This article was originally published in The Writer’s Everything, Issue #001.
Like any career or hobby, there’s a whole world built around writing that you may just be beginning to scratch the surface of. And let’s face it, we’re not born knowing how to respond if someone on Twitter asks if the MC in your WIP finds the McGuffin, or if it was just a red herring all along.
Well that’s what the Writing Definitions guide is going to be for. Rather than spending countless hours trying to develop a feel for what all these various terms mean, a few specific terms will be defined with each issue of The Writer’s Everything.
They will be divided into eight different categories, Character, Plot, Structure, Genre, Narrator, Story Development, Writer, and Business-related terms. I hope that as this magazine continues, these terms can come to be so familiar to you that they become second-nature.
Long-Hand
Writing that is done by hand with a writing utensil on a piece of paper or another medium.
Pantser
A writer who does not plan anything out ahead of time, instead choosing to fly by the seat of their pants.
Point-Of-View
The perspective through which a story is being told, or the person who is telling the story.
Prose
A communication style utilizing the natural flow of speech, rather than rhythmic structure of poetry.
Setting
The time, place, weather, social conditions, or other circumstances under which a story occurs.
The Writer’s Everything
This article, as well as many others, have been featured in previous issues of my writing journal, The Writer’s Everything, in which I, along with occasional guest contributors, provide essays, guides, encouragement, motivation, writing prompts, character bio development kits, and anything else that can help you turn your dream of becoming a writer into a reality.
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QJ Martin 