We all like a completed fic. But sometimes, that pesky thing called Real Life gets in the way. So...switching fandoms? Leaving writing for greener pastures? Just damn tired of that one fic you can't seem to finish? Let us have it.

fic_adoption is a pan-fandom community that strives to find homes for orphaned fics. Our mission is:
To create a place where authors who, for whatever reason, are unable to finish their works can turn them over to capable individuals.
To encourage good will within the fanfic community.
To keep good ideas going.
To answer the question "Well HOW DOES IT END?!?"


If you're interested, check out fic_adoption. Spread the word, and adopt a fic today.

(Posted with devildoll's permission

At the moment, LJ is being a bit shitty. So. This comm, </a></b></a>fandom_flies, is gathering members to talk about it. They are even thinking of creating a completely new journal system, just for fandom, with features geared just for our crowd. I think that it sounds awesome, but you've gotta keep updated, or the move'll be without you.

And, for those with many entries they cannot simply copy and paste, here's a tool for picking up all the info on your LJ, and moving it somewhere safe from the purge, like insanejournal, or hopefully the new one. here

Just thought that you all should know.

Hello all. Newbie here, big fan of The Fanfiction Glossary: very useful.

I don't have a definition to add, but a request: What exactly is the definition of "fanwank"? I see it mostly at TwoP. It seems to mean a backstory and/or explanation that a fan will create in order to make up for apparent inconsistencies and/or plotholes (if you are a House fan you will know why this seems so necessary these days) in canon. Do I have this about right?

This is a long-overdue intro from your new community owner.

As you guys know, this journal was originally run by kielle as a submission/updates forum for her fandom glossary site.

kielle passed away in September of 2005, and as a result this journal is no longer associated with her site. It is now the sister community for newbieguide, a community that was started to help people new to LiveJournal or new to fandom on LiveJournal. Terms posted here will no longer be added to Kielle's site.

If you would like to post a fandom term to this community, please use the following subject line format:

Term (Fandom)

If you do not know the fandom, or if it is a general term, use "Unknown" or "General."

Please tag your posts with the appropriate fandom, if the tag is available. I will continually add tags as necessary. You can find a list of tags for this community here.

Please only post one term per entry.

If you post more than one term, or do not format your subject line as specified, I will comment and ask you to edit your post. Please do not give me attitude over your inability to follow directions. :)

Couple things I noticed weren't on the site:

Fandom Terms

Word/Term: Alternate Timeline (abbr AT)
Meaning: Sometimes considered a subset of AU, this refers to fanfic that explores ways the canon might have gone, but didn't. In many cases this is done by changing a single essential canon detail and then tracking the fallout. AT fanfics generally follow a "what if" format: What if Giles hadn't found Buffy, What if Naruto had been adopted.
Original Fandom(s): general

Word/Term: futurefic
Meaning: Fanfic set in a projected post-series future, often many years after the ending.
Original Fandom(s): general

Word/Term: genderswitch
Meaning: see 'genderfuck', although without (necessarily) the connotation of screwing with the readers' minds.
Original Fandoms(s): general

Word/Term: numerical pairings
Meaning: Some fandoms have adopted the habit of labeling their pairings by number. Two prominant examples are Gundam Wing and Saiyuki, in which each of the major characters is assigned a number based on name, ie Quartre = French for four = 4, Hakkai = similar to Japanese eight = 8. Notably, the creators of the original series use naming schemes that encourage this practice.
Original Fandoms: Gundam Wing, Saiyuki

Acronyms
FPS: Fictional Person Slash, as opposed to RPS (Real Person Slash).
WRT: With Regard To. See also "re" (regarding).

Names of Fandoms
a:tla is the acronym for "Avatar: the Last Airbender." Fans are called "avatards," although technically this term is reserved for fans who scored higher than 50% on YKYWTMATLAW quizzes (You Known You Watch Too Much Avatar: The Last Airbender When...)
puppyshippers are people who 'ship Sirius/Remus (Harry Potter). The verb form is "puppyshipping".

Word/Term: canonshafted
Meaning: I believe it's another word for "jossed".
Original Fandom(s), If Known: I saw it being used by some Potterfen, but I don't know if that's where it originated or not.

Word/Term: redshirt, red-shirt
Meaning: The original Star Trek often introduced characters whose sole purpose was to die violently shortly after being introduced, usually about ten minutes into the episode. These characters were usually in the Security department and therefore wore red shirts. The term "redshirt" is used to refer to any minor, expendable character who will probably be killed off quickly.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Star Trek

Word/Term: Favorite Character Mutilation Syndrome
Meaning: A condition which causes a fan to enjoy reading and/or writing stories that abuse his/her favorite characters, injuring them or even killing them off. Can be abbreviated to FCMS. Term coined (I believe) by Empress Leia.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Star Trek


~Alania
=^.^=

.

Hope this place isn't dead... anyway, I have a submission of a term that I was rather surprised not to find in the Glossary:

Word/Term: x
Meaning: Much like /, x is used between characters' names or initials to designate a romantic and/or sexual pairing (het or slash). For example, SephirothxCloud, Sephiroth x Cloud, or SxC. The same note for /, regarding proper ordering of names, applies to x as well.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Not sure; I think it's in general use, but it seems more prevalent in anime/manga/game fandoms.

(if used, please credit to Reeve again ^_^;)

This is another HP-specific term, but it is quite well-known within HP fandom.

Word/Term: Severitus Challenge
Meaning: The challenge to write a fic in which Snape turns out to be Harry's father/Snape adopts Harry/somehow Snape and Harry are put into a father/son relationship. Many fics have been written based on this premise. The original challenge can be found here.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: HP, obviously.

=^.^=

Word/Term: oldbie
Meaning: The opposite of a newbie, i.e. someone who has been around an online group or community for quite a while.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Umm... dunno.

Word/Term: Sinking a 'ship
Meaning: When a writer/creator of a show/book etc. reveals that a certain 'ship is definitely uncanonical. Said 'ship is now considered to be "sunk".
Original Fandom(s), If Known: So far I've only seen it in HP fandom, in reference to the recently-sunk Harry/Hermione 'ship.

Here's a very fandom-specific one that I figured I'd submit anyway:

Word/Term: Harmonian
Meaning: A supporter of the Harry/Hermione 'ship, AKA the H.M.S. Harmony.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Harry Potter

I humbly submit two terms for your consideration.

Word/Term: Dribble

Meaning: A new form, akin to the drabble but more restrictive (if you can imagine!) A dribble must be exactly 55 words -- starting with a line of 10 words, then a line of 9 words, then 8 words, then 7 words, and so on. Like this:

10 word line
9 word line
8 word line
7 word line
6 word line
5 word line
4 word line
3 word line
2 word line
1 word line

.
The best dribbles appear to be those with completed "thoughts" -- phrases or sentences -- for each line, although there is, understandably, some fudging.

Original Fandom(s), If Known: Lord of the Rings (RPS and FPS). The form appears to have been invented by ismenin here and then to have taken off in the fandom, popping up everywhere. There are many examples, but here is a Gen one in addition to Ismenin's original RPS one.



Word/Term: Double Dribble aka Drool or Drubble (I made up the word Drool for the LotR FPS fandom, since it seems an appropriate label for the form in that context, but I believe that Ismenin has called it a Drubble.)

Meaning: A reflective version of the dribble -- doubled and inverted. It takes the original dribble and reversing it -- going back up again to 10 words for a total of 110 words. Like this:

10 word line
9 word line
8 word line
7 word line
6 word line
5 word line
4 word line
3 word line
2 word line
1 word line
1 word line
2 word line
3 word line
4 word line
5 word line
6 word line
7 word line
8 word line
9 word line
10 word line

Original Fandom(s), If Known: Lord of the Rings (RPS and FPS). I believe that ladysunrope actually wrote the first one, but ismenin mentioned the possible doubling of the form. Again there are many examples, but here and here are two of the first.

Thanks for your consideration.

Here is a term that I've seen used a couple times before:

Word/Term: Twincest
Meaning: Romance between a pair of twins, such as Fred and George Weasley.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: No idea, sorry.

These are specific to the Harry Potter fandom, so you might not want them, but I thought they were funny so I'll submit them anyway.

Word/Term: VaporMort, Vapor!Mort
Meaning: Lord Voldemort in his "spirit" form, as he was between his first downfall and when he got his body back in GoF.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Harry Potter

Word/Term: QuirrelMort, Quirrel!Mort
Meaning: The combined Quirrel/Voldemort entity in PS.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Harry Potter

Word/Term: UglyBaby!Mort
Meaning: Voldemort as he was seen briefly in GoF, in a temporary baby-like body.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Harry Potter

Also I have some info on the "Bleeprin" that was mentioned by jaymesilvermane. It was coined by Meir Brin for the PPC, and can be found here. Also, the term "nuzgul" originated in OFUM and can be found here.

By the way, there is a dead link in the entry on "fanfic".

Um, hello. I've been using your site for a while, but today as I was going through it, I noticed the spork entry. I believe pottersues first coined the term in relation to fanfic. You can find her explanation for using it in her FAQ. Actually, nobody's sure who first came up with the sporking thing, but I think pottersues was the first named individual to use it. Mostly, fanfic writers and sporkers (what we call ourselves when we mock bad fanfics and Suefics) use sporks to either threaten Sues with, or to spork our own eyes out to end the agony of reading the Suefic. Writers generally use them only against Sues. It's considered rude to threaten good writers with a spork. Nowadays, it's used in most anti-Sue communities (deleterius, marysues, etc.)

Also, I have these additions (well, they're kinda used in conjunction with fanfic...):
Word/Term: Bleeprin
Meaning: Used by sporkers after/during MSTs of Suefics; the equivalent of Asprin; used to dull the pain of bad fanfiction. i.e. "Pass the sporks and Bleeprin!" is the motto of deleterius, a anti-Sue community.
Original Fandom: I believe deleterius first coined the term, but I'm not sure...

Word/Term: Sporkers
Meaning: People who mock bad fanfics or Suefics. They spork fics by pointing out inconsistencies in the plot, mocking the fic, MSTing the fic... There's a lot of ways you can spork a fic.
Original Fandom: There's not really one - once people started using the spork to deal with bad fanfics, the title just naturally evolved...

Oh, and in case you're interested, there are three more "Houses" for Sues: Tootsietramp, Bitchiwitch, and Qanonreip. The first two were created by pottersues, and the last one was created by theeternalmind. Since their creation, they have been used mostly in the HPverse, but they're creeping into other fandoms, as well.

Just thought you'd want to know!

Is there any actual word for fic about canonical or non-canonical relationships between men written by and for gay men? (As opposed to "slash" which has connotations of female fantasy?)

brachiarte: Fanonical word in the Centauri language (believed to have been invented by andrastewhite) for the tentacular prehensile genital organs of a male Centauri, generally accepted in the small Babylon 5 slash community. Singular and plural (a healthy male Centauri has six) are identical. Yes, apart from the actual word, all of this is straight out of canon, leading to the B5 fan boast "We have canon tentacle pr0n".

New Who: Specific term for the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. Believed to have originated as the name of the new_who LJ community.

OGN: Original Graphic Novel, used in comic fandom to refer to a long-form book intended to be read as a self-contained, single-volume work, by contrast to a TPB.

phone book: In the Cerebus the Aardvark fandom, any of the very thick and hefty TPBs in which the Cerebus comics are anthologised. Now spreading to the general comic fandom as a term for any unusually bulky TPB with a big page-count.

TPB: Trade PaperBack. In comic fandom, a soft-covered volume compiling several (usually) consecutive issues of a comic. The dividing line between a TPB and an OGN is unclear - some define any book collecting material previously published in serial form as a TPB, others view the dividing line in terms of a more subjective judgement of whether a book is a stand-alone work or a compilation of several installments of a longer, open-ended, comic.

tankoubon/tankubon: (Romanised spelling varies). The close-to-A5 sized, fairly thick, softbound, collected format in which Japanese manga and Western manga-influenced comics are usually sold in North America and Europe.

I just wanted to point out that while the Glossary as a whole looks very good, there's a rather grievous error in the entry for "The Terrible Trio." Ron's last name is Weasley, not Weaselly.

Word/Term: Squeenix
Meaning: A snarky way of referring to the video game developer/publisher Square Enix. If I recall, this term started cropping up around the time of the Square and Enix merger, when the new company's name was unveiled.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: video game fandom (Square/Final Fantasy fandom in particular)

Also, an acronym you might want to add, which I see every once in awhile: PGSM (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon)

(Oh, and if you use these, please credit to Reeve, as before ^_^)

EDIT: Didn't want to do a whole new post for yet another entry. This one's for an internet acronym-- IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer).

Word/Term: Hand!Porn
Meaning: Used by Rose/Doctor shippers, (and more increasingly non-shippers) to describe scenes where The Doctor and Rose hold hands.
Original Fandom(s), If Known: Doctor Who (New Series)

I actually updated the site WEEKS ago, but I took a break before tackling the old-fandom clarifications a couple of you gave me and, uh, ilosttrack. *gulp* So rather than delay it any longer, I'm just going to upload what's done and save those for the next update!

Edited: * *, alternate reality (AR), dong ma

New: _____-shaped, +, the Agent, anonymice, anonymouse, Attempted Rape (AR), bandom, Birthdayverse, Childhood Killer (CK!), Classic Who, clone, Companion, companion, cross-generational, CSI, denialfic, dim-smoky-bar-scenario (DSBS), dldr, Elricest, ETA, fandom features, fan service, Hermioknockers, the Master, mouse, Not Safe For Work (NSFW), Not Work Safe (NWS), phan, phangirl, phantastic, the Pit of Voles, Post-Gauda Prime (PGP), pr0n, the Puppies, Read At Your Own Risk (RAYOR), the Great Hiatus, Three-Pipe Problem, Unwanted Gratuitous Love Interest (UGLI), wingfic

Having asked around 'old fandom', I suggest that Rob Meades is the person to speak to about the origins of the term. It seems to have come out of the Brum SF group, and then gone into DWAS via Dave Wake.