Dictionary of Fiction

The world of fandom has many exclusive words in its vocabulary. This list will try its best to define those words for both referential and educational reasons. So this list won't be incredibly short, we will also include any terms that pertain to fiction such as "crossover" and "prequel".

C
Canon - The official set of facts and events relating to a franchise. We have a page about this.

Cliffhanger - A moment that cuts a suspensful moment off to set up for a later dramatic continuation.

Crackfic - An otherworldly fanfic that got its name from crack cocaine.

Crossover - An installation to one franchise in which at least one other franchise is involved in a collaborative project between the two franchises' creators.

E
Exposition - The act of explaining to the audience what is going on, what happened before, or what will happen through the characters.


 * ...dump - Slowing the story down with telling the audience what's happening in the story.

F
Fan - A person who enjoys a franchise and is a part of its regular audience.


 * ...base - The entirety of a franchise's regular audience.
 * ...boy - A male fan.
 * ...dom - A section of a fanbase made of like-minded individuals. This is often confused for "fanbase" and is what leads to people to use the two terms interchangeably.
 * ...fic - Short for "fan fiction".
 * ...girl - "Fangirl" has more than one sense:
 * As a noun, a female fan.
 * As a verb, to mindlessly gush about a franchise or character, often annoying others who disagree or are outside of the fandom.
 * fiction - Also shortened to "fanfic". A non-canonical story written by a fan that takes place in an established franchise. Although not all are, fanfics are best known for having characters be in sexual situations.

Friendfic - A fanfic in which two characters who aren't canonically friends are such.

I
Installment - A single addition to the franchise such as one book, movie, TV episode, or game.

L
Lampshading - Referencing an UnTrash with the purpose of either shaming it for being a bad one or to justify playing it. We have a page about this.

Line - A single word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph spoken by a character.

O
One-liner - A short joke that fits into a single line.

P
Prequel - The continuation of a story that happens before the original installment. This can happen to reveal characters' backstories or add depth to those backstories without blandly having those characters go on about what their life was like in the past to the audience.

R
Reboot - The continuation of a franchise that has the same characters (possibly with significant changes) in a different setting after the original is concluded.

S
Script - A document that outlines the plot, characters, their lines, and events in the plot.

Sequel - The continuation of a story that happens later in the universe's time.

Ship - "Ship" has more than one sense:


 * As a noun, the man-made, fan-made non-canonical relationship between two characters, typically a romantic or sexual one.
 * As a verb, to pair two characters in a relationship as a fan.