Have you ever landed on a writer’s page and read acronyms like WIP, MS, MC and wondered what they meant? Below you will find a list of many of the common ones I could think of. If you can think of any others, please post in the comments.
WIP: Work in Progress
MC: Main Character
POV: Point of View
MS: manuscript
MSS: manuscripts
YA: Young Adult
MG: Middle Grade
LI: Love interest
SF/F: Science Fiction/Fantasy
RWA: Romance Writers of America
ARC: Advance Reader Copy
NF: Non-Fiction
CB: Chapter Book
PB: Picture Book
HEA: Happily Ever After
OMNI: Omnicent
IM: internal monologue
IT: internal thought
TBR: To be read
RUE: Resist the urge to Explain
SNI: shiny new idea
OTT: over the top
NaNoWriMo: National November Writing Month
PW: Publisher’s Weekly
WMH: Writer’s Market Handbook
ER: Easy Reader
SCBWI: Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Partial: when an agent or publisher requests the first 30 – 50 pages of your MS
full: when an agent or publisher requests the entire MS
GMC: goal/motivation/conflict
Beta: a secondary reader and writer who checks your MS for mistakes and checks for flow and suggests improvements
Slush pile: a pile of unsolicited manuscripts sent to agents, editors and publishers.
SASE: Self addressed stamped envelope – believe it or not, there are still agents and publishers that want you to send your MS the old fashioned way.
query: a concise pitch of your story
BS: Back story
EC: external conflict
H/H: hero/heroine
TSTL: Too stupid to live
BICHOK: butt in chair, hands on keyboard
CP: critique partner
Crit: critique
FF: Flash Fiction
LBGT: Lesbian/Bisexual/Gay/Transgender
POD: Print on Demand
So the next time your Beta and CP tell you your YA MS has too much BS, there’s not enough EC, your H/H has no GMC, you might need to rewrite and add a LI in order to get a HEA so your baby doesn’t end up in the slush pile.
