5 Words in Authorese

      I was subject to dial-up for half my life. If anyone understands the screeching lonely sound of a dial tone coming through their computer speakers and the inability to use the internet whilst on the phone with someone, you'll understand why I wasn't exactly...active online much. I only joined the online community of authors about 3-ish years ago, excitedly joining a ton of Facebook groups and eventually Teen Author's Journal (*echoing sobbing sounds*). Anyway, one of the most notable things of first entering the 'online author world' was the endless acronyms and words and idioms that flew right over my head. I call it Authorese. Crazy creativity, I know.
     Now this was before I realized there was a thing called 'Wikiwrimo'. If you're still completely lost in the ways of Authorese by time you're done this blog post, I recommend going to the site. HOWEVER, I'm going to try to cover the main words and phrases that confused the heck out of me when I first started, for all those who are confused as well. Let us begin!

1. NaNoWriMo

      A lot of writers know what this is by now...but many don't. So, in a nutshell, NaNoWriMo is a month-long period of torture in which you stab at your bloodshot eyes with a pen - wait, no, sorry, what I meant to say was that NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is a healthy challenge that lasts for the entirety of November, from midnight Nov. 1st to midnight Nov. 30th. The goal is to write 50k words by the end of the month, which at first sounds like a lot, and then halfway through you realize that it actually is a lot. Cause we're not all programmers with our stupid fast 120WPM writing speed. 

According to good ol' Google, apparently WriDay is also a thing, where you write 50k in one day. Which is fine. It's fine. I'm not crying.

2. Plot Bunnies

     I use this term a lot because it's so ridiculously accurate. This is that idea that comes and doesn't go away. It nags and gnaws like a rodent and...multiplies. Let me tell you, if you have a male and female rabbit, you shall soon have a couple hundred. Which is pretty much the same with plot ideas. They just come. 

3. Word Sprint

     Usually, this is a group activity, although you can challenge yourself to a sprint using a clock or a timer. It's basically trying to mash as many words into one stretch of time (commonly 15-20 minutes) to get chunks of writing done. This also immediately murders any chance of inner-editing, which can be an upside for anyone who struggles with inner-editor-addiction (a very real illness). A Word Crawl is a variation of a sprint, but instead, you have to write a certain amount of words when you do something (kind of like a homeschooler's drinking game). Such as: every time you fill your coffee/tea cup, write 500 words. Every time someone orders a large at the coffee shop, do a 5-minute sprint. etc. 

4. 50 Headed Hydra

     This is a NaNoWriMo term. It's a challenge within a challenge, so to speak. It's the higher form of a word sprint. Basically, you just try to write 500 words in 5 minutes, cause we don't like our fingers or whatever. 

5. Mary Sue

     Or Gary Stue, cause we're apparently gender-inclusive here💁. Mary Sue is a perfect character. And not in a good way. They do no wrong, upstage literally everybody, and even if they do have 'flaws' those flaws usually make them better in some way anyway. So. What the heck. 

     The term Mary Sue originated, apparently, from a Star Trek fanfiction (who knew) and the character is very commonly found in fanfictions. Mostly cause...well, they're fanfictions. 

        

    

     I think Authorese is like a less annoying Christianese. Although Christianese hasn't yet hit the Egg-Joke level (*shudder*). I still actually enjoy a lot of the Authorese words I find, like Mary Sue and Plot Bunny. And then I end up overusing them and everyone except me is annoyed by them...

Aaanyways, if you've heard of any other 'Authorese' words that weren't listed above, tell me about them in the comments below...I love to expand my vocabulary (like these words are really useful for vocab). Somehow the online author community, in its fairly short reign of terror (in light of 6k+ years of intelligent civilization) has created a language rivaling knitting patterns. Although I'm still going to give the most-confusing-acronyms award to knitters. Every time.

      Anyways (part 2), you're probably procrastinating on writing as you're reading this (don't pretend you're not), so I'm going to let you get back to that. I'm going to stop talking now.