Antagonist: The villain of the story or the person who blocks the protagonist.
Author Intrusion: The author is suddenly "telling the story" rather than the narrator.
Cliché: Hackneyed expressions which we've all heard. It beats me, why we can't let sleeping dogs lie are two examples of trite clichés. While some clichés carefully placed can give us a regional or historical flavor, most times it's best to avoid them—especially in narration.
Cut: Take out or remove the line/words/paragraph/scene.
Dialogue tags, or speech tags: He said, she said or She said as twirling her hair, or Action tag: She twirled her hair. Tags identify your speaker so your reader can follow along. Don't overdo dialogue tags, but have enough to distinguish between your speakers.
Genre: The category in which a story is placed. Your editor might point out something you've written which isn't appropriate or doesn't belong in the genre you've written.
Infodump: This can be backstory or technical explanations regarding your space ship's engine, but whatever it is, you've stopped the story's forward motion.
Point of View: An editor might say something changes point of view or breaks POV. She is referring to the POV character. Most beginning writers can't write effectively in omniscient POV without head-hopping so sticking with one character at a time is best. Even if you are sticking with one character you can slip out of POV if you write: His eyes twinkled. If your hero is the POV character, he can't see his eyes unless looking at a mirror.
Protagonist: The hero/heroine of your story.
Purpose: An editor might question the purpose of a scene. Purpose is the reason for the scene, what you are trying to convey.
Slush: unsolicited manuscripts--the pile a publisher/editor/agent reads through.
Some acronyms: WIP=Work in Progress, MC=Main character, MS=Manuscript, YA=Young
adult, MG=Middle Grade
Telling: Usually accompanied with the words too much. The editor means you probably need to revise and get more into the character's head and the action. See other posts regarding showing vs. telling.
In no way is this intended to be a comprehensive list. In fact, if you have come across something that isn't included, let me know and we'll add it to the list.
Happy Writing!
Author Intrusion: The author is suddenly "telling the story" rather than the narrator.
Cliché: Hackneyed expressions which we've all heard. It beats me, why we can't let sleeping dogs lie are two examples of trite clichés. While some clichés carefully placed can give us a regional or historical flavor, most times it's best to avoid them—especially in narration.
Cut: Take out or remove the line/words/paragraph/scene.
Dialogue tags, or speech tags: He said, she said or She said as twirling her hair, or Action tag: She twirled her hair. Tags identify your speaker so your reader can follow along. Don't overdo dialogue tags, but have enough to distinguish between your speakers.
Genre: The category in which a story is placed. Your editor might point out something you've written which isn't appropriate or doesn't belong in the genre you've written.
Infodump: This can be backstory or technical explanations regarding your space ship's engine, but whatever it is, you've stopped the story's forward motion.
Point of View: An editor might say something changes point of view or breaks POV. She is referring to the POV character. Most beginning writers can't write effectively in omniscient POV without head-hopping so sticking with one character at a time is best. Even if you are sticking with one character you can slip out of POV if you write: His eyes twinkled. If your hero is the POV character, he can't see his eyes unless looking at a mirror.
Protagonist: The hero/heroine of your story.
Purpose: An editor might question the purpose of a scene. Purpose is the reason for the scene, what you are trying to convey.
Slush: unsolicited manuscripts--the pile a publisher/editor/agent reads through.
Some acronyms: WIP=Work in Progress, MC=Main character, MS=Manuscript, YA=Young
adult, MG=Middle Grade
Telling: Usually accompanied with the words too much. The editor means you probably need to revise and get more into the character's head and the action. See other posts regarding showing vs. telling.
In no way is this intended to be a comprehensive list. In fact, if you have come across something that isn't included, let me know and we'll add it to the list.
Happy Writing!
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