Fan Fiction Terms

A/N: Author Notes

Admin Short for Administrator. Administrators maintain and run the website and/or chat and message boards.

Adult A story with themes for older readers. May be inappropriate for children.

Age Statement A statement that the person is old enough to view the story.

Alt fic Alternative fiction or see Alternative.

Alt See Alternative.

Alternate Universe A piece that changes the cannon. (AU)

Alternative Different from the norm.

Alternative Timeline Things in the story happened in a different order or went different from a particular point.

AN: See Author Notes.

Anal Anal sex

Angst A piece that deals with raw emotions, anxiety fear and worry.

Anti-shippers Fans who are opposed to a certain relationship. Eg. Harry and Hermione

Archive (1) An Internet storage site for fan fictions. An example being our own Archive!!

Archivist A person who updates and maintains an archive.

AU Alternate Universe (i.e. - Voldemort never existed)

Author fic A story based around authors. It may take place in the world of HP

Author Notes A brief explanation or information, before or after a story by the author.

Beta Proofreading a story. Saying "this story has been beta'd" means "this story has been proofread." HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Bottom This is certainly not a phrase that originated with slash, but it's often used. It refers to the person on the receiving end of anal sex.

BD Bondage/Discipline (the BD in BDSM)

Beast Beastiality the use of an animal for sexual gratification or turn on

Beta reader A person who checks over a story for an author. They will normally check on the grammar, spelling and general setup of the story, also known as the 'beta.' Always thank your beta.

Beta Version A first/rough draft of a story.

Briticism using British terms and often spellings to make the story seem more true to its original British format. For example "Harry entered the lift." The lift is an elevator. Or saying "Hogwarts is Harry's favourite place." In England some words are spelled differently. Certain betas are known to be very good at this. Most authors cater to one way or the other, some sprinkle a bit of British terms.

Bunny an idea for a story a.k.a. a plot bunny

Canon Established history and characterizations of the book. To say that Dumbledore is odd is true to Cannon. To say that Dumbledore is an evil Death Eater is NOT true to cannon.

CBT Cock/Ball Torture

CD Cross Dress, example putting Draco in an evening gown

Challenge An idea given out by a reader that sets a plotline or idea for a story. Sometimes used in competition. Stories written as a result of that challenge are challenge responses. These are wonderful sources for inspiration.

Char. Is short for a character.

Character Codes Letters in the Header Info that tell what the pairing is. D/H(Draco/Hermione)

Citrus Milder version of 'lemon' - make-out sessions, basically, or else implied stuff Probably rated R.

Crit A critique of a story.

Criticism Critical comments and feedback about a story.

Crossover A piece that involves characters and or locations from more than one fandom. An example would be a story featuring Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings also expressed as a Xover

Cutter when a character cuts themselves for thrills or to feel

D/S Dominance/submission

Dark A piece of fan fiction that is depressing, sad or unpleasant.

Death fic One or more characters dies in the course of the story ALWAYS alert when you are doing a death fic(tion.)

Disclaimer Usually found in the header to a story. Usually stating that the characters etc. belong to J.K. Rowling. If a site carries a disclaimer that covers the site against legal prosecution; every story should have a disclaimer. Saying "I'm broke don't sue" is not a disclaimer!

A thorough disclaimer should at least include especially in Harry Potter where it is COPYWRITTED written work.

1.) The name of the original author of the idea, place or character whose work it is

2.) That you do not have any malicious intent, did not set out to slander the author work or some statement that declares you mean no harm

3.) You are not making any profit from it.

This is an example which you may use but it no means guarantees you to be exempt from legal proceeding should the wonderful JKR go looking through the internet, but it's a lot better than "don't sue I'm broke."

Example feel free to use: The world of Harry Potter, its characters and settings are the copyrighted works of J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., her publishing companies and affiliates. No profit was made from the writing of this story nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author or the actors/actresses who so brilliantly have brought them to life.

If you use direct quotes from a story give JKR her due and make a notation to the book and say it is HERS. (This is where footnotes can come in handy).

DP Double Penetration

Draft (Rough Draft) A first unedited version of the story (um, why publish it?)

Epic A long drawn out story.

Epilogue The wrapping up at the end of the story.

Fan fiction Fiction written by a fan, a.k.a. 'fan fic'

Fandom The world revolving around a particular fanfiction.

FAQ Stands for Frequently Asked Questions.

Feedback Comments by a reader of a story for the author. There are generally four types of feedback: Praise, constructive feedback, constructive criticism and flames. Flames are not tolerated at this site, a.k.a. FB.

Femslash This term is used to signify a female/female (f/f) romantic or sexual pairing, which we DO allow on our site, as it falls under the category of Slash.

Fen The participants in a fandom. ring, f/f or fem/fem

Fet Fetish- using a non-sexual item to derive sexual satisfaction or arousal

Fic Another term for Fan Fiction. See fan fiction.

Ficcer A writer of fan fic stories.

First Draft The first and unedited version of a story.

Fist Fisting, sticking a fist up the anal opening (considered violent)

Flame An insulting and rude comment often containing unnecessary comments aimed at a story or author, for example - 'you suck'. Many sites offer a chance for authors to erase flames, some sites will ban you for this. The Silver Snitch does not deal with flamers (those who flame). We are a community that helps each other to better our writings for the greater enjoyment of all.

Fluff A light, happy piece - the proverbial happily ever after.

Footnotes Where an author will state where something in the story came from if it is NOT theirs.

Example " The quote "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin," is from HP: Book one by JK Rowling, page #…"

Gary Stu Is a male Mary Sue. See Mary Sue.

Gen Heterosexual M/F pairings.

H/C Hurt/Comfort (Harry is raped and is comforted by Ron )

Header Info Information at the top of a story that informs the reader about the story, author or just gives details about the piece. A disclaimer should always appear in the header at the first page of every fic, however if it is multi-chaptered you need not repeat yourself.

Het Stands for heterosexual or very boring attraction to the opposite sex. Also known as 'Gen.' This is allowed to be in the very background at Silver Snitch NOT the primary couple of the story! The Silver Snitch is a SLASH site.

(Hobby Fan fiction is a fun way to spend time and share with others. Do not expect to get paid for it. Keep the day job, really and keep it FUN for everyone. Obsession is a good perfume not a lifestyle.)

Humil Humiliation (doing it in front of everyone on the rival team because you lost a bet)

IC Stands for In Character. In Character means the characters behave in a fashion that agrees with canon behavior. For example: Snape taking 10 points from Gryffindor because Neville melted down a cauldron, again.

Inc Incest (sexual relations between two persons so closely related it is forbidden by law, i.e. father & son or father & daughter, etc.)

Index A list of stories and links to the stories.

JKR Joanne K. Rowling who is the author of Harry Potter, a.k.a. the Goddess, Queen and richest woman in the U.K.

Kink Kinky sex fic, Yowza to the anime crowd.

Kleenex Warning A warning by authors that the story is gonna be sad...Get the Kleenex ready

Lemon More anime fandom slang, meaning a pornographic fic, usually NC-17.

Lime Same thing as citrus. Not quite lemon, but not clean either.

Love/Hate A story type where the characters start out hating each other and end up loving each other, for example Draco and Harry, Lucius and Harry, Harry and Severus Snape.

Mailing List An e-mail list of users or authors.

Marty Stu A male version of Mary Sue. See Mary Sue.

Mary Sue A character that is seen as perfect and has a tendency to be great at everything. Generally not considered a good character. Also another term for an author to put themselves into the story.

MC Mind Control

Minor Minor involved

M-Preg, m/preg or MPREG Male Pregnancy

Muggles Humans. Non wizarding people.

MWPP Moony Wormtail Padfoot and Prongs. A story labeled MWPP deals with the time period when Harry Potter's parents were attending Hogwarts; a Marauders story.

N/C Non-Consensual sex (forced sex/rape) a.k.a Non-Con

Nec Necrophilia - having sex with a corpse

Netiquette A code of conduct or acceptable behavior on the Internet.

Newbie A new fan fiction writer, or a new user

Non-Con Non-Consensual sex (forced/rape) a.k.a. N/C

OC Original Character, example "Jim Roberts Davies was Harry's new friend." Jim would be the OC because he doesn't appear in the original canon (books).

OFC Original Female Character; a character not taken from the book or other fanfiction.

OMC Stands for Original Male Character (as above)

OOC Stands for Out Of Character. Not what you would expect from the character. Lord Voldemort skipping through flowers while singing, would be EXTREME OOC. (Let's face it if it was all totally OOC we would be out of a hobby!) Some OOC is to be expected but going over the top? Please warn people.

Oral Oral sex - satisfying a partner with your mouth.

Pairing A combination of any two characters.

Pairing Codes Letters in the header of a story to inform the reader who the main characters are Example: SS/ HP, DM/LV

Usual pairing codes are done by the initials of the characters, thus Harry Potter is HP. Some confusion can be caused by characters with more than one name such as LV being Lord Voldemort but he can also be referred to as TR for Tom Riddle. Please use pairing codes we all like our own pairs, don't we?

Ped Minor involved - also known as 'chan', in the U.K. the age of consent is 16

Plushy Plushophiles - people that enjoy have sex with stuffed animals, a.k.a 'flurries'

POV - Point of view, what view the story is written in; first, third, etc.*

Prequel (1) A story that takes place before events in the book.

PWP Porn without Plot/Point, a.k.a. Plot? What Plot? Some of us live for this so announce it loud and proud!

R/R Read/Review.

R/T Rape/torture.

Racist By request. If you have a serious story that may deal with this theme, please use it.

Rim Rimming - To perform by the use of a tongue foreplay on an anus.

RPS Real Person Slash (Actor Fics). The term used to describe stories written about real people, not fictional characters. LOTR (Lord of the Rings) is big on this. Not usually found in Harry Potter fandom because most of the characters are minors (BIG LEGAL no-no).

Rating A way to tell a reader what reading level the themes are appropriate for. Ratings are based on American Film Ratings. These ratings consist of the following: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17

This is how it was explained to me at a slash con.

G= Harry looked lovingly at his new professor.

PG= Harry wished he could be closer to his teacher but knew it was to stay a dream.

PG-13= Harry was fairly certain his teacher just made a pass at him! (shock!)

R= Harry found himself backed up to the wall by the teacher whom with he shared wild passionate sex; their bodies writhing sensually together.

NC-17= Harry licked his fingers clean of his lovers orgasm. (He was getting a good grade this term eh?)

Basically you know you've crossed into NC-17 if it contains bodily orgasmic fluids or kink in detail.

Regular A person who is a well-known user of the site.

Review An opinion of a story left by a reader. If you can't say something nice - don't say anything at all (a good rule in life too).

Round Robin A story that is started by one author who then passes it on to another to add to it, and so on and so on.

S & M Sado-Masochism ; where pleasure is derived from inflicted pain on others (sadism) and receives it in return

Scat involves human waste (the brown stuff)

Schmoop The term used to describe overt romanticism. If there are flowers, chocolates, candles and terms of endearment, it's schmoop. Variant spelling: shmoop

Sequel A story that takes place after a previous story.

Ship A strong, ongoing relationship shared by two characters. Also a term for a particular fandom, i.e. Harry Potter is my ship.

Shipper A reader who supports a particular relationship pairing above all others. They are usually fanatical about their particular favorite. eg. H/G shippers are fans of Harry and Ginny stories.

Shipperfic A story that is based around a particular relationship.

Slash A story involving a theme concerning same sex characters, also known as 'homoerotic' its symbol in fandom is indicated by '/'

Slave Slavery

Smut Anything with smutty, adult-ish content.

Snog Make-out session - British term

Solo Masturbation

Songfic Song fan fiction. A story that is based around or inspired by the lyrics of a song. See our Archive for examples.

Sp/Spank Spanking

Spoiler Iformation from the books which you may not know and which may spoil your reading of them.

Spoiler Warning A note that the story may contain info from one of the HP books, which may spoil it for you if you haven't read them (hello why not??)

Spork a story that is so bad you want to use one of these handy plastic spoon/forks to dig out your eyeballs, a.k.a. rusty spoon

Squeeeee! A story so wonderful it makes the reader squeal with delight

Squick A fetish or story element that the reader finds hard to stomach. A particular pairing that makes another uneasy. Variants: squick factor, squick-o-meter

Stalker a fan of a particular author who never leaves them alone (please don't do this it scares them off sites).

Story Challenge See Challenge.

Story Header See Header Info.

Summary A brief outline of the story.

Teaser A small part of a story, posted to get readers interested in the story in advance.

Tent Tentacles of the Giant Squid being involved, or also description of a male character getting a noticeble hard-on a.k.a. 'tenting'.

Test Reader someone who will read over a story for an author to see if it makes sense, has continuity and so forth.

TG Transgender

Top The person on the giving end of anal sex.

Tort Torture (does anyone else know any other Torture codes?

Toys Sexual toys, vibes, dildos, etc

TPTB The powers that be, a general reference that could mean anything from lawyers or webmasters/webmistresses.

TS Transsexual

TV Transvestite

Twincest Slang for romance between twin brothers or sisters. Not as weird as it sounds.

UST Unresolved Sexual Tension, sometimes referred to as 'chemistry'

Voy Voyeurism

VS Vamp Sex

WAFF Warm and Fuzzy Feelings. A WAFF piece is light and happy and leaves the reader feeling happy and warm.

Webmaster a male person in charge of all aspects of running a website

Webmistress a female person in charge of all aspects of running a website

- Please note they do enjoy hearing positive feedback but do not care if Suzy made a spelling mistake in a story that you think needs to be fixed now, they run the site not story content.

WIP Work in Progress, a story still being worked on, please don't torture us too long?

WS Water sports (urine play/golden showers) -kink

Xeno Xenophilia (Sex with Aliens)

Disclaimer: Most of these are not MY explainations of the terms. I found them at the Silver Snitch (www.squibsru.ho8.com) and I much prefered their definitions to mine, so I used them but I do not own them. Far from it. The ones I have added have a * after the definitions.

If anyone has a definiton to add to the list email me (Esgal).