A Guide to Understanding the Mysterious Terms of (Harry Potter) Fanfiction

Are you new to reading fanfiction and struggle to understand some of the terms and abbreviations? Do you know the difference between OC and OOC? And what the hell is an AU?
I composed this work in order to help rookies (and perhaps old stagers, as well) understand new terms, explaining abbreviations an common terms of fanfiction.
Just browse through it. For quich search, use Strg+F and enter the term you search for.
TBC, WIP (don't worry, I'll explain! ;) )

Notes:

When I began to read fanfiction several years ago, I had trouble understanding special terms, and would have wished for such a guide. Over the years, I accumulated knowledge of abbreviations etc. and now decided to share it with others.
This work is part of a threepart series. However, these work do not differ in content, but in language. This guide will be available in English and German and maybe French as well. Choose the language which suits you best!
Most of the words and abbreviations in fanfiction are based on English. There are very few words from other languages, therefore an understanding of English is quite useful for comprehending e. g. the background of why a word was chosen to express certain things.
As I cannot possibly include every single term found on websites such as Ao3, this work will never comprise every detail you might want. In that case (if you are in need of further explanations of (a) specific term(s)), please google the term and/or consult other websites explaining it in greater detail.
You feel I've forgotten a term or an important aspect? Type a comment or send me a private message :)

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

AN, A/N - Author's Note

Usually found at the beginning or end of a chapter, if the author wants to explain or add something that is not supposed to be part of the story, for example something about his Real Life, on reasons why he or she did not update etc. Not very apppreciated by readers when they stumble upon it in the middle of a chapter.

see also: RL

Alpha-Beta-Omega-Stories, Alpha/Beta/Omega-Stories, ΑΒΩ-Stories

Represent a certain type of world order in a fanfiction, dominated by Alphas. Alpha personas are mostly dominating and possessive, whereas Omegas are submissive and subordinate to "their" Alpha. Related to Master/Slave Stories, which are often found in a Voldemort!Wins-Universe.

Betas tend to appear more seldomly, being "normal" persons.

see also: DubCon

Animalised, Animalized ???????

AR - Alternate Reality

AT - Alternate Timeline

AU - Alternate Universe

BadFic

A fanfiction which is bad. Really bad. Bad grammar, basically no logic, Mary Sues, an annoying author ... (continue imagining the worst you can imagine). Might also be intended as a parody. Don't like, don't read.

see also: DLDR, Gary Sue, Mary Sue

Beta Reader

Someone who is proofreading an author's story or chapter before publication, making annotations or editing grammar, spelling or checking the logic in a story.

Canon

see also: Off-Canon, Fanon

CC - Canon Compliant

CC - Constructive Criticism

Self-explanatory term. Some authors highly appreciate those type of comments, others don't like it at all, so be especially careful in your wording when you want to give it but the author hasn't explicitly stated that they want it.

see also: Flames

Challenge

Cliffhanger

Contraction

Terms designating a romantic pairing of two characters or a specific relationship, respectively. Some abbreviations are more known than others, some pairings have more than one or slightly differing names.

Example: Billdora (Bill/Tonks), Dramione (Draco/Hermione), Drarry (Draco/Harry), Grindledore (Grindelwald/Dumbledore), Hinny (Harry/Ginny), Huna (Harry/Luna), Jily (James/Lily), Marthur (Molly/Arthur), Romione (Ron/Hermione), Snarry (Snape/Harry)... Special cases: Red Moon (Ron/Luna), Wolfstar (Remus/Tonks) and Drapple (Drace/an apple)

Did you know?: Severitus (Snape/Harry) marks stories with a familyship (!), very often, Snape is a mentor and/or father figure to Harry

see also: Ship

Crack!Fic, Crack-Fic, Crackfic

see also: Fic, FF, !

Crossover

DarkFic, Dark!Fic

DLDR - Don't Like, Don't Read (It)

DM, PM - direct message, private message

Drabble

A fanfiction of exactly 100 words (not counting the title and description).

Dubcon, Dub-Con, Dub Con - Dubious Consent

EWE - Epilogue, what Epilogue?, Epilogue? What Epilogue?

A story disregarding the Epilogue (e. g. "Nineteen Years Later"), but being otherwise canon-compliant (taking into account the rest of "Deathly Hallows"). An author might choose to write such a story because he or she did not like the original epilogue and wanted to change it.

Fandom

Fanon

Word composed of "Fan" and "Canon". Describes concepts and ideas that don't exist in Canon (the real story), but are often widely used in fanfictions, even to the point that they are confused with canon. Fanon ideas are often based on incidentally mentioned ideas, evolve from there, and may develop a life on their own.

FemSlash

see also: Slash

FF - Fanfiction, Fan Fiction, Fanfic

see also: Fic, Crack!Fic ??????

Fic - Fanfiction, Fan Fiction, Fanfic, FF

see also: FF

Ficlet

A shorter type of fanfiction, between the length of a drabble and a "full" fanfiction.

Flames

Rather the opposite of constructive criticism (CC): Meaningless, hateful, rude, derogatory etc. comments about an author or the fanfiction. Inflame tempers and discussions, and are very demoralising for authors.

see also: CC - Constructive Criticism

Flashback

Fluff

Foreshadowing

Gary Stu

An impossibly perfect Original Male Character, extremely annoying.

see also: Mary Sue, Larry, Stu, OMC

Head Canon, Headcanon

Het - Hetero

see opposite: Slash, Femslash

Hiatus

Humanised, Humanized ??????????

H&C, H/C - Hurt/Comfort

IC - in character

see opposite: OOC

Larry Stu

An impossibly perfect Original Male Character, extremely annoying.

see also: Gary Stu, Mary Sue, OMC

Lemon

see also: Lime, Smut

Lime

see also: Lemon, Smut

Mary Sue

An impossibly perfect Original Female Character, extremely annoying.

see also: Gary Stu, Larry Stu, OFC

MC - Multi Chapter

MMFF ------------ German term Mitmach Fanfiction ????????????

MPreg - Male Pregnancy

NextGen, Next-Gen - Next Generation

NonCon, Non-Con - Non-Consensual

OC - Own Character, Original Character

see also: OFC, OMC

OFC - Own Female Character, Original Female Charater

see also: OC, OMC

Offcanon, Off-Canon

OMC - Own Male Character, Original Male Character

see also: OC, OFC

OOC - Out Of Character

OS - Oneshot, One-Shot

A fanfiction consisting of only one (possibly long) chapter. If a oneshot is enhanced (thus, it uses it status as a Oneshot), it is called a Twoshot, Threeshot or Fourshot. Anything more than Four is uncommon.

Pairing

see also Ship?????????, Shipping ???????

PM - Private Message, Private Messaging, Personal Message, Personal Messaging

POV - Point of View

Prompt

PWP - Plot What Plot, Plot? What Plot?, Porn Without Plot

Rating

Reviews

RL - Real Life

RTB - Reading The Books

R&R - Read and Review, Rate and Review

Self-Shipping

A story in which the reader takes part in a romantic relationship with another character.

see also: Y/N

Ship, Shipping, Shipper - Relationship

see also: Pairing, /, &

Slash

see also: FemSlash

Smut

see also: Lemon, Lime

SongFic

Spoiler

Not to be confused with Foreshadowing.

TBC - To Be Continued, To Be Completed

Often added if a work is not finished yet, but the author intends to, though sometimes, abandoned stories still carry this label. Used synonymously with "WIP".

see also: WIP - Work in Progress

TL - Timeline

see also: TT, TWT

Trigger

TT - Timetravel, Time Travel

TWT - Time what Time?, Time? What Time?

see also: Timeline

WIP - Work in Progress

Often added if a work is not finished yet, but the author intends to, though sometimes, abandoned stories still carry this label. Used synonymously with "TBC".

see also: TBC - To Be Continued/To Be Completed

Y/N - Your Name, YN, yn, Reader Insert

Specifies a certain type of fanfiction where the reader is part of a story, and the author lets the reader insert her/his name in the places marked "Y/N". A relationship with Y/N is most often heterosexual.

see also: Self-Shipping

& - Ampersand

Used between the names of two characters to indicate a relation of the type "friendship".

see also: /

/ - Slash, Diagonal Slash

Used between the names of two characters - or more - to indicate a (romantic) relationship. May also be used to indicate a more platonic relation, though "&" would be more appropriate.

see also: &

! - exclamation mark

An exclamation mark (most often between two adjoined words) is intended as a warning for the reader an author might want to add to warn people about e. g. triggers.

Examples: Dark!Harry (in this story, Harry is a dark wizard), Death!Fic (quite often, lots of (major) characters die)

see also: DarkFic, Trigger

Will possibly be included (still to decide):

P***

R***

Set-Up and Pay-Off, Red Herrings and Checkhov’s Gun, Deus ex machina

Notes:

Disclamer: I do not claim the idea of composing a Fanfiction Term Dictionary. Furthermore, I do and did not intend to infringe any author's rights or steal stories (or rather lexica) that already exist.

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