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Fanspeak?! A brief fanfic glossary

On Monday I talked about fanfiction archives and how well-labeled archives rock. But, if any of you went running off to read fanfiction, confident in your skills, you might have noticed all of the crazy acronyms and terminology. And then you might have run back in confusion and fear.

I don't really blame you.

Because Fanfiction has its own lexicon.

However, my friends, I am here to save you! Today I'm gonna quickly cover what I consider to be the basics of fanspeak--the terms that newfledged fanfic readers should find particularly useful when scouring the archives. So check it:

Fandom
Fandom refers to the fan-based community dedicated to a certain book, movie, tv show, video game, comic, etc, etc. It includes everything and anything that is fan created--so fanfiction is a huge part of fandom.

Gen • Het • Slash • Femslash
All of these terms have something to do with romantic parings in fanfiction. Gen refers to general fanfiction where there is no romance. Het is short for a heterosexual pairing. Slash refers to male homosexual pairings, and thus, femslash refers specifically to lesbian pairings. Many fandoms also have character specific terms, which you'll have to figure out on your own, since they can be pretty much anything, including: names, acronyms, initials, and spliced words.

Canon, fanon, and head-canon
Canon refers to elements that are officially established by the source material. For example, it's canon that Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts. Fanon, on the other hand is a combination of "fan" and "canon," so it's usually something that the fandom has accepted as canon. In the case of Harry Potter, before the last book came out, a lot of people had decided that Hermione was going to be Head Girl. Head-canon is what you personally think to be true about something in a fandom, even though it's not officially canon of widely accepted by the fandom.

Shippers and their OTPs
A shipper is a person who ships a certain ship. Yes. It's two different nouns and a verb. Just understand that "ship" is short for "romantic relationship" and shippers are all about supporting their favorite one. Hopefully you get the gist. Anyway, OTP stands for One True Pairing. It's usually used as an expression of one's support for their favorite ship.

OCs and Mary Sues
OC stands for Original Character, which is pretty self explanatory. Mary Sues are technically OCs, however Mary Sues are usually a self-insertion of the author. They are characterized by being perfect, exotic, and tragic, yet horribly obnoxious. People like OCs and they hate Mary Sues.

Citrus: Lemons and limes
Citrus is a, uhh, term that refers to the steamy romance times in a fanfic. Lime is usually anything up to heavy petting and lemon is sex, be it chaste or graphic.

Fanfic labels
There are about a billion different acronyms and terms to quickly describe the content in a fanfic, and I'm not going to cover all of them, because, like I said, a billion. Instead, I'll give you some of the most common labels:

• AU: Alternate Universe. Wherein the fanfic takes place in a different world from canon.
• PWP: "Plot? What Plot?" Unabashed adult fanfiction.
• RPF: Real Person Fanfic. Fanfiction about real people--usually actors or musicians.
• OOC: Out-of-Character. In which the characters do not act like themselves. WHICH IS LAME.
• X-Over: Fanfiction that combines characters/situations from two different fandoms.

And that's all for now! Like I said, this is only a smidgen of fanspeak, so if you ever run into something you don't understand, there's always Moonbeam's Fanfiction Terminology. It's a little dated, but definitely a good resource.

Now tell me, what do you guys think about fanspeak? Have any crazy stories about not knowing what something means? Think it's ridiculous that there's a learning curve to this nonsense? Or did I miss a term that desperately needs to be added posthaste? Tell me in the comments.

Where to go fanfic hunting

So, I'm kind of on a fanfiction kick right now and I realized that back during Fanfiction Week, I never told you guys how to find fanfiction online. I just ranted about it for while and assumed that you all knew what you were doing.

Which is a stupid assumption. Because fanfiction archives are kind of messy. There's a lot of mediocre writing out there and there's also a lot of writing directed towards an audience that's 18 years and older. Finding good fanfiction can be difficult and ultimately discouraging. Especially if you don't know where to start.

So I'm going to give you some sites to work with. You can explore them, you can ignore them, but if you ever want to read fanfiction, then these are the places to go:

• FanFiction.Net
  http://www.fanfiction.net/
  FF.net is . . . well, it's the easiest place to find fanfiction, but it's also the easiest place to post fanfiction. So while there's variety, it's basically a giant slush pile. You have to be careful too, because while they supposedly family friendly and don't allow 18+ fanfiction, a lot of people ignore that rule and things aren't labeled well. If you're gonna tackle FF.net, find ONE good story and then work from that author's favorites list--good writers tend to flock together.
   
• MediaMiner
  http://mediaminer.org/
  An alternative to FF.net, though if I had to make a comparison, I'd say it's like the MySpace to FF.net's Facebook. The site is active, but it feels pretty dead. The setup is similar to FF.net, but MediaMiner has a heavy focus on anime and is totally fine with 18+ fanfiction. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan and I only mention it because it's a notable contender.
   
• LiveJournal
  http://www.livejournal.com/
  LJ is the place to go if you're looking for high quality in small doses for specific topics. The way it works is that communities/groups are formed in LJ that revolve around a certain fandom or pairing, and then people contribute fanfiction to these groups. However, LJ is for the older crowd, as this is where the 18+ fics thrive. It's easy to avoid that kind of material, since everything's well-organized and well-labeled, but be aware.
   
• Archive of Our Own
  http://archiveofourown.org/
  Yet another setup similar to FF.Net and MediaMiner, but AO3's big perk is the fact that it's fan-created and fan-run. Right now it's still in beta, but there are a ton of fantastic fanfic writers flocking here, which has created a higher standard than what's seen at FF.net and MediaMiner. However, the archive is open to any and all fanfiction, so many LJ people are present and there's a ton of 18+ material, which is, however labeled.

These four websites are only the ones that I have the most personal experience with. Hopefully they'll help the curious on their journey into fanfiction land. However, just remember that there's more out there. For example, if you're a Harry Potter fan, FictionAlley and all of its offshoots might be the place for you. Just make sure to have fun with it!

And before I leave, a quick disclaimer: Fanfiction can involve a lot of crazy stuff. Adult themes run rampant and you need to be careful when perusing material. Make sure to read story summaries and warning labels so you aren't surprised later on. Only you can decide what you're comfortable with, but just remember that fanfiction is supposed to be fun, not traumatizing. :)

Now, if you're the type to read fanfiction, where do you go to get your fix? One of the places I mentioned above, or somewhere else? Or do you prefer to avoid fanfiction? Tell me in the comments.

Search term madness!

We have all googled something at some point. And really, most of the search terms that people use to get to this blog are boring. Things like "mac vs pc," "do writers play video games," and "sailor moon." However, there is also a plethora of entertaining search terms, and that is what we are going to look at today.

brown blob slug bottom squid ink
. . . what does that even mean?

cliphunt sexy videos
You were disappointed, weren't you?

cool things to do with binder clips
You know, I could totally do a post on this topic. Anyone interested? My obsession with binder clips has provided me with an unnatural well of knowledge on the subject. Hmm, maybe in a few weeks.

freakishly creepy trees
Bahahahahahaha! My life is complete now.

got bit by something at yellowstone
That's a bit concerning. However, I think it might help to be more specific. Were you bitten by a bug or a bear? 'Cause, uhh, I think there will be different symptoms involved . . . you know, itching vs. bleeding out? Yeah.

i also want you
Umm, well, err, okay. That's nice. Especially, since I apparently wanted you first?

i live in scrivener
This is a good thing. A very good thing. Scrivener is pretty much the best program ever.

is friday an adverb?
No. It's not. It's a noun.

is loving an adverb?
Also no. "Loving" would be a verb. Or a gerund in special cases . . . which is a noun.

narrative point of view squidd
I'm pretty sure that would be a boring book:

Today I battled with a with a sperm whale, but alas, our eternal feud must continue on for another day. However, I did get a nice, meaty chunk out of its side . . . though since consumption three of my tentacles have been twitching sporadically. I cannot imagine why.

picture of invading army
I'm so glad that you stumbled onto this blog in your search for suitably epic imagery. More people need to know about the impending threat on our soils.

stylish squid blog
Yessssssss. That's right. :D

what can i do with my dead llama
What can you do? WHAT CAN YOU DO?! What a silly question. Why, you can pay attention. :D

where do the keep squidzilla
Squidzilla? Why would you think that they keep Squidzilla somewhere? *shifty eyes* You don't think that they're training Squidzilla to attack, do you? That Squidzilla is, as we speak, cultivating a taste for human flesh and buildings in Tokyo? That would be silly! *high-pitched laugh*

See, wasn't that fun? So have you guys gotten any particularly exciting search term hits on your blogs/websites? Google Analytics is the easiest way to keep track of that kind of information, if you were wondering. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

The Man Story

Hi. I have a question for all of you. But first, some background!

So I spent my college education primarily as a creative writing major. As such, I spent a lot of time in workshop classes. For anyone that doesn't know, a workshop is basically a giant critique group. There's kind of a debate on the net about whether they're a waste of time or not, but I'll talk about that some other day.

Anyway, there are two things to know about fiction writing workshops in college: 1) they're all about short stories, and 2) they strongly encourage that you write literary fiction. When you Take these two things and throw them at a dude, something exciting will happen. This is what we like to call the Man Story.

But let's cut to the chase and just define what makes a story the Man Story:

• The author and narrator are both college males
• The narrator's best friend is kind of a womanizing douchebag
• But the narrator actually is a decent guy
• They may smoke pot together at some point
• The narrator doesn't know where he's going with his life
• There is a girl who once had relations with the narrator or the douchebag
• The narrator and the girl have unresolved sexual tension
• There is usually some kind of mundane task involved
• And a lot of the time said task doesn't gets completed
• The narrator has an epiphany of some sort--usually that his life sucks
• Nothing much really happens at all ... other than the mundane task

Does that sound familiar to you guys? It probably will if you've gone through college level creative writing workshops. Then again, maybe it won't. Which is why I'm posting this today, because I'm curious whether this phenomenon was limited to Montana people or whether this is worldwide sort of thing.

So really, tell me. Does this sound familiar? Have you read the Man Story before? Better yet, have you written a version of the Man Story? Tell me about it in the comments.

The great binder clip hunt

One of my favorite times of year is Back to School season. Not because I have an affinity for the moans of young children as summer's end draws near, but because cool office supplies are in abundance. Ha, bet I've lost you all now, since, you know, it's not actually Back to School season. Well, that's the reason behind this post, actually.

Now, I told myself a long time ago that when I finished a full-length manuscript I would do two things: 1) I would get said manuscript printed out so I could luxuriate in its papery goodness, and 2) I would hold that papery goodness together with big, sexy binder clips. For some reason, I have always associated manuscripts with binder clips, so this seemed like a fantastic idea.

Then, of course, I finished a manuscript in March.

So Boyfriend and I went to Office Max. There we printed my manuscript out and searched for shiny new office supplies. I felt like I deserved delicious new goodies in which to rip my writing to shreds. Unfortunately, I usually binge on such supplies during back to school season, where there's an actual selection.

We grabbed some Sharpie highlighters, but found that there were no boxes of red Bic pens. And the binder clip selection? Totally wussy. They were all small and black. They couldn't hold 20 pages when my manuscript was almost 400. It was a disappointment, but we left the Office Max in good spirits and headed towards our other options.

There was nothing promising at Fred Meyer but some cool Post-It notes. Staples was home to the rare and elusive box of red Bic pens, but their binder clip selection was just as weak as Office Max's. Maybe this should have been an issue--but I had seen shiny fleur-de-lis binder clips there just a couple months ago! Wal-Mart was the last option, and while there were colorful binder clips, they were still so small. My manuscript was three inches thick. Where was giant binder clip for which I was searching?!

Simply enough, it was nowhere to be found.

I know they exist. You know the ones I'm talking about. Those giant binders clips that, if necessary, could work like a tourniquet for a young child. I've seen them before. So have you. But their absence, plus the strange rarity of those red pens brought me to a conclusion: no one cares about office supplies in March.

The moral of the story? August and September are the blessed months of the office supply nerd. Go shopping then.

In the end, I bought a butt-ton of small and medium binder clips, which I've been using on individual chapters of my manuscript. Someday though, mark my words, I'll find the ultimate binder clip. The god of binder blips. And you can bet that I'll be scoping the stores come Back to School season.

Wow, my hand looks extremely deranged in this picture. Also, binder clips!

So what about you guys? Do you have a fetish for office supplies? Can you only work with a special writing pen or with a specific brand of post-its? Or is any old thing good as long as it works? Also, how do you feel about binder clips? Tell me in the comments.

My cat could be your super villain

Sometimes the craziest things happen when you least expect them . . . aka, when you're sleeping. For those of you who were following me on Twitter a few days ago, you might have found something entertaining in your early morning feed. For those of you that missed it, a quick rundown:

Yes, my cat was dive-bombing headfirst into furniture while playing with a mouse, which was screaming for its life as she flung it into the air. I love cats, but the next time you want to write a good villain, go watch a cat play with a mouse for a while--they're sadistic little fuzzballs.

In fact, animals in general are great to observe when you need help developing a character. Kinda sounds ridiculous, huh? Why not just watch a movie or read a book and observe on those characterizations?

Well, the emotions of animals are often expressed in the extreme.

When your dog is afraid of being left alone and accidentally locks himself in a room, he'll freak out and dig through the sheetrock (the dog was fine, btw). When your prissy cat refuses to drink water out of her bowl, she'll show up every time you go to the bathroom in hopes that you run the tapwater for her (this is a different cat).

They may be a little melodramatic, but these kinds of behaviors are fantastic. They're raw and primal and sometimes that's what a writer needs when trying to flesh out a character. Like animals, people don't always act according to logic, they act according to how they feel.

So next time your characters feel a little flat, channel your pets. Go visit a friend with a dog and watch how he reacts to things. Remember my cat as a super villain: she tortures the hero until he thinks all is lost, but somehow, in the end, he survived to fight another day.

What about you guys--any interesting pet stories? Have cats left you fleshy goodies on your front porch? Have you ever transported a dead llama? Tell me in the comments!

Oh, and if you haven't done so already, go enter my giveaway!

Pay attention to the dead llama

I have a confession: when horrible things are happening to me, I consciously tell myself to pay attention to every detail so I can write about it later. This habit is not so awesome. It usually happens during really awkward moments: like in the middle of an argument with my boyfriend or when I'm bleeding into the dishwater after slicing my hand open with a Slap Chop.

An example, you demand? Okay. But I'm warning you now squeamish people.

For context, this story takes place a few years ago when I was home for the summer and my parents had ditched me for Yellowstone National Park. They're animal-watching people, so they do that. Anyway, we used to have a llama. His name was Astro and he looked like a cuter, fluffier version of the llama from Napoleon Dynamite.

While my parents were gone, Astro the llama decided to lay down and die. I didn't notice this because when I went to feed and water our sheep, Astro looked like he was busy taking a nap instead of being dead. Two days later my parents returned, and as you can imagine, it is unacceptable to leave dead llamas decomposing in the pasture. Something had to be done.

Now instead of asking a neighbor to scoop Astro up with a tractor, my father decided that we were fine with rope and the flatbed trailer. Important fact: an average llama weighs somewhere between 250-450 pounds. And Astro had been decomposing for two days.

Let's sum this up simply: I have never experienced anything that horrifying since. But, if I ever write a zombie story, moving Astro the llama onto the flatbed trailer will be the best research I can ever do. Why? Because I know things about maggots and rotting flesh and the slime that oozes from dead bodies. I could go into great detail about this. But I'm not going to, because it's gross.

Paying attention to details like this is important to being a writer though. I mean, how can you properly describe something even as simple as wood if you've never really paid attention to it? So next time something horrible is happening to you, focus. Things like dead llamas don't come by everyday, and you can never have too much experience on the matter.

So does anyone else do this? Or are your thoughts a little more removed from the event? Tell me in the comments!