Writing Glossary

Allegory Allusion Anagnorisis Anecdote Anthropomorphism Breaking the Fourth Wall Catharsis Chekhov's Gun Cliche Cliffhanger Close Third Person Concrete Detail Cosmic Irony Deep Point of View Denouement Deus Ex Machina Dialogue Dramatic Irony Dramatic Question Epilogue Epistolary Exposition Fable Flash Forward Flashback Foreshadowing Fourth Wall Frame Narrative Free Indirect Discourse Hamartia Head Hopping Hubris Hyperbole Imagery In Medias Res Interior Monologue Intertextuality Irony Juxtaposition Litotes MacGuffin Metafiction Metaphor Mise en Scene Monologue Mood Motif Motif vs Theme Narrative Distance Oxymoron Pacing Parable Paradox Parody Pastiche Pathetic Fallacy Peripeteia Personification Plot Twist Poetic Justice Premise Prologue Raising the Stakes Red Herring Retcon Satire Sensory Details Setup and Payoff Show Don't Tell Simile Situational Irony Soliloquy Stream of Consciousness Subtext Suspense Symbolism Tension Theme Ticking Clock Tone Trope Understatement Unreliable Narrator Verbal Irony Verisimilitude Vignette Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Adventure Afrofuturism Alternate History Biker Romance Bildungsroman Biopunk Body Horror Cli-Fi Coming of Age Commercial Fiction Contemporary Romance Cosmic Horror Cottagecore Fiction Cozy Fantasy Cozy Mystery Cyberpunk Dark Academia Dark Fantasy Dark Romance Dieselpunk Domestic Fiction Dystopia Enemies to Lovers Epic Fantasy Fade to Black Fake Dating Fantasy Flintlock Fantasy Folk Horror Forced Proximity Friends to Lovers GameLit Gaslamp Fantasy Genre Gothic Fiction Gothic Horror Grimdark Hard Science Fiction Hardboiled High Fantasy Historical Fiction Historical Romance Hockey Romance Horror Isekai Legal Thriller Literary Fiction LitRPG Locked Room Mystery Low Fantasy Magical Realism Middle Grade Military Science Fiction Mystery New Adult New Weird Noblebright Noir Omegaverse Paranormal Romance Picaresque Police Procedural Portal Fantasy Post-Apocalyptic Progression Fantasy Psychological Horror Psychological Thriller Reverse Harem Roman à Clef Romance Romantasy Romantic Suspense Sapphic Romance Science Fiction Second Chance Romance Slice of Life Slow Burn Romance Soft Science Fiction Solarpunk Southern Gothic Space Opera Speculative Fiction Spicy Romance Spy Thriller Steampunk Supernatural Thriller Sword and Sorcery Thriller Upmarket Fiction Urban Fantasy Utopia Weird Fiction Western Whodunit Women's Fiction Wuxia Xianxia Young Adult

Act Break All Is Lost Moment B-Story Beat Sheet Bookend Structure Braided Narrative Call to Adventure Circular Narrative Climax Cold Open Comedy Dan Harmon Story Circle Dark Night of the Soul Dual Timeline Episodic Structure Falling Action False Victory First Draft Five-Act Structure Freytag's Pyramid Hero's Journey In Medias Res Structure Inciting Incident Kishotenketsu Midpoint Monomyth Multiple POV Structure Narrative Arc Narrative Hook Nested Narrative Nonlinear Narrative Outline Overcoming the Monster Pantsing Parallel Narrative Pinch Point Plantser Plot Outline Plot Point Plotting Promises and Payoffs Quest Narrative Rags to Riches Rebirth Resolution Rising Action Save the Cat Scene and Sequel Seven-Point Story Structure Snowflake Method Story Arc Story Beat Story Circle Story Spine Subplot Three-Act Structure Throughline Tragedy Try-Fail Cycle Turning Point Voyage and Return Yes, But / No, And Zero Draft

Antagonist Antihero Antivillain Archetype Backstory Byronic Hero Character Agency Character Arc Character Bible Character Development Character Flaw Character Ghost Character Goal Character Motivation Character Voice Character Want vs Need Character Wound Chosen One Complex Villain Corruption Arc Deuteragonist Dynamic Character Ensemble Cast Everyman External Conflict Fatal Flaw Femme Fatale Flat Character Flat Character Arc Foil Found Family Herald Internal Conflict Love Interest Man vs. Nature Man vs. Self Man vs. Society Man vs. Technology Manic Pixie Dream Girl Mary Sue Mentor Morally Gray Character Negative Character Arc Positive Character Arc Protagonist Redemption Arc Reluctant Hero Round Character Shadow Archetype Sidekick Stakes Static Character Stock Character Sympathetic Villain The Lie the Character Believes Threshold Guardian Tragic Hero Trickster Tritagonist Viewpoint Character Villain

Action Beat Active Voice Adverb Overuse Anaphora As You Know, Bob Authorial Voice Beige Prose Blocking Cadence Chiasmus Closing Line Concrete vs Abstract Language Connotation Crutch Words Denotation Dialect in Fiction Dialogue Tag Diction Em Dash Epistrophe Figurative Language Filter Words Five Senses Writing Hook Idiolect Info Dump Literary Prose Lyrical Prose Maid and Butler Dialogue Maximalist Prose Minimalist Prose Narrative Voice Opening Line Parallel Structure Passive Voice Power Words Purple Prose Register Rhythm in Prose Rule of Three Said Bookism Sensory Language Sentence Fragment Sentence Variety Stage Business Subtext in Dialogue Syntax Talking Heads Telling Detail Tone in Writing Transition Vernacular Voice Weasel Words White Room Syndrome White Space Word Choice

Alchemy in Fiction Alien Civilization Alternate History Worldbuilding Ancient Evil Bestiary Blood Magic Conlang Creation Myth Cultural Worldbuilding Dark Lord Trope Economic Worldbuilding Elemental Magic Enchanted Item Faction Familiar Fantasy Races Faster Than Light Travel First Contact Forbidden Knowledge Generation Ship Government Systems in Fiction Guild Hard Magic System History Building Iceberg Theory of Worldbuilding Infodumping Worldbuilding Ley Lines Lore Lost Civilization Magic Cost Magic System Magical Creature Magitech Map Making for Fiction Masquerade Trope Multiverse Mythology in Fiction Naming Conventions Necromancy Pantheon Parallel Universe Political Worldbuilding Portal World Power Scaling Prophecy in Fiction Religion in Worldbuilding Sanderson's Laws of Magic Secondary World Setting as Character Soft Magic System Speculative Biology Technology Level Terraforming Timeline in Fiction World Bible Worldbuilding

Advance Advance Reader Copy ARC Audiobook Author Platform Back Matter Backlist Beta Reader Big Five Publishers Blurb Book Coach Book Cover Book Deal Book Formatting Book Launch Book Proposal Comp Titles Copy Editor Copyright Cover Design Critique Partner Debut Novel Developmental Editor Earn Out Ebook Elevator Pitch Endorsement Film Rights First Edition Foreign Rights Form Rejection Freelance Editor Front Matter Frontlist Galley Proof Ghostwriter Hybrid Author Imprint Indie Publishing IngramSpark ISBN Kindle Direct Publishing Line Editor Literary Agent Logline Mailing List Manuscript Midlist Newsletter for Authors Offer of Representation Pen Name Personalized Rejection Pitch Pre-order Strategy Print on Demand Print Run Proofreader Pseudonym Public Domain Query Letter Revise and Resubmit Royalties Self-Publishing Sensitivity Reader Slush Pile Small Press Submission Guidelines Subsidiary Rights Synopsis Traditional Publishing

Arc Tracking Chapter Restructuring Chicago Manual of Style Cold Reader Consistency Check Continuity Error Copy Edit Critique Cutting Word Count Developmental Edit Dialogue Revision Echo Words Fact Checking Feedback Filter Words in Editing Final Draft Fresh Eyes Technique Kill Your Darlings Line Edit Manuscript Assessment Narrative Pacing Fix Opening Chapter Revision Overwriting Pacing Issues Plot Hole Point of View Break Proofread Reading Aloud Reverse Outline Revision Revision Checklist Revision Letter Scene Cutting Scene List Second Draft Self-Editing Sensitivity Read Structural Edit Style Guide Tightening Prose Timeline Error Track Subplots Underwriting Varied Sentence Length Workshop Writing Group

Anthology Author Newsletter Backlist Discovery Book Club BookBub Bookstagram BookTok Creative Burnout Drabble Fan Fiction Flash Fiction Full-Time Author Goodreads Imposter Syndrome for Writers Indie Author Kindle Unlimited Literary Magazine MFA in Creative Writing Microfiction Novelette Novella Patreon for Writers Reading Challenge Royal Road Serial Fiction Short Story Short Story Collection Simultaneous Submission StoryGraph Substack for Writers TBR Pile Wattpad Web Novel Word Sprint Writer's Block Writer's Doubt WriterTok Writing Career Writing Community Writing Conference Writing Contest Writing Habit Writing Income Writing Marathon Writing Playlist Writing Prompt Writing Retreat Writing Ritual Writing Routine Writing Space Writing Sprint Writing Workshop