Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning with the Letter O

Image description: A red O
I set the size of this pic to "medium."
Because this post is not about the big O.

Back in the old school days of Writing About Writing I started a lot of articles and TYPES of articles. Everything from literary deconstruction of Skyrim (oh it'll happen....someday) to a series of guest bloggers that are....um....maybe a little less of the really real variety than the ones I run on Tuesdays. And of course there was the glossary.

Then a kid came along and distracted me from pretty much everything. Then cancer. Then other stuff. Some of those articles took a lot longer to prep and write than others and they fell by the wayside a bit. Suffice to say that I soon had my own following wearing glasses and tartan plaid and telling all my new fans that my older stuff from before I sold out was way better.

Well, I never forgot all those threads left incomplete. And just like Leela Bruce is firing up a new fighting article about dialogue attribution tags, and I'm spending some time restarting a new Skyrim game, the glossary will continue forth....right where we left off.

Creative Writing Terms beginning with the letter N.

Ode- a poem written in the form of an address to a particular subject, often lyrical and elevated in style–which is another way of saying it's hella pretentious to do an ode about a person unless you really know what you're doing. So if you use an ode to get laid, first of all go you, but more importantly keep that shit on the downlow like your pet names and baby talk. Ironically, the less you care about something or the less of a person it is, the more socially acceptable an ode is. Odes to wind, seasons and urns are fantastically famous. Odes to cheeseburgers are awesome, and need to be famous.

Of course if you DO really know what you're doing, well....then all bets are off, you magnificent poetic heartripper.

Technically your classic Greek odes had three parts (strophe, antistrophe, epode) but it's SUPER nerdy to understand it, so the quick and dirty version is that Greeks had kind of funny names for iambic and trochaic. (This won't be on the quiz.) If "iambic" and "trochaic" are even too nerdy for you, just know that it has to do with stressed syllables, go enjoy your robust social life, and leave us nerds to our nerdry.

Onomatopoeia- a word that is formed using the sound of the idea it represents. It's a difficult concept to explain, but entirely too much fun to come up with examples of, so here we go:

Whisper- See how the sound of the word sounds like a whisper.
Splash- Sounds like something hitting the water
Click, Clink, Thud, Thump, Sizzle, Pop, Plop, Murmur

Image Description
Pam from Archer looking majestic AF and
riding a dolphin while holding a beer and a
sandwich. The word "Sploosh" is on a banner.

Organization- A word I added to this list because seriously, have you seen how few literary and creative writing terms start with O? It's ridiculous. There's like...three. How am I supposed to work like this? I thought you people were creative! Come up with some O words already!

Anyway your stories need some kind of organization, and while fiction is often chronological, much of it is not. The only real rule for fiction is that anything that isn't more of a vignette should follow a pattern of rising action, climax, and denouement.  Some fiction is spatial, describing a place and using the rising tension to reflect an increase in the intensity of the conflict within successive spaces. Some fiction bounces around in time to literally categorize every interaction in a continuum of least to most in rising action. (Consider how Pulp Fiction moved all around in time, but each successive story moved further from nihilism to personal redemption.)

Overview- Mostly a nonfiction publishing term (as fiction usually requires books to be completed before payments and contracts or "advances" to veteran authors). However, just as some non-fiction publishers will read completed manuscripts without proposals, some fiction publishers and/or agents will require proposals.

An overview refers to the first (and most important part) of your book proposal. It may well be the most important piece of writing you ever do....including your make-or-break final essay on the transition of romantic literature through gothic and to the modern detective novel and how the knight errant and the modern detective are the same literary archetype.

Other parts of a proposal include sample chapters and sick bribes.

Oxymoron- a figure of speech (often an idiom) combining two terms of apparent contradiction. We often study the poetic, Shakespearian ones like "sweet sorrow" or "bittersweet," but the best jokes can come from pointing and giggling at those that have become idiomatic in our culture or are part of commercial branding. Note: oxymorons aren't necessarily grammatical errors. Many simply illustrate the paradox and plasticity of English.

• Act naturally. 
• Virtual reality.
• Genuine veneer. 
• Mandatory option.
• Sports sedan.
• Full time daycare.
• Wireless cable.
• Minor crisis.
• Definite maybe.
• Only choice.

And my personal favorite:

• Almost exactly.

Letter P coming soon. (Like way sooner than the length of time between N and today.)

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Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter N

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter M

Narration/Narrator- Not just the disembodied voice that ham-handedly adds exposition in some movies. Writing that tells a story. Most fiction is narration, although some types of stylized fiction are not. (Like fictional travel books or fictional dictionaries.) Narration happens through the "focus" of a narrator, be it a character in a story or the omniscient voice. It is the story. This can make "narrative" (the story and point of view through which we filter our facts) very important. Les Misérables told through the narrative voice of Javert, for example, would be very different. (And in fact, in the book, these chapters are very different.)

New Criticism- What happens when someone comes back after you think a fight is over and says "And another thing...." ~rimshot~

Literary criticism used to be pretty much 100% fellatio of the dead white guys of the past. (Now it's only 90% because we are totally enlightened from the past unenlightened days of unenlightenedment.) In the forties, a new kind of criticism emerged that considered a work as a discrete and self-referential package, not subject to being good or not only by the test of time and/or its moral lessons, and concentrated more on whether the elements of its craft like setting or tone worked to reinforce its themes.

These days, it is the premier way to analyze and criticize written work, even outside of the literary world. Writers who give a flip about their reviews would do well to understand at least the basics.

Nonfiction- This is writing that "really" happened. Ostensibly it is simply NOT fiction. However, after creative writers who deigned to dramatize their biographies with composite characters or a dramatic flair got fact checked and "exposed" back in the 90's, they took their ball and went over to "Creative Nonfiction." The line between "truth" and "fact" has never been so well-patrolled as in the Internet era. We don't talk about non-fiction much here at Writing About Writing, but some of the conventions dovetail, and much of the writing process is similar.

Novel- *coughnotsomethingyouwriteinamonthcough* Defining a novel is tough. Not like overcooked ribeye tough; I mean like last week's teriyaki beef jerky tough. A novel is fiction, but also truth. It has maybe one or more or many characters, but usually sticks with a single narrative arc. Usually. It is longer, but no one knows exactly how long. Some bellwethers go as low as 40,000 words but I've talked to several publishers and no publishing house would publish a book that small as a standalone. They would call it a novella, and put it in an anthology. In fact 50,000 words would be too short for a novel to be published these days. Most print publishers will balk at anything under 70,000 for an author who isn't a household name. And will likely try to package multiple shorter works into an omnibus even then.  Similarly the point at which it is broken up into a trilogy appears to be controlled chiefly by gnarled knuckled mystics who chant at the event horizon of a temporal rift they mistakenly think is the god of books.

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter O

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter M

Creative writing terms beginning with the letter L

Main Character- Protagonist.  The most important figure in a novel, short story, poem, or play.  This is the character most likely to get offed in the next chapter of Game of Thrones.  While the main character is often the focalizer, sometimes the later is more an observer of the former (as, for example, Nick Carraway's character in The Great Gatsby).  In many modern works of fiction, in genre fiction, and in literary traditions other than English, a single main character is often nearly impossible to identify as the story is told through several characters of equal value.  English speaking culture is nothing if not preoccupied with who the most important person is in any given narrative.

Memoir- From the French, meaning "memory."  A first person writing about an event.  What many people expect to write as a way of filling their retirement.  Usually undertaken with the mistaken assumption that their wild youth was wilder than others.  Though used synonymously with autobiography, memoirs are actually a sub-genre of autobiography that narrow their focus.  Rather than detail the events of a life, a memoir might focus extensively on the stories involved in a single milestone event or only a few years of time.  My own memoirs focus almost exclusively on how the quest for groupie threesomes forced me to be a better person.

One of the reasons memoirs rarely sell unless they are by famous people or superb writers is that they are essentially just gumtoothed navel gazing.  ("Back in my day, I could buy Jenny Peterson a pop for only a quarter, and let me tell you, her angelic face reminded me that there was still good in the world....")

Metaphor- A figure of speech that compares two unlike things.  Usually the more common thing is used to describe the less common thing.  Delightful metaphors are a cornerstone of imaginative writing, but clumsy or cumbersome metaphors tend to draw attention to themselves in an awkward way.  ("Chris's 'Creepy Guy' article was a spreading fuzzy mold across the room temperature yogurt of Tumblr.")

Generally, if a comparison uses "like" or "as" it is considered a simile instead of a metaphor.  ("Chris trusted Reddit like James Bond trusted ex-KGB agents not to sell him out at the first opportunity.")

Mood- An overarching feeling that comes from a literary work.  By using elements like characterization, setting, imagery, and dialogue a writer can shape the feel of their work to be tense, suspenseful, funny, horrific, idyllic, light or even melodramatic.  Writing About Writing's somber mood of gravitas comes not only from deeply profound entries like my two toy dragons having an egg, but from the fact that every time I mention groupie threesomes or choad monkeys, it is only with the most sincere reverence.

What is important for writers to understand about mood is two fold.  First, mood plays an important role in a written work whether the writer intends it to or not.  Unless you are attempting (and it would be difficult, at best) to create an absolutely neutral mood by describing everything clinically, mood is probably going to exist one way or another.  A writer should make sure (usually during the revision process) that the mood of a piece matches the story. There will be a strange discordance in the overall effect if the two are not aligned.  It takes an experienced reader to even be able to notice this.  Few things are more odd than a light hearted whimsical mood in gothic sci-fi horror.  A well done mood can often make a piece feel particularly satisfying.

Secondly, a writer has only their words to convey mood.  In other art media, mood can be conveyed through a soundtrack or with camera angels (film or A/V media) or through the use of color (visual media).  A writer only has words.  Everything from word choice to sentence length to the pace of the narrative will contribute to the feel of a work.

Motif- Similar to theme.  A noticeable element or formula that reoccurs throughout literature.  The motif of "The wise crazy person" or "the loathsome lady" (who turns out to be beautiful) are fairly common motifs in literature.  Carpe diem is a motif very often embraced by poets.

It might be fair to call motif a literarily acceptable trope/cliche.

A motif can also be a revisited image within a single work.  Death of a Salesman employed a number of motifs, each signifying different themes.  The flute tended to be a reminder of an idyllic past, and the shoes brought up themes of lost opportunities.  Groupie threesomes, and my endless quest for them is a very visible motif here at Writing About Writing.

Myth- A story, true or invented (often from the ancient world, but not necessarily), that tries to explain certain aspects of nature, human nature, the state of the universe, to provide a rationale for social mores and cultural values, and to sanctify the rules of a given culture.  Everyone thinks most myths are preposterous, completely inconceivable stories constructed by man to try to explain things beyond them.  Of course, when it comes to their own myth, they call it "the truth," and they completely lose their shit and sometimes are even willing to kill people who have another myth.  But before atheists get too "Atheist Pride," they should know that though religion is certainly one kind of myth, even atheists have myths.  Every culture and sub-culture has myths--be they religious or non-religious.  It's almost like telling a story about the way things are is part of the human condition or something.

Creative writing terms starting with N coming soon.

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter L

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning with J and K

Creative Writing Terms- A-E
Creative Writing Terms- F-J


Lead Time- The time between an article's submission and it's publication.  This may be a very important bit of information for seasonal or other time sensitive articles.  No one will read an article about this years officially designated cut off points for "proper" and "whorish" skirt lengths in late September, and your definitive rating system of all the pumpkin spiced foodstuffs offered in the entire tri-state area will be less awesome in March.

Limerick- A short, five-line poem usually of anapestic meter with a strict aabba rhyme scheme.    It usually follows a pentameter (but with anapests) for the A lines and bimeter with the B lines, though often it is enough simply to have the B lines be shorter.  Limericks often have sexual or at least humorous subject matter.

There once was a horny young blogger
Who gave up his dream to kill Hogger
He envisioned a fan
Who'd find him quite a man
And would scream not if he wanted to snog her


Linguistics- The study of structure and variation within language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.  It's two principle approaches are descriptive and prescriptive.  Descriptive linguistics focuses on how a language is used and prescriptive linguistics focuses on how language should be used.  It is extremely important for a writer to understand both approaches and why they are important.  A prescriptive grasp of linguistics (and grammar) is important given how much of the world, including many gatekeepers, will judge a writer's writing ability according to how many errors they make.  Descriptive linguistics is important, however, to not come across like a sanctimonious religious asshole.  Plus, honestly, most creatives are more interested in playing with language than being helplessly constrained by it.  They bend and break the rules for effect.  (Which should never be confused with not KNOWING the rules.) Stridently prescriptive writers tend to be better suited to editing and non-creative forms of writing.

Literary-  Technically this means nothing more than "of or related to a body of written works of a language, period, or culture," but it has come to mean so much more among the humanities trenches of academia where the really important battles are fought--battles like what books people who are really cultured and sophisticated ought to be reading.  (And those other departments waste their time on cold fusion and social injustice!)  Though literary sommeliers and the ivory tower (which we are using to symbolize a giant white man's penis, you understand) would like to think that "literary" is a term that applies to a work's quality, regardless of content, they have an unreasonable prejudice towards genre fiction, which they make no effort to hide, despite the fact that it comprises much of the canon.  They defend this prejudice staunchly, though it has no more logic than declaring all impressionism and abstract art to be "not real".  Despite the claim that theirs is a quest merely for literary quality, they are blind to the tropes and cliches of their offerings and how it forms its own genre in much the same way that mainstream culture sometimes isn't aware of itself or how people have trouble hearing their own accents.  Writers like Poe, Wells, Orwell, and more recently Marquez, Ishiguro, and Murakami actually require them to invent new sub-genres in order to keep soft-shoeing and jazz handing through their backpedal.

Creative Writing Terms Beginning with M

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter J and K

Creative Writing Terms A-E

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter I

J


Jargon- Words that are potentially confusing to most people either because they are highly specific to a field (like medical or police jargon) or because they are words with common meanings used differently in certain fields.  A biologist, a psychologist, and an engineer all use the word "stress" very differently, for example.  Go onto a video game developer's web page and tell them that Portal is a great game but doesn't have a very good "plot or story" if you'd like to have a demonstration of this.  Just wear your fire retardant gear.

Jeremiad- So Jeremiah (the prophet, not the unfriendly bullfrog) pretty much blamed everything that was going wrong with Israel on the fact that they though "covenant" meant "mostly optional."  As a literary term it refers to any use of high, flowery, bombastic language to blame the current woes of a society on it's morality.  Basically what every evangelical does when they blame hurricanes and mass shootings on the fact that people who love each other deign to want to get married.

Juvenile- Another term for Young Adult (or YA) literature.  Also how you characterize another person's online argument when it conforms to two criteria: 1) it contains a logical fallacy and 2) you disagree with it.  (If you agree with it you say "So true!" and if it is logically sound you make fun of the person's grammar.)

Juxtaposition- Literally this means the placement of two unalike things near each other which is why it can be used in math.  In writing it can mean the simple closeness of unlike ideas like the phrase ""Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -Martin Luther King Jr.  In literature it is a term that is primarily overused by undergrads who don't know what to talk about when they're doing critical analysis, but it is occasionally used correctly to point out how two elements work in tandem in a way that they would not alone.  For example, having a megachurch next door to an adult theater in the setting will immediately give readers a sense of the neighborhood.  The contrast itself brings out something new.  (Like sweet and sour chicken or hot and spicy soup or...I might be hungry.)  God might seem good, and Satan might seem bad, but when Milton has them hanging out together in Paradise Lost, you REALLY get a sense of each.

K

Kenning- Language play that wouldn't exist if prescriptivists ruled the world.  It is the combination of two words (the... juxtapositioning of them if you will) that leads to a whole new idea.  It was more common in middle English but you still see it done today.  "Beer goggles" would be a great example.  "Tramp stamp" would be another.  I'm working hard to get chair brain picked up, but it's slow going.

Kinesics- The reason you lost friends over that stupid e-mail.  This is the part of communication that happens with body language, facial expression, and other non-linguistic cues.  To put it bluntly, communicating without kinesics is very, very hard, and it's the reason so many conversations go wrong and so many people say "you misunderstood me" online.  It's not exactly part of creative writing, but it's in this glossary because YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT!!!  When you have no smirk or open body language, your light hearted thought might be read as venomous, and you can't fill your fiction with semi-colons, endashs, and P's.  When a writer is left only with the words themselves, and the word choice greatly affects tone then they must be good at choosing those words carefully.  Kinesics is probably one of the main reasons that people who don't read a lot and just watch TV and movies are almost never as good at writing as their sense of story, plot, character, irony, and pacing seems like it should make them.  It's because they're thinking with kinesics in mind and don't have the word choice/linguistic skill.

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter L

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter I

Random terms beginning with H

I

Imagination- Shit you need, yo.  This is one of those parts of creative writing that is very, very hard to teach.  You can master written English. You can learn craft.  You can do exercises to tap into creativity.  But it's almost impossible to teach someone to develop the part of their brain that thinks: "I wonder what would happen if baby dragon zombies attacked inner city Okland and got into a turf war with the local gang..."  Imagination is more of a mode of thought that most people are taught to suppress for most of their lives.    It goes beyond creativity and into realms of pure speculation.  The good news is, it can be improved just by taking it out and playing with it as often as possible (which isn't as dirty as it sounds).  It may be hard to teach, but it is relatively easy to cultivate.

Image-  In writing (and literary analysis) an image is more than just a mental picture.  It is a sensory detail from any of the five senses.  Concrete imagery is an extremely important aspect of good craft.  If you can, get people to spell this word out loud, and then say "lightbulb" as enthusiastically as they can. It's a great trick at parties!

Inciting Incidents-  Sometimes called "trigger events" or even "plot bombs" by those who give fewer fucks--flying or otherwise--about "proper" terminology.  Pixar has just about the best bit of advice regarding these: they should only be used to get characters into trouble--never to get them out of it.  (The latter is called Deus Ex Machina, and is a big writerly no no.)  Good writing has very few inciting incidents and mostly involves character's reactions to the incidents.  Frequently in short stories and often in novels, the inciting incident occurs prior to the action of the story itself.

Invective- An insult.  A highly critical use of language.  It is absolutely intended to be hurtful.  90% of any comments section on the internet.  The way I talk about Harold Bloom.

Irony- A commonly misunderstood aspect of literature and writing since it has multiple meanings that are very different from each other and it doesn't actually just mean any T-shirt that someone finds funny, and it sure as holy flaming ostrich shit isn't "a black fly in your Chardonnay."

Verbal Irony- When the intended meaning is opposite of the literal meaning.  Like when I told you that your My Little Pony tie was "hella" appropriate for the interview you were about to have for senior editor of Maxim magazine, and that I was sure that your resume being in Comic Sans was going to win you points.  This irony is nestled between the lands of satire and sarcasm, and though it shares a thick  ribbon of contested border with each, it needn't be either.

Situational Irony- When an intended result is the opposite of the actual result.  So like, every Wiley Coyote cartoon ever.  Writers who think they are going to make money writing creatively, are often in for some bitter irony.  You see this a lot in speculative fiction with prophecies or predictions where it's the actions of the protagonist that end up causing the event they showed up to try to prevent.  Some h8ers don't consider this irony.  H8ers gonna h8.

Tragic Irony- This is a varient of situational irony in which the tragedy of the situation is well known.  Greek plays often have no complication or ambiguity of outcome.  They are a 90 minute train wreck towards an inevitable conclusion.  So if any truly asshole characters in any Sophocles play (ever) says "we can deal with this tomorrow," it's tragic irony because they'll be extra dead with dead sauce by then.

Dramatic Irony- The disparity of a character reaction when they do not have information which the audience does.  Like if the audience knows that the eyeball thief is hiding in the shadows next to someone and they say "See you tomorrow!" that is totally dramatic irony--in addition to being a death squad worthy pun.  Pretty much everything Shakespeare ever wrote relied heavily on dramatic irony.

Cosmic Irony- The difference between what a person wants and what the universe will provide.  Summed up succinctly by the philosopher McJagger when he said "You can't always get what you want."  It is also the difference between an expected outcome and the real outcome, though often this is simply improbable or unfortunate and not so much ironic.  This is the most bitterly disputed of all the ironies, and the question of it even being irony is debated with human-like fervor for labels.  Which is...well, somewhat ironic.  And that is also ironic.

Ivory Tower- The ivory tower is a metaphor for how high and cloistered higher education can be, but we must also remember that there's a reason they chose a giant white phallic symbol in an institution primarily of white males. Often accused of low levels of pragmatism to anyone who doesn't wear fuzzy sweaters and think everything is "terribly interesting."  In creative writing MFA (and now PhD) writing programs this effect is magnified, mainstream authors are increasingly disdained, and the entire set up of the MFA program resembles a pyramid scheme. (And even if it isn't, just the fact that such a comparison can be drawn is....."problematic.") One author after another that lit snobs and critics hated in their day gets canonized and the ivory tower just scratches its head and wonders why the writers the plebs find delightful keep being canonized (until the next generation comes along and takes it as self evident, of course). They are notorious for not limiting themselves to telling writers how to write better, but literally telling them WHAT they can write that "counts." All while ignoring the situational irony of their prejudice. Education is awesome, but be wary.


Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter J

Random Creative Writing Terms Starting With the Letter E

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With D

Earn it- I use this phrase a lot when I'm talking about breaking a convention of writing. Many writers refer to these conventions as rules, but it is more useful to talk about why the are conventions and how to make it work to break them. Breaking a rule requires that you earn it. Entry one.

Essay- A short composition on a subject that is intended to discuss a certain aspect of the subject to a general audience (unlike a treatise that attempts to be definitive).  Since Western Academia considers itself the center of the universe,  they will insist that an essay be based on Greek system of advocacy and contain a thesis that is defended.  The fact that many other cultures do things differently is just too bad for those cultures and the fact that they aren't in charge.  Losers.

Expressionism- A loosely defined movement primarily defined by it's rejection of realism within both style and content.  By exaggerating and distorting the portrayal of emotionally upset characters, it sought to draw an audience into the emotional cauldron of a character by altering the style of art itself.  Though largely outdated now, its influence lingers on in the way instability of character often shows in instability of writing within works of artists like Beckett and Arthur Miller, and in the writer Kurt Vonnegut.  Known for the alacrity with which it can cause severe hotties to think a writer is "way deep in that......ya know...meta kind of way."

Creative Writing Terms Starting With F

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter H

Creative Writing Terms Starting With G



Haiku- A poem with three lines.  Five syllables--then seven more.  Line three has five more.

Historical Fiction- Fiction that takes place in the past--usually within an identifiable era (like World War 2 or The Depression).  This is different than fiction that takes place in past tense as it generally involves recognizable historic events.

A writer must be extremely careful about historical fiction because the relationship between historical settings and "genre" are definite, but ill defined.  And as you know, genre is not "real" literature, so by picking the wrong time period, as writer may categorically deny themselves the possibility of writing real literature.  Certain time periods are absolutely genre--like anything west of the Mississippi in the 19th century, but others are acceptable like Victorian England.  Similarly, using historical figures may get a work labeled genre, but it depends greatly on how important the figure is, and what interaction they have with the main character.  There is a huge grey area between claiming that Willard Fillmore nodded in your direction at a polo tournament once and that Abraham Lincoln hunted vampires with his axeguncane before he was elected president.

Use history in your writing at your own risk.  You walk a fine line between real writing and that fake genre stuff.

Humor- Apparently the most difficult concept in all of humanity to master.  Often confused with "being offensive and calling it edgy."  Surprise, the inevitable, truth, falsehood, exaggeration, understatement make for humor...even though they are opposites of each other.  Slapstick, parody, satire, irony, sarcasm, farce, puns, wordplay, misunderstandings, double entendres, and more make for humor.   Even stereotypes make for humor as all my Moleskine journal jokes attest to.  And there's even just how using profanity in weirdly inappropriate contexts can be hilarious.

Pictured: Humor.
We don't know why.  We don't know how.
But it's funny.

Humor in writing can be even more difficult to pull off as many context clues that would key someone into a jovial intention in face-to-face interactions are absent.

Hyperbole- Grotesquely exaggerated statements whose language is intended to make a point.  Like saying someone is as big as a house or that you could eat an entire cow.  Anything ever said on the internet about politics is hyperbole, and 90% of all things said on the internet about ANYTHING are hyperbole. in fact, if you can't write as if using two spaces after a period is a crime against humanity, you really need to stop being on the internet right away.

Use hyperbole after the word "literally" if you really want to see some English teachers pop their corks.


Creative Writing Terms Starting With I

xkcd.com

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter G

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With F


Genre- French for "types" or "classes."  At one time it had a single meaning within literature, breaking down fiction, drama, and poetry.  Around 1950, pople got really interested in labels, value judgements, and whose artistic preferences made them better human beings compared to their neighbors (since owning a car was no longer a way to tell), and the word started to refer to certain kinds art as real and certain kinds of story telling conventions as genre.  It started with archetypal story modes (comedy, romance, tragedy, and satire) but went on to form the bedrock of the idea of genre fiction--a label applied to specific themes, archetypes, character types, plot lines, settings, and even writing conventions that can be used to classify specific types of literature.

In the music department, they got over the whole "rock-and-roll-isn't-real-music" thing and instead turned to a conversation about quality.  But it's only been 70 years, and we're talking about English majors here.  Give them time.  These guys still have candlelight vigils that end in drunken brawls and puke-drowned corpses in the city's gutters over the fact that they eventually lost the preposition-at-the-end-of-a-sentence war.

Today the word "genre" rarely means poetry/fiction/drama unless you're signing up for a class at uni. Generally they refer to the different types of conventions in storytelling that form a sort of contract with the reader--Science Fiction, Romance, Western, Horror.  In many ways they function similarly to grammar--providing a structure in which to derive meaning and with rules of various importance that can sometimes be broken for effect.  The conventions which have emerged as most agreeable to academia and the literary world are those of literary fiction (hence its name).  And this genre is touted as being "real" literature or "serious" literature.  In fact, much like Americans don't think they have an accent or natives who aren't really able to identify their culture, some might think literary fiction is misclassified as a genre of its own and instead refers to "anything without genre."  This is demonstrably untrue in both form and content.

Golden Age- Everything was always better back in the old days.  People really miss wiping their asses with leaves, eating the same thing every day, and dying at forty.  Literature is no exception, and almost every art and genre of art has a "golden age" when it was really awesome and so much awesomer than it is today.  The Golden Age of detective fiction, the Golden Age of science fiction, the Golden Age of...well, you get the idea.   There's even golden ages of comic books, Hollywood, Loony Tunes, and porn.   Let me write that again.  THERE IS A GOLDEN AGE OF LOONY TOONS.  (I'll give you a second to get that.  I mean really GET it, man.)  I wouldn't get too hung up on the idea that you've missed out on the best life had to offer.  Except maybe the porn.  You are in SOME thing's golden age right this second, and I bet you don't feel any different or glow or catch bullets with your teeth or anything.  So unless you're like me and you're deliberately trying to engineer the golden age of blistering hawt threesomes, you should probably just chillax.

Gothic- The word gothic means very different things depending on if you're talking about pop-culture, literature, or folks who kicked Rome's ass, so be careful.   The term Gothic broadened its umbrella of meaning first through architecture--it came to mean any Germanic architecture and then any medieval architecture using those pointy arches and flying buttresses (which are most useful for making 12 year olds giggle).  Many of the formative writings that took place in these type of buildings took on the label of Gothic literature or Gothic Romance--the later because they were almost the direct descendants of Romantic literature.  What differentiated these Gothic stories from the Romance before was their mood.  Secret doors, decaying castles, deep dungeons, and a lustful villain trying to make it with an innocent heroine characterize the gothic.  These lustful villains are the progenitors of today's "nice guys" often seeing their efforts as a sort of "courtship"--kind of like like if Petruchio had had a dungeon and wolves.   Phantom of the Opera is a quintessential novel of this type.  In many cases the Gothic was the bridge between the romantic and modern rationalism as supernatural elements turned out to have natural explanations much like all the Phantom's tricks were explained (in the Leroux novel).  While we could perhaps make an interesting case that Romantic fiction became the Detective Fiction genre as it transitioned through the Gothic literature, that's probably a bit much for a glossary.

In modern culture, besides people in black lipstick and fishnet sleeves who are starting to lean towards the shortened version of "goth," the term has come to indicate more of a stylistic atmosphere in a work.  Victorian clothing, dark themes, personal horror, corruption, disturbed psychological explorations, and macabre events are all common elements of the gothic.  Very often the themes of suppressed heroine appear again and again, and it is no coincidence that many of the best gothic authors have been women in very male-dominated cultures.

Though the combination of meanings could make for a good show: She's a rational-thinking German with high arches and a moth eaten wedding dress.  He's nice guy who wears black lipstick, fishnet sleeves, and listens to Covenant and Skinny Puppy.  THEY FIGHT CRIME!!!

Grammar- The structural rules that govern the construction of clauses, phrases, and even words in a given language that include morphology and syntax (and phonology with spoken language).  Outside of linguistics this term tends to include semantics as well (with an absolutely charming proclivity to utterly ignore pragmatics, I might add).  But if you aren't familiar with linguistics, you can use the word the way most people do:

THE RULES!  Punctuation, spelling, parts of speech, clauses, phrases, tenses, when to use whom even if it makes you sound like a prat.  That kind of crap.  While language is almost identical to culture, and people learn it unconsciously from those around them and know the rules intuitively, there are also several parallel efforts to codify single sets of rules as correct.  (In much the same way that there is an effort to codify a single culture as correct.)  This is why grammar is sometimes used in its linguistic meaning and sometimes  referred to as something called "high school grammar."  There is an eternal struggle between those who are descriptive and prescriptive about grammar that I've written about at length.

Grok- Heinlein coined this phrase, so his sinister agents still scour the far corners earth waiting to be enraged on his behalf by heathens who dare to use the word "wrong," but I live life on the right on the edge, my friends, so let them come.  LET THEM COME!!!  (Except for milk past the expiration date--I don't fuck around with that shit.)  I use the word as it tends to come up more in internet forums to be REALLY *GETTING* something.  This is best understood by imagining someone who is really, really stoned saying it: "No man.  It's not just getting something.  It's like, really really GETTING it, man.  Like...in your soul, man."

When I use this word--and believe me, each day I do several exercises in front of a mirror intended to expunge it from my personal lexicon--I tend to mean a level of comprehension that includes empathy.  Not intellectually understanding something or familiarizing yourself with something so that you can beat it in an argument, but really understanding it at a level of compassion that most people will never achieve.  Most of us never really leave our own shoes when we're "walking a mile in someone else's."  We can't deal with the paradox of existing in another paradigm, so we evaluate it through the lens of our own.  Writers really have to get over that.  If we can't portray people with whom we disagree emphatically in all their humanity, we should hang up our pens.  When I use Grok, I mean letting go of one's own paradigm to exist in another, and having that compassion.

No man. That entry doesn't cover it.
   I mean...like REALLY getting it, man.

Creative Writing Terms Starting With H

Random Creative Writing Definitions Beginning With the Letter F

Creative Writing Terms Starting with E

Fairy Tale- A type of story that exists solely to discredit continued funding to humanities.  While most people content themselves with the delightful observation that they behave almost exactly like urban legends from a time before gangs, babysitters, and casual sex, and then return to building public transit or stopping genocide, among the PhD's cloistered within their Ivory Towers a never-ending battle rages over the semantics of what is meant by the label Fairy Tale, what stories should or shouldn't count as Fairy Tales, and whether they are best interpreted morality or historically.  Somehow, the only thing they have actually managed to agree on is that Fairy Tales don't have to have Fairies in them.  And they wonder why the guys curing cancer two buildings over got the bigger grant...

Feminism-  Something you should learn about.  Full stop.  Not "if you're a guy."  Not "if you don't want to be held up as an example of what not to do in a panel on 'sexism within sci-fi' at the next Comicon."  Not "so you can portray a feminist in your next story."  And certainly not "even though you hate those language police femanazis."  You should just learn about it.  Period.  Because you're a member of the human race, and it's important.

There are assumptions you make because your culture tells you everyday without ever really saying so that they are true.  Assumptions like the fact that putting human breast milk on cereal is positively disgusting (and maybe just made you throw up in your mouth a little), but breast milk from a fricking BOVINE is totally a much more reasonable thing to be eating.  Some of these assumptions (just as unvoiced and unquestioned as the milk thing) have to do with women and men and their roles in the world.  Most people don't question these assumptions.  Writers should.

As a writer you should know even more.  You should know why language is so important to modern feminism, and what they're fighting for and against when they bring up words that cause people to insta-rage like "patriarchy."  You should know how differently certain brands of feminism look so you don't paint them all with one brush.  You should know what pitfalls lots of mainstream writers fall into with their portrayals of women.  You should know what the Bechdel Test is and why not one single episode of Supernatural has yet to pass it in seven seasons running.  And yes, you should learn why some people hate the word "feminism" and why two people with nearly identical pragmatic views can disagree (quite vehemently) on being labeled "feminist"--one insisting it "merely means you believe in equality" and the other insisting it has far more connotations beyond that.

But mostly you shouldn't know it so you can be a better writer.  You should know it so you can be a better person, and the writing part will flow naturally from THAT.

Figurative Language-  Language that is not literal in meaning.  This includes similes, metaphors, extended metaphors, allegories, parables, analogies, personification, and hyperbole.  The line of exactly where figurative begins and ends is not entirely clear as some might include idioms, figures of speech, allusions, paradoxes, and certain kinds of symbolism, irony, sarcasm, or particularly pointed examples of subtext (like when the characters talk about "sandwiches" in How I Met Your Mother) as well as linguistically meaningless words like onomatopoeia. Essentially this is any language where the meaning might deviate from the direct definition.

This leads to the fascinating phenomena of pedants and prescriptivists flying into near-psychotic rages when the word "literally" is used before hyperbole.  As in this example: "Those pedants literally crawl out of their skin when I deliberately fuck with them."

English is an extremely figurative language and culture.  We constantly illustrate meaning by comparison, and some of our most praised writers are masters of delightful metaphors.  We also have MANY verbs that transcend their "original literal" meaning and come to mean something new.  For example, we "dig" for the truth so often that now one of the meanings of "dig" is careful research.  It's basically what happens when people ignore the warnings and just keep using that cliche.

Flash Fiction-  Really short fiction. Some consider 300 words the limit, others go higher, but no one really considers anything over 1000 words to be flash fiction.  Also called microfiction, short-short, and sudden fiction among a few others.  It is characterized by having all the elements of a standard plot arc within a very short space.  Also, what many starting writers insist they have written when they hand you a vignette with no discernible conflict, plot, or resolution.

Focalizer- A really hoity toity way of saying "the person who the story is following at the time."  Since point of view can jump out of the "main character" and into other characters, or even pop into a minor character's head to have a spot of tea and get them killed by doberman clown bipeds or something, this word encompasses the current character that has the primary consciousness.  Drop this word the next time the people in the line at Starbucks start discussing the way a book really tackled the evils of capitalism.  TRUST ME!

Creative Writing Terms Starting With G

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter D

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With C

Deconstruction-  A particularly relevant form of literary criticism to a writer.  Derrida founded this school of thought (ironically when his intended topic was to laud structuralism) as a way to examine the inherent weakness of language to express definite ideas.  Though even a brief summary of deconstruction would take pages, the important thing for writers to understand is that it is particularly focused on the subversion of binary opposites (nature vs. nurture, good vs. evil, male vs. female).  Anzaldua,  Haraway  and more went on to apply these ideas to gender roles, ethnicity, queer theory, and others.  A writer would be remiss not to be aware of the subtitles and nuance in all but the most sophist melodramas that have crept into literature due to these influences.  There is even a moral conflict in the most ridiculous, over-the-top, good-versus-evil space opera of popular culture; Luke could feel the good in him.  (For the moment, we'll leave out the part about how most mammalian fathers cannot watch their genetic offspring being casually murdered, and we'll go with "good."  Yeah, that's it.)

Denouement- In French this means something like "the unknotting."   A non-French ways to say it might be, "The Wrap Up," but intellectuals prefer French or Italian terms for simple concepts so they seem much smarter when they say them.  The Denouement is the final part of a traditional story arc, happening right after the climax of the story.  Many stories play with this structure, and it is not uncommon to see a protracted denouement or a even a denouement at the beginning of the story.

Description- Something Anne Rice does too much of.  Description is writing that creates a picture or (or other sensory details if visual imagery isn't used).

Deus ex Machina- Latin for "a god from  a machine." In Greek plays sometimes a god would be lowered to deal with all the problems of the humans using their phenomenal cosmic power.  Not merely a case of Oh those silly Greeks! however, this kind of external-force-solves-all-problems was still quite common in Victorian literature, but instead of gods, it took the form of rich uncles, unknown inheritances, and proof of heretofore unknown proofs of various birthrights. Now we use the phrase to refer to any poorly written device that solves the problems of the characters suddenly at the end of a plot without the characters doing anything. Of course, every once in a while some writer forgets that deus ex machina is a bad thing, basically goes all the way back to lowering a god to solve all the characters' problems, and then you get something like the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

Didactic- Anything Ayn Rand ever wrote.  Literally this means "intended to give instruction."  It could be on a discipline or a philosophy or most commonly on morality.  It's usually not a term used for blatant propaganda for a given political or religious cause; we just call that propaganda.  The call on a writer to be didactic is huge, and it comes from everywhere on the political spectrum. You will be grilled as hard by the religious right for a protagonist who has an abortion as you will from the progressive left for a character who thinks abortion is a sin. People will bring themselves to your work and wonder why you have failed to make a character more like their ideal.  (I once read a rant about Malcolm Reynolds making a rape joke in the Firefly episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" that really questioned his value as "a good guy." Here's a character who kicks tied up people into jetstreams, steals everything that isn't nailed down, tortures unarmed and prone douchebags by stabbing them...repeatedly, shoots unarmed agents, but he's not a "good guy" because of a rape joke. And yeah, I could have done without it too, but the point is, the person who wrote the rant, wanted that character to be closer to their ideal. All those other character flaws were okay, but some unexamined misogyny was not.)

Distance- What your partner will ask for when they're too afraid to break up with you. *rimshot*   I'll be here all week folks, please tip your servers.  In basic literary analysis, there are four points of view; first, third omniscient, third limited, and the rarely used second.  As a creative writer, these points of view are seen as tools (each with strengths and weaknesses), but one of the most common mistakes of beginning writers is to assume that first person is more "in the head" of the character.  In fact, there are multiple decisions that affect the style of writing including point of view, distance, and narrative tense.  Distance can be said to be a completely separate from the point of view, and writers will often talk about a "close third" or a "distant first."  Raymond Carver provides many good examples of a distant first person, the narratives are strictly concerned with physical sensations and external actions--there is no revelation about what is in a character's head. Ender's Game is a pretty popular example of a close third. The thought processes of Ender were made clear to the reader. It's too bad the author was such an a-hole.

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With E

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With The Letter C

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter B

Canon- A group of literary works, written mostly by dead white guys, which a group of mostly living white guys think is really important to read. Recently a bunch of uppity marginalized people tried to add in other voices and the resulting conflict over what should be cannon caused the rise of the white guy avatar, Harold Bloom, who tried to limit the canon, but was eventually defeated because his pompous arrogance turned inward on itself (as evil always does). Some still think there is an actual list out there, but most have opened the canon to include other voices and art that hasn't always gotten the "high art" stamp of approval from the Oxford and Cambridge Tweed Jacket Society™. The canon really pisses off literary critics because half the time what ends up in there is the stuff they insisted at the time wasn't "literature," and the stuff that they thought was brilliant, no one can remember a year later. In fact, over time, it's kind of fair to say that literary critics tend to be pretty irrelevant to what ends up being canonized, and it is other things (like social relevance) that cause a work to resonate. The canon is mostly speculative fiction, which today is would be dismissed as genre, but literary critics haven't caught on yet the inherent irony in demanding realism in everything.

It's only been seventy years. Give them time.

Character- Something in a story with consciousness, intelligence, and usually morals and some ability to change.  This is usually a person, and sometimes an animal, but it could also be an anthropomorphized object, a idea, a robot, a sentient car that fights crime, or your protagonists hair.

Character Driven- A story in which the characters are moving the plot rather than the plot moving the characters. Snobs will attempt to delineate this as the difference between genre and literature. Just hand them The Stand or Game of Thrones if they pull that shit (and NOT the mini-series with Molly Ringwald or the HBO show respectively). A character driven plot may have things happen, but the story moves because of the characters working for and against each other, and the real climax of the story is usually internal, even if it has external echos.

Cliché- French for stereotype. A phrase, idea, event, or element which has been overused to the point of losing its meaning. This is often confused by well-meaning dillholes on the internet as "anything I'm tired of reading." The trouble with cliche is that it isn't a term with well defined boundaries. Certain expressions overused to the point that they are often not even fully registered by a reader are not cliches. Cliches share a long and highly contested border with idioms, and while some idioms are not cliches ("stand tall" or "laid back") others are ("lock, stock, and barrel" "vent one's spleen"). Cliches are not always small phrases. They can be ideas (a computer that enslaves humanity) things (a planet destroying space station) plot devices (reporter who isn't totally biased for or against "the people" gets killed/kidnapped) or characters (an evil twin). Many "large" cliches are also called tropes, but "trope" tends to be an even more elastic term given to anything that has been written about more than twice. It is sometimes difficult to tell when a trope has become a cliche. It is a misconception that all cliches are bad, and probably why most people who think that have never written much beyond the "Why you shouldn't write cliches!" website. Everything has been done before, so avoiding all cliches all the time is almost impossible, but a reinvented cliche can be delightful both at the large level or at the phrasal level.

Conventions- Features of subject matter, form, and technique that occur within a work of literature. They may involve large elements like plot devices and character tropes or tiny language choices like diction. Conventions form a sort of "grammar" of a story, and--like grammar--they involve some rules that are flexible, some that are intractable, and some that can be broken to great effect.  (Think of the ways in which the conventions of an Elizabethan sonnet were broken, and what that did to emphasize the subject matter's theme, for a great example.) In some cases conventions can become tropes or even cliches.  The conventions of different KINDS of fiction are what lead to the idea of genre. Westerns have different conventions than science fiction. Lit snobs think "literature" transcends conventions, but if anyone who has read what gets classified as literature these days knows that literary fiction is its own genre with its own set of conventions (minimalism, character driven often to the detriment of plot, present tense narrative, second person metafiction, a narrative arc that involves bottoming out, a non-cis/non-straight child with intolerant parents, coming to terms with cultural paradox, HIV/AIDS, stories of childhood, irredeemable characters, dysfunctional relationships, abuse, angst out the wazoo...I could go on). This set of conventions--this genre, if you will--simply happens to be in favor in the Court of the Ivory Tower these days.

Creative Writing- Writing that's....you know....like....creative and stuff. Everything from the most soundy sound poetry to creative non-fiction that really sort of forgot most of the creative part is creative writing. We could complicate this by pointing out that all writing is creative, but I haven't pissed off my small army of tech writer friends in at least a day or two.

Creative Writing Terms Starting With D

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With The Letter B

Creative Writing Terms Starting With the Letter A



Backlist- Books that are still in print, but are not being published in the current season.  Because books about gardening don't tend to get snapped up during the monsoon and apparently no one will actually buy The Winter of Our Discontent during in May.

Back Story- When the synopsis on the back of a paperback is considerably better than actually reading the book itself.  However, more commonly it refers to events that have taken place prior to the start of a story. Generally the latter refers to character and "world events" are considered to be part of setting. Extensive back stories can require a sophistication at exposition lest they risk being clunky. Clunky exposition is one of the hallmarks of really shitty writing.

Beta Male- Within MRA culture a nice guy who is entitled to sex from hot women but can't because of Alpha males––a claim that even a passing observation of the actual world would render ridiculous.

Prior to or outside of MRA culture, a term that more elastically describes a sensitive guy usually within a romance of some kind and often in a romantic triangle with an Alpha Male.  The fact that most published authors throughout most of history have themselves been sensitive, shy, artistic, and shit, and the fact that a lot of writing has an element of wish fulfillment in it, the romance goes well for the beta male a hugely disproportionate amount of the time in media that is written (like books, TV, movies, and almost everything that's blasting culture into your brains 24/7). Those women realize what they really wanted all along, and media reinforces narratives that dudes with nothing else going for them but that they aren't serial killers are absolutely entitled to have totally hot women look beyond their mediocrity.  Thanks writers!

Biography-  A story about one person that is written by a different person. In other words every political "autobiography" you've ever read.  ~rimshot~  While most historical, political, and trend setter biographies are non-fiction, and "biographies" is used in book classification to describe non-fiction, many works of fiction are essentially fictitious biographies.

Bombast- A form of writing where the word choice for the caliber of rhetoric and diction vastly outstrips the importance of the concept to which the writing refers. An overly elaborate style that is disproportionate to the topic. If you've been online since 1987, you are already aware of this even though you might not know the term. Pedants who write about one space vs. two spaces after a sentence using the sort of language that one would generally reserve for war criminals and despots would fall into this, as would describing the gruesome immolation that you hope occurs to someone's face because they like iProducts.

Biz of CW- A personal term I sometimes use that refers to the myriad of ways in which a creative writer might monetize their efforts and make money.  There are a lot more options these days than short story accolades-->agent--> publisher--> book contract--> advance--> lines of coke.  There are a lot of ways to make money by writing, and all are creative on some level, but this specifically refers to creative writing (fiction, drama, poetry, creative non-fiction, genre defying avant guarde stuff that eight MFA's think is brilliant but most can't understand). It is an abbreviation of Business of Creative Writing, which was the title of a class I took as part of my major.

Creative Writing Terms Beginning with C

Random Creative Writing Terms Beginning With The Letter A

Act- A major division in a play. Many plays are further broken into scenes. Also what most people are doing when they pretend to be writers down at the local coffee shop.

Action Thriller- A sub-genre of thriller where the pacing of a story is characterized by continuous and rapid high tension events. What The Scarlet Letter really should have been.

Active Voice- Where the subject performs the action of the verb. This voice should be the one written in. Unless a very good reason is had not to. Or you're Herman Melville.

Agent- An elusive creature who often lives in a cave. Many of them do not understand technology from after 1980 and continue to demand submissions follow conventions of a time before it was even possible to easily make COPIES of something. In theory they try to sell a writer's work and guide their career towards appropriate venues and good matches, but in reality they do as much as they can to avoid writers, erecting barriers between themselves and writers like a Turret Defense Game.

Allusion- A reference, without explanation, to a prior work, historical event, or historical person. Typically the subject of an allusion should be well known to avoid confusion, but if someone doesn't understand a Star Trek or Firefly reference, that's really their problem for not being cool enough.

Article- A short, non-fiction work which often forms one part of a larger publication (newspaper, magazine, blog). Also, the part of English grammar that drives second language learners from Asia to drink.

Creative Writing Terms Beginning With the Letter B

Glossary of Creative Writing Terms

Am I using a word you don't know, or--much more likely--using a word in a WAY that you're pretty sure isn't quite what it means in everyday usage? Fiction writers use a lot of terms (like "setting as kinetic landscape") that sort of SOUND like they might be English but probably need some explanation. As I start to introduce terms, I'll keep a running list here for reference with a quick definition and a link back to the post where I originally explained the idea.  Or if you just want a cheap laugh or two.

There is considerable overlap between creative writing terms and literary terms. The terms I use almost exclusively to refer to creative writing concepts and that I don't often hear used as literary terms I have underlined.  Also, though some literary terms must be included in a creative writing glossary, this is not a literary glossary, and it won't cover the more esoteric literary terms.

Creative Writing Terms- A-E
Creative Writing Terms- F-J
Creative Writing Terms- K-O
Creative Writing Terms- P-S
Creative Writing Terms- T-Z