Shining Starseed Dictionary

Alpha Reader: A term used for a put upon betareader expected to do far more than expected when the lazy writer can't bother with correcting simple and obvious mistakes. Alpha Readers, you deserve better!

Authors Note: An author's personal commentary about the character or story. Best suited for after a chapter to avoid ruining the flow of the reading. There are good AN’s and bad AN’s. Good AN’s are put at the beginning of a chapter to answer (no more than necessary) questions of the reader. A bad AN is where the author puts notes in the middle of the chapter that may or may not matter to the readers.
One that may matter could be “Ami shook out her hair (Her hair’s blue.)” An example of one that doesn’t matter is, “Sailor Earth was hit by the blast and tumbled to Earth when Kunzite caught her in his arms (Cos he's so smexy who doesn’t think so is an idiot!).” A good author doesn’t need Author’s Notes and can get all the information the reader needs within the story.

Bashing: When a writer makes their prejudices blatantly clear to the point the focus is completely out of character. It is most commonly seen with an OC breaks up a canon relationship. Usagi becomes far more childish, bratty, needy ect to make Sailor Sun seem like a far more obvious romantic partner for Mamoru. Instead it makes the author look bitter and childish.

Beta Reader: Another term for proofreader, often a friend who will iron out remaining typos.

Bleeperin: Essential after ready a horrifically bad Mary-Sue or fanfiction, a capsule whose ingredients include aspirin to cure the headache and bleach to erase the memory.

Crackfic: A fanfic or fanon rooted in LoL-Random humour.

Drabble: Stories written in 100 words. Also known as a 'ficlet'

Earth Logic: Applying realistic consequences to the Sailor Moon canon. For example in the anime the transformation takes two minutes and is never interrupted, where applying earth logic an enemy may interrupt a transformation or an attack because that makes sense. Earth Logic may also be things like “Girls who are 13 don’t have cleavage or fall madly deeply in love with their soul mate”. Earth Logic is YMMV and very dependent on how the author approaches a topic.

Exposition: Important information for the understanding of the story. It's a skill to trickle this out so that's its easily absorbed by the reader and not boring or overwhelming.

Fall Into Fiction: It might also be known as Gamer-Fic or Isekai where a self insert OC winds up in the Sailor Moon canon. Often the Self Insert OC falls asleep while watching Sailor Moon, or gets struck by lightning, or dies by truck or cancer or... Whatever the reason, they get transported to their favourite canon where they're the chosen one who knows everything before it happens, but also gets to keep their Spotify List.

Fan Service: It has two meanings. The first is a deliberate nod within a fanwork to those 'in the know'. An injoke. The second meaning of fanservice is cheeky verbage to rile up a reader with a sexy wink and nod. 

Head Canon/ Fanon: Where the author has extrapolated enough from canon sources to form a full and detailed world to be considered their own take. They work to fill the gaps in the canons using Earth Logic. A province of the excellent writers.

Info Dump:  The poor man's exposition. When a writer piles a bunch of information like exposition, backstory or plot crumbs all at once, often without context just to get it out of the way.

Jossed: A fanon disproven by the canon but still accepted by willing readers. Eg, male guardians. Named after Joss Whedon, well known for changing rules of his series.

Letter of Comment: LOC, an Author's Note at the beginning or end of a chapter thanking readers for their dedication and answering questions.

Lurker: A reader who doesn't comment, review or post. A passive appreciator of a creation.

Master List: An index page for fanfiction arcs, listing interconnected stories. Often listed by published order but also possibly by timeline or by main character.

MSTFic: Short for Mystery Science Theatre, a style of reviewing terrible fics more common in the early 00's of the internet. Known for snarky call outs.

Plagiarism: The unauthorized copying of someone elses fanfiction and redistributed without permission. Fortunately straight up fic stealing is uncommon.

Plot Bunnies: The unchecked population explosion of ideas. They typically multiply late at night, at work or any time you're out of reach of a pen or computer to document them.

Purple Prose: The opposite of Scripting and just as repulsive. It is too descriptive with unnecessary detail or the use of superfluous adjectives and adverbs to clutter the writing. It is incredibly annoying and often used by beginners with a love of thesauruses so many words chosen are actually out of context. Purple prose is associated with Mary-Sues describing her shining violet orbs...er... eyes.

PWP: It may stand for two things depending on the context. Plot, What Plot?  For fanfictions that meander around without a plot, chapter after chapter. It might also stand for Porn with Plot. Not too common in the otaku senshi fandom but sex scenes are interrupted by a story rather than the other way around. 

Review ConCrit: Constructive Criticism. A specific review style that is polite but honest about their opinion of a creative work. It endeavors to not only point out concerns but offer well reasoned and well meaning advice for the creator to improve. It doesn't attack the author.

Review Flame: An irreverent, inflammatory, insulting comment on a creative work. Not to be confused with criticism or a review. “You story sucks ass, go die!” It is posted only to get a rise out of the author, often attacking them personally. Absolutely worthless to an author.

Review Fluff: A meaninglessly fawning comment that fluffs a writers ego and is not to be confused with a genuine review. Fluff reviews are often interchangeable with any other fanfic “Wow! I loved it! Please update!” Absolutely worthless and destructive to an aspiring author.

Scripting: Not the same as screenwriting. The basest form of story writing, also called Dialogue Intensity and is little more that 'he said' strapped to the end of speaking. It is not to be confused with Script Writing, a valid form of creativity.

Self Insert: Also known as Author Avatar. And OC much closer to the writer's view of themselves that a fictionalised character.

Suspension of Disbelief: SOD. Where the quality of writing can make or break how a reader interprets a fanfiction. Breaking canon rules can break SoD but also just lazy writing. 

Stream of Consciousness Writing: SCW. The first draft of a fic, purposely posted without editing, proofing and pathetically awful attention to basic spelling, paragraphing and punctuation. See Wattpad.

Typo Demons: Gremlins who sneak into your writing seconds before you post to hide really stupid typos in your work to make you look like a clumsy incompetent.