For the final installment in this little makeshift dictionary/introduction to the weird-ass jargon writers use, we’re going over some genre terms. Fans of specific genres will likely be familiar with many in their preferred area, and I know I’m missing many, but this is meant as an overview for all to partake and share.
Also to note—this is meant only for fiction genres, and a lot of the terms (at least the acronyms) are very prevalent on writing twitter.
GENRE TERMS:
YA: YA stands for “young adult”, though arguably it is one of the most popular genres and definitely one with a wide amount of appeal. Think Harry Potter or Hunger Games.
NA: This means “new adult”, a growing trend describing twenty-somethings (college versus high school, for example, or fresh out of college) and their budding adult lives. Think of it as YA+. You can say “fuck” more. It’s smaller, but growing traction and awareness.
A: As you can probably surmise, this one just means “adult”. This does not mean erotica; it just means it’s about adult characters and the usually more mature problems they deal with.
MG: This stands for “middle grade”, so books the nerdy schoolchildren eat up on their lunch breaks instead of playing with the other kids at recess. Alternatively, the ones the kids are roleplaying on the playground with others.
PB: This one means “picture book”! You know what those are, I hope, but it’s all there in the name.
SFF: This stands for “sci-fi/fantasy”. While those are two very different genres, they are usually lumped together like this, both because it’s easy and catchy, and because agents, publishing houses, and authors tend to have a fair bit of overlap between them.
fluff: Fluff is what gives you the warm and fuzzy feelings (WAFF, as a bonus acronym for you)—it’s the cute stuff, the lighthearted stuff, the funny stuff, and so on. (We’ll talk about that more in a couple weeks!)
angst: In many ways the opposite of fluff, angst is the heavier, darker stuff. Worry, concern, despair, grief, and more fall under this umbrella term. It can wear on readers, too, and tends to have a slightly negative connotation, but it’s as much a part of writing as any other genre.
HEA: Stands for “happily ever after”. Very common in romance novel land, but let’s be real, it’s nice to have across many genres. But many romance book readers won’t read stories without one—they read that genre for a reason, and that reason is the good feelings.
smut/erotica: Here there be porn! This is the sex stuff. This as a genre tends to mean things that are mostly or all porn or sex—romance books, while they have a Certain Image, also have plot and things.
pwp: This is a largely online-only term, and it stands for “Plot, What Plot?”. It means it’s all sex inside, folks. (Definitely not to be confused with pvp, which is player vs player, and will get your character killed in video games.)
This series has been a very brief look at some of the common terms in writing, so I hope you learned a thing or two! If nothing else, you can now impress others with this weird jargon the writosphere uses.
