The Slash Glossary
New to reading and writing fanfiction, slash and yaoi in particular?
Confused by all those wonky Japanese words?
What the heck is a het lemon?
What is this 'prostate' thing I keep hearing about?
Squick?!
Well, read on, my lovelings, and be edu-ma-cated!
(This doesn't include every single term you might come across in fanfic, because I am assuming you already know what words like 'epilogue' and 'crossover' mean without having to look them up.)
AN – Abbreviation for 'Author's Note'. Do not put this in the middle of your story; only at the beginning or ending of chapters! It is a poor writer who interrupts their own flow.
Angst – Angst is a sort of vague anxiety about the world and personal freedom; thusly resulting fics are dark and deliciously depressing fics. (usually No Happy Ending)
AU- Alternate Universe. AU explores possibilities that the canon universe would not allow. Most fanfics are technically AU, if you think about it. Also you might see AE, for Alternate Ending, i.e. Sam and Frodo marry each other after the War of the Ring. AT means Alternate Timeline and AR stands for Alternate Reality, a favorite with sci-fi fans.
Badfic– Fanfiction written badly, either unintentionally or intentionally for humorous reasons. Mary Sues abound!
BDSM – Bondage/domination. Sexual situation involving tying someone up and/or having one person be submissive to the other.
Best- Fair warning; if you see 'Best' on someone's story warnings, it does NOT mean that it's the 'Best Story Ever'. It means the story includes Bestiality. Good to know beforehand, huh?
Beta reader- A nice, friendly person who acts as proofreader. Lots of fanfiction archives has lovely posting boards for such matters, if you wish to be a beta reader or you want to 'hire' one. The term "beta reader" comes from the software world, where software that is ready to be tested by experienced users, but not yet ready to be released to actual customers, is referred to as "beta."
Bishoujo- Japanese for 'pretty girl' i.e. "Yohko is one fine bishoujo."
Bishounen- Japanese for 'pretty boy' i.e. "Sephiroth is so bishounen!" or "Mmm, how about all those bishies on Tenshi Ni Narumon?" (bishy or bishie is short for bishounen)
Blood- Can mean blood-play (a gory offshoot of S&M) or, hot hot vampire sex.
Canon- A fact that is portrayed in the original show, book, etc. To put it simply, canon is what the "real" story is. Saying i.e. "Lestat is bisexual" is canon, though saying "Lestat and David are lovers" is not, though it is hinted at in the Vampire Chronicles and therefore commonly fanon.
Citrus– A story that is only kinda sexual. So basically, it's Diet Lemon. Don't see this too often, and just in anime fics. See 'lemon'.
Chan- Chanslash or Chanfic is an anime term used to indicate that there is an underaged character in a romantic situation.
Coda- A literary term for a short epilogue, a form of conclusion or a rewritten ending for a story.
Concrit- Constructive criticism.
Crackfic- Denotes a crazy, usually humorous story, that is in some way extremely unusual. Any story that makes the reader wonder if the writer was high on crack.
Daisy Chain- Three or more people in a circle, pleasuring each other.
Drabble- Short fics of an exact specified length, anywhere from 50 to 500 words, though usually 100.
Dub-Con- The story contains dubious sexual consent, perhaps borderline non-con.
Ecchi- The Japanese pronunciation for the 'h' in hentai, thusly, means the same thing as hentai.
Epic Fic- A very long story, perhaps very dramatic as well.
ER- Established relationship
Fanon- Things generally accepted by most fans that aren't outright portrayed in canon. i.e. The common belief that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were lovers is fanon. In the Original Star Trek, Sulu's first name Hikaru was only used in fanfics and comics and books, but not in the actual show itself for quite some time (this is a rare case of fanfiction influencing a canon genre).
F/f- Abbreviation for female/female relationships. i.e. Hermione/Ginny, Buffy/Faith
Femslash- Another way of saying f/f.
Ficlet- A very short fanfic.
Filk- Is not exactly Songfic, though it can be labelled that way. Filk is taking the tune of a song and putting in new words, perhaps for parody.
Flame- A negative piece of feedback. Nasty e-mails to an author, usually going something like this: "YOU SUX!!!!11" A flamewar is where two or more people post insults at each other. Highly entertaining.
Fluff- Happy lovey-dovey fics that are written simply for the feel-goods. Anti-angst. Also called Schmoop.
Furry- Anthropomorphic animals, that is, people with animalistic traits or features (or animals with humanistic traits and features, depending on who you talk to).
Gen- Short for General. This means any type of fanfic, sometimes used as another term for het.
H/C- Hurt/comfort. i.e. Mulder get abducted and once again horribly probed, Scully and Skinner both take this opportunity to give Fox some huggles.
Het– A story featuring heterosexual relationships; non-slash. i.e. Ron/Hermione
Jossed- So you wrote a fanfic about what you think might happen next in your fandom, but then actual canon came along and ruined your awesome idea! Named after Joss Whedon, of many fine fandoms like Buffy, Dollhouse, Firefly, etc, who loves his plot twists!
Lemon – Code word for a story containing explicit sex. Used mainly in anime fanfics.
Lime– Limes are toned down lemonfics. Used mainly in anime fics.
Meta- Means something that is either talking about itself, (let's say a fanfic in which Professor Snape is reading fanfic about himself on the internet) or can also indicate a breaking of the 'fourth wall' between fiction and reality.
M/m- Abbreviation for male/male relationships.
Mary Sue- A Mary Sue is, basically, two things. 1. A thinly veiled fictional version of the author herself, and 2. An original character who is the main protagonist in a fanfiction story. Mary Sue is a gorgeous woman (or Marty Stu for the menfolk) who can do absolutely everything, to the admiration of established characters. She can fight crime, use magic like nobody's business, cook, sew, talk with animals, and look damn good doing it. Mary Sues can be fun because they are basically embodying the dreams and desires of the author, making the author someone she wishes she could be. Many girls new to writing fanfics often make a Mary Sue character to slip into the fanfic universe, and invariably the character that the author herself most likes will fall in love with her Mary Sue character.
Mpreg- Male pregnancy
MST – Thought I'd mention this, since NOBODY seems to have ANY freakin' idea what this truly is. MST3K stand for Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was a kick-ass show on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel. Basically, there was this guy in a spaceship with two puppe--I mean robots, who were forced to watch really really bad movies. To stay sane, Mike (or Joel, for you long-time fans!) and the Bots heckled the movie, verbally tearing it to pieces. This show lasted for ten years, and it totally, totally rocked. Do yourself a favor and check it out. In the fanfic world, writing a MST means that you take another person's story and, essentially, make fun of it. Be careful about MSTing a fic without the author's permission.
Non-Canon- Anything that is not sanctioned as being part of the actual storyline. By definition, almost all fanfic is non-canon. See 'fanon'.
OC- Original character, one the author has created themselves. OMC and OFC mean Original Male Character and Original Female Character, respectively.
OOC- Out of character, also called characterization. While writing fanfiction, it can be difficult to keep the character's original voice and characteristics without slipping into the author's own voice, and thusly the resulting story is not believable, because the characters are doing and thinking things they'd never ever do.
OTP- One True Pairing. "Like, OMG, Bella/Jacob is like, soooo my OTP!"
Oneshot- A piece of writing, usually fairly short, that is only meant to be one chapter.
PWP- "Plot, What Plot?" or "porn without plot". A short ficlet written for the sole purpose of seeing some mad weasel lovin'.
Plotbunny- An insidious, unrelenting creature that bites hold of an author and makes them write something they had no intention of writing! When you are gripped by an irresistible story idea, you have a plotbunny!
Prostate- Men have this thing. This magical, pleasurable spot. Inside. Simply put, when it comes to slash, the prostate is what keeps 'em coming back for more! (This entry carefully worded so as not to get kicked off . If you're still confused, well, there's Wikipedia.)
R&R- Read and Review, which all good and kind readers do to keep their favorite authors rewarded and inspired!
Rec- Short for Recommend. Reclists are, surprise, lists full of recommendations.
Round robin- A story written by many authors, the first writing a small bit and then passing it on to another author, etc.
RPS- Real People Slash, or RPF, Real People Fiction. i.e. Viggo Mortenson/Orlando Bloom, Kim Kardashian/Tila Tequila (man, that would be one skanky fic!) You might see this as Actorfic.
S/M- Sado-masochism, names for the receiving and giving consensual pain, humiliation. If non-consensual, it's just sadism. The name comes from the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about the joy of causing pain and from Sacher-Masoch who wrote on the joys of receiving pain and humiliation.
Seme- Japanese for 'top'. The dominant partner in a relationship.
Sex Pollen- A classic sci-fi excuse to get characters boinking. Can mean any kind of external mind-control, like drugs or even alien artifacts.
Shipper- Ship is short for relationship. For instance, saying that you are a Remus/Sirius shipper means you think the two should be together in canon. Also, shipping means the author focuses more on relationships than plain sex. If you want to read about Darth Maul and Obi-Wan living together and gardening and raising kittens, you're a shipper. If you just wanna read about them screwing, that's just a 'pairing', rather than a 'ship'. You also might see Antishippers, fans who are opposed to a certain pairing.
Shoujo-ai- "Girl's love" Pretty rare to find, when compared to the HUGELY VAST caches of m/m yaoi. A good example of shoujo-ai or yuri subtext is Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Shounen-ai – "Boy's love" Shounen-ai is not sexual in nature, as is yaoi. A shounen-ai fic is showing the youthful love and tenderness that grows between two males, and usually this grows to be yaoi later on. Shounen-ai is usually heavy with angst and unrequited love; or on the flip side, excessive fluff.
Slash- The slash genre has its origins with Kirk/Spock stories in the 70s and 80s. Slash means, simply, the depiction of characters of the same sex interacting in sexual/love situations. Slash is a term used for moviefics, tvfics, litfics, and the ilk. Cartoons are called both slash and yaoi with approximate equality. A "slasher" is one who reads/writes slash. Do you squeal with glee? You should!
Smut- A story containing graphic sex.
Songfic– A fanfic with the lyrics of a song winding through it, or heavily inspired by a song or lyric.
Squick- A story theme or pairing that creeps you out. For example, S&M and bloodplay squicks many people, and pairing Dumbledore and Harry squicks some folks, because of the age difference. If you believe you are non-squickable, (squickless?) trust me, you'll eventually find something you don't like. Don't proclaim "Nothing squicks me!" in a forum unless you want people finding things for you to be squicked by!
Subtext- This term hearkens back to literary analysis days, and in fandom it means any element in canon dialogue or actions that could be interpreted as slashy. It refers to anything that can be seen or read that may imply sexual tension. A lot of Xena/Gabrielle slash is based on canon subtext.
TPTB- The Powers That Be, used to refer to the creators of a tv show, movie, etc. Can be substituted by TIIC. (the idiots in charge)
Uke- Japanese for 'bottom'. The submissive partner in a relationship.
UST- Unresolved Sexual Tension. An enormous amount of slash is written as a result of UST subtext. In fic terms it means unrequited love. Goes hand in hand with Angstfics.
Verse- A suffix that indicates that the story takes place within a specific world, AU, or version of a fandom. Examples are Whedonverse, Nolanverse, Bookverse. Try adding it after anything, it's fun!
Vignette- A literary term that indicates a short story that is intended to describe an event, mood, or character, in a concise and meaningful way.
WAFF- Warm and Fuzzy Feeling! Happy stories that leave readers feeling, well, warm and fuzzy!
Wake Up Gay- Pretty obvious. Related to the 'Everyone's Gay!' type of fics, i.e. every character on Buffy is suddenly bisexual, so they can have big orgies thereafter.
Wank- This usually refers to when someone has gotten really carried away with their fandom of choice and is taking it way, WAY too seriously. If you watch a flamewar you'll get to see some furious wanking.
Whump or whumpage- Like H/C, but all Hurt and no Comfort. Written for the pleasure of seeing a character get whapped upside the head, metaphorically speaking.
Yaoi – An abbreviation for "yama-nashi ochi-nashi imi-nashi", which can be roughly translated as "no climax, no resolution, no meaning". Yaoi is used in regards to Japanese animation, though I've heard it applied to other cartoons as well. The term 'yaoi' is also applied with video gams, and some RPGs. Generally, yaoi is a term reserved for anime, while slash is used for non-anime media.
Yuri- First started with 'The Dirty Pair', it means 'lily'. Anime term for femslash.
-A Few Tips to Help You on Your Way to Writing Slash-
Shounen-ai vs. Yaoi- To help distinguish the difference between yaoi and shounen-ai, regard the following two sentences: "Yusuuke sighed as he watched Gabriel from across the room, his mind replaying that single sweet kiss they had shared last night." That would be tender shounen-ai. "Heero lustfully watched Duo's braid swing around his shoulders, and said, 'Baby, I'm gonna bop you till your ears bleed!' So they did." That'd be yaoi.
Men Aren't Women. - It's easy for girls to forget, but writing about gay men isn't like writing about women. Just because they're gay and maybe sensitive doesn't mean they're chicks. They're still men, with manly urges and silly man-thoughts. It lessens the realistic qualities of stories when the gender-line is confused (if done intentionally and artfully, then it can be really good, of course.)
To NC-17 or Not To NC-17- A slash story can be really great, and then when it gets to the good pink parts, it can totally suck if the writer doesn't make it believable. If you're gonna write explicit sex, and you have only a rudimentary idea of how this is done, maybe you should do some research. You know what might help? THE ENTIRE INTERNET.
Love-meat?!- Please. Don't get cute with biological features, okay? Calling a man's penis his "pleasure-rod" or his "totem pole of love" is just plain silly. And there's nothing worse than reading a good fanfic and enjoying it, and then you read some gross term for genitalia… it can take away ALL the sexiness! If you're really tired of writing 'shaft' over and over, don't worry too much; the reader won't even notice! Stay consistent. Don't make such a reach for originality…go for HOT!
Lube 'em Up! - Yes, lube. Most gay men use it every single time they have intercourse, because it's mighty painful without it. Maybe your characters should, too. It's realistic. Remember, if you need soap and water to wash it off your hands, it can be used for lube!
Safe Sex in Slash- Please consider using safe sex in your fics, if it fits into the story. It sets a good example, and can accentuate the realism in some stories.
That's all I got! If you have any comments or any entries to add, please leave them in the form of a review. Hope this helped you out.
Happy Slashing!