to how the writer conveys information in a story. Showing is when information is conveyed through a character's actions, interactions, dialogue, etc. Telling is when information is conveyed directly. Examples:

Showing: A tear slid down Bob's cheek.

Telling: Bob felt sad.

Story Structure Refers to the construction and development of the story from beginning to end. See also Freytag's Pyramid.

Subgenre A genre within a genre, or a cross between two genres. For example, magical realism is a subgenre of fantasy, and historical romance is a cross between historical fiction and romance.

System of Magic The logic, rules, and structure behind any magic, superpowers, etc. that exist in one's fictional world. See also Worldbuilding.

WIP Short for "work in progress." This is what you're writing (or editing, as the case may be) at the moment.

Worldbuilding In speculative or fiction, the exposition and elements that create in the reader's mind the illusion of another world's (or another time's) existence.