Writer Speak - Where to learn the lingo?

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Notebook

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Anyone who has ever started a new job quickly realizes that there's a whole new language to learn. Job lingo.

I've read so many of the sticky posts in both the Freelance and Novel forums, but my question hasn't been answered. I couldn't find the answer(s) while searching, either. Did I miss something? I'm open to correction.

My question is this: Is there anywhere I could go, or book I could read, where I can learn writer's/editor's/publisher's lingo? For example, what is a literary novel and how is it different from any other novel? What do all the freelance writing terms mean? Most of my questions are about the lingo, not process or even style.

I'm not a stupid person by any means, but all this lingo has me dizzy! I've been writing for years but I haven't been trying to sell any of it. People have finally gotten through to me that I need to seek publication as both a novelist and a freelance writer. I love to write and believe I do it well enough to give it a shot. I'm just not comfortable with the lingo, yet.

My other questions have to do with how to classify your novel for the correct genre. I've always just called it a drama, but that's a cinematic term.

While waiting for folks to respond, I'll come back with a list of terminology that I need definitions for, so you can see what I mean. Thank you, in advance, for responding.
 
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PeeDee

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Of course, if you ask "what is a literary novel?" you get a long and complex thread about what is or isn't a literary novel, and then you find out no one's agreed on the lingo either. So don't worry about it too much. :)
 

job

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You might try Miss Snark's blog. She does a fair amount of defining of 'publisher lingo'. For 'creative writing' lingo, you might try Orson Scott Card's and Poynter's sites.
 

kristie911

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:welcome: Notebook! Don't fret, you'll pick up the lingo. It takes a little while, just like everything else. But if you're reading something here and don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask. Very few people around here bite. :)
 

KTC

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Oh Christ. I know nothing. I swim with my head in the clouds. Where I come from, that's actually possible. I've been told recently that my novel is literary. I was dead chuffed...then I thought, "I still don't know what that means?" Oh well...I prefer going through life not knowing the terms for anything. I still only know how to put gas in my car. I don't even know if I've seen under the hood of my latest car? And if I have a pain in my stomach, I'm sure it's my occipital lobe acting up again...that's the thing attached to the inside of your belly button, isn't it. I know nothing. I'm the Hellen Keller of writing. (and of life, I suppose.) But I can reach out and touch everything.
 

Notebook

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Thanks, Siddow. I put the link in my favorite places and will definitely persuse it.

PeeDee, I know what you mean. Some of the terms I've been reading seem so subjective. I would think, though, that when you're communicating with agents and editors, their definitions are pretty concrete to them. I've been studying this industry now for awhile. I have a comfortable grasp on it - except for the dratted lingo!

Thanks, Job. I'm always open to helpful sites. This is turning out to be a daunting task.

Kristie911, thanks for the welcome. I will probably end up doing as you suggested - asking for help when I see the word I don't understand. Funny how asking for help can be hard when you don't want to appear to be stupid!

KTC, sometimes ignorance can be bliss, can't it? Nothing wrong with bliss!
 

Prawn

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Welcome to AW, Notebook!

You can always PM folks with questions about lingo. If I know I will tell you, or you can post it as a message, and people will tell you what it means and then make fun of you, which is sort of a right of passage around here.
 

Niteowl

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I'll just post a few that might be confusing:

Lit Fic (aka Literary Fiction) : this is Serious fiction. Usually with enduring themes and/or trying to stretch and further the progress of Literature (yeah, I'm not sure what that means either). Books in this genre are the ones up for the Booker Man, Nobel, National Book Award, and Pulitzer. Think pretty much any and all the novels you read in high school.

BIC : Butt In Chair. Getting that writing done.

Trunk novel : a novel you've written that just isn't good enough to ever get published. Many published novelists have one or more trunk novels.

Query Letter : a one page letter written to an agent, telling them about your novel and yourself, with the intent that they'll ask for a partial.

Partial : a set number of pages of your novel, from the beginning (i.e. pages 1-50, not pages 5,10, 54-73), to an agent, so that they may then request a full (if they like it).

Full : your entire manuscript, if the agent likes it, they'll offer representation.

Slush Pile (or Discovery Pile, as Nathan Bransford calls it) : a large stack of manuscripts or query letters, waiting to be read. These are not requested by the editor or agent. Manuscripts sent to an editor via an agent don't quite get into the slush pile.

POD : print on demand. Useful for certain types of publishing, has not been proven to support full time novelist.

Vanity Press : I'm not sure how this is different from a POD, actually.
 

Siddow

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POD is a technology.

Vanity press is a business model.
 

JimmyB27

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Vanity Press : I'm not sure how this is different from a POD, actually.
I believe the difference is that you go to a vanity press and say "here is my manuscript, please print me 100 copies.". You give them some money, they give you 100 copies of your book, and you go away and find out just how damn hard it is to sell a book on your own.
With a POD, you go to them and say "here is my manuscript, please make it available. Oh, and can I have a few copies for myself please?" Then they put the book up on their site, without printing any (save for any you might have asked for for yourself). Readers can then come along to the site (perhaps guided by you?) and order copies, which are printed on demand. So there are no books printed until someone orders one.
 

Button

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I'll just post a few that might be confusing:

Lit Fic (aka Literary Fiction) : this is Serious fiction. Usually with enduring themes and/or trying to stretch and further the progress of Literature (yeah, I'm not sure what that means either). Books in this genre are the ones up for the Booker Man, Nobel, National Book Award, and Pulitzer. Think pretty much any and all the novels you read in high school.

Yeah, this would be that REALLY boring stuff you pass by in the library. The stuff you read when you want to pass out for a few days. :tongue
 

CaroGirl

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Yeah, this would be that REALLY boring stuff you pass by in the library. The stuff you read when you want to pass out for a few days. :tongue
Here's a quiz. The statement above is:

a) Opinion
b) Fact
c) A load of bull

;)
 

PeeDee

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(popped this thread off to Roundtable, because it's really a general-writing thread, instead of Novel specific. *bamf*)
 

wordmonkey

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For the mechanics/story/plot terminology, I would look at screenwriting books.

You'll get all the guff about beats, and action and pacing and dynamics and yadda yadda yadda. But what really helps is that it's easier to look at a 90 pages screenplay and see what they're talking about, than it is to wade through a novel and see the same things.

Once you get that, you can move over to the novel format, bring what you already know and then add to your lexicon of lingo.
 

johnnysannie

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Yeah, this would be that REALLY boring stuff you pass by in the library. The stuff you read when you want to pass out for a few days. :tongue

Although that's true of a lot of literary fiction, some of it is outstanding. At some point, writers (and readers) need to discover where their own tastes lie because it is just as individual as liking peas or not, loving steak over hamburger and vice versa!
 

maestrowork

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Literary doesn't necessarily mean boring. Let's get that out of the way. It's like saying "genre fiction" is clichéd dumb. Neither is essentially true.
 

Notebook

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I'll just post a few that might be confusing:

Lit Fic (aka Literary Fiction) : this is Serious fiction. Usually with enduring themes and/or trying to stretch and further the progress of Literature (yeah, I'm not sure what that means either). Books in this genre are the ones up for the Booker Man, Nobel, National Book Award, and Pulitzer. Think pretty much any and all the novels you read in high school.

BIC : Butt In Chair. Getting that writing done.

Trunk novel : a novel you've written that just isn't good enough to ever get published. Many published novelists have one or more trunk novels.

Query Letter : a one page letter written to an agent, telling them about your novel and yourself, with the intent that they'll ask for a partial.

Partial : a set number of pages of your novel, from the beginning (i.e. pages 1-50, not pages 5,10, 54-73), to an agent, so that they may then request a full (if they like it).

Full : your entire manuscript, if the agent likes it, they'll offer representation.

Slush Pile (or Discovery Pile, as Nathan Bransford calls it) : a large stack of manuscripts or query letters, waiting to be read. These are not requested by the editor or agent. Manuscripts sent to an editor via an agent don't quite get into the slush pile.

POD : print on demand. Useful for certain types of publishing, has not been proven to support full time novelist.

Vanity Press : I'm not sure how this is different from a POD, actually.

Thanks for assist! The ones I bolded are the ones here I didn't know. The whole "Literary Ficton" thing seems subjective and confusing.

As for PODs and Vanity Presses - Not my cup o' tea. Ever. I don't pay. I'm sure it suits others but my goals are different.
 

Notebook

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For the mechanics/story/plot terminology, I would look at screenwriting books.

You'll get all the guff about beats, and action and pacing and dynamics and yadda yadda yadda. But what really helps is that it's easier to look at a 90 pages screenplay and see what they're talking about, than it is to wade through a novel and see the same things.

Once you get that, you can move over to the novel format, bring what you already know and then add to your lexicon of lingo.

Interesting idea worth considering. Thanks. This type of terminology I'm doing pretty well with, too. It's not very difficult. I struggle more with the publishing vocabulary. Zoiks!
 

JennaGlatzer

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Maestrowork's right-- I'm almost finished with a dictionary on this very topic. (And thanks, Charlie, for pointing me here-- makes me feel good to know that someone would be interested in reading it. :)

Notebook, by all means, feel free to list any terms you want definitions for and we'll get you up to speed.
 

WittyandorIronic

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Just curious Jenna, but are you putting together a dictionary to post on AW, or an Understand Publishing Terminology desk reference? I'd be interested in either one, but just wondered.
 

JennaGlatzer

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Desk reference. I have about 700 terms defined so far (related to the business and craft of writing and editing). I'm still looking for other terms to include.
 
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