Quick Navigation

       General Fanfiction Terms

Antific - a story in which the author portrays a particular show or story he doesn't like in a very negative light - often going so far as abusing and/or killing off the regular cast.

Aura Of Smooth - the imaginary energy field self-inserted characters generate to bend the regular cast to their wills - i.e. trusting and/or falling in love with them for no stated reason.

Avatar - see Self-Insert

Canon - the official continuity and established facts for a particular title.  Ex: in Dragonball, Bulma's full canon name is "Bulma Briefs"

Crossover - a story that combines two or more established story universes into one

Darkfic - a story with a significantly dark and downbeat tone.

Deus Ex Machina - From Latin, meaning "God In The Machine" An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a fanfic to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.

Fanfic - a story that is written by a fan and is based off of an established continuity, solely for the purpose of continuing the story or altering the storyline

Fanon - facts which are generally accepted within a genre's fanfiction community, but never appear in official continuity.  Ex. Vegeta's full name being "Vegeta Briefs" is fanon.

Lemon - A fanfic with graphic sexual content.

Lime - a fanfic with implied, but not depicted, sensuality.

Mary Sue - See Self-Insert

Out Of Character (OOC) - a character from a fic's original continuity who is written with significant differences than their normal portrayal.

Plot? What Plot? - a fic in which there is no significant central connective plot. Seen most often in lemons.

Plot Contrivance - An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a fanfic to set up or propel the plot.

Plot Hole - a large and/or significant gap in a story's logic or sequence of events

Revengefic - a work of fanfiction written to spite or get back at a particular person or story.

Self-Insert - An original character in a story that acts as a stand-in for the author himself. Often an idealized version of the author himself.

Slash - in fanfiction, a sttory involving sexual situations between members of the same sex. Usually refers to male/male sex, but can also refer to lesbian sex.  The term stems from pre-internet Star Trek fanfiction involving Kirk and Spock, which was referred to as "Kirk/Spock", then "K/S", then finally simply "slash"

Songfic - a fic set around or themed against a songg. Songfics are almost always titled after the song in question and include the actual lyrics interspersed throughout the story.

WAFF - Warm And Fuzzy Feeling. The overuse of sensitive and/or romantic lines and tone in a story.

MSTing Specific Terms

Bot Fodder - any writing deemed appropriate for MSTings.

Holo Cabana - Originally from Megane 6.7's MSTings by way of Star Trek. Basically Holodecks.

Host Segment - a section of a MSTing wherein the cast is not directly commenting on or reacting to the MSTing target. Used as prologue, epilogue, and intermission in a MSTing.

Me-MST - A MSTing of one's own work

Meta-MST - A MSTing of an existing MSTing - with original riffs included.

Non-Standard - Any MSTing that uses a cast and/or setting that has not appeared on MST3K itself, such as the cast of Sailor Moon on the SOL. This also includes Mike and Joel in the theatre together.

Thinkerism - from the works of Dr. Thinker. A word or sentence that defies direct translation. Some famous examples of include "Out pooped Sailor Mercury" and "Gyra famous on Ami"

TOOG!!! - from the Megane 6.77 MSTing of "The War": In a MSTing, "TOOG!!!" is shouted out in response to dramatic use of onomatopoeic words like "CRASH!" or "BOOM!"

Riff - in a MSTing, the jokes made in response to the original material.

Ratliff Gas - From the MSTing of "Premier Maquis" - generally refers to any weapon/spell/object that only affects one group of people. (Ex: The "original" Ratliff Gas seemed to only affect adults)

Power Of Porn - From the MSTing of "Coming Of Munihausen". Basically the rational for whenever a character does something stupid or Out Of Character immediately after being "stimulated" by something he read or watched. (Also referenced as "I couldn't help it: He showed me porn")

"You mean _____ ?  Let's not jump to conclusions." - From the MSTing of "The Eye of Argon":  A riff used in response to an overly elaborate or complicated descriptions.

Baka - "idiot" or "fool"

Bishounen - "Pretty Boy" A term for Japanese comics (Manga) aimed towards girls featuring dramatically handsome men.   Also used to refer directly to such pretty male characters.

Bishoujo - "Cute Girl" Equivelent to "Bishounen" only featuring girls as the main characters. Sailor Moon is the best known example in the US. More commonly known as "shoujo"

Ecchi - "naughty" or "kinky"

Gomen - "Sorry!"

Hentai - "pervert" or "perversionn." Often used to denote anime fanfiction with sexual content

Lolicon - Japanese shorthand for "Lolita Commplex"; an unnatural desire of older men towards young girls.

Nani - "Huh?" or "What?!?"

Shoutacon - the female equivalent of Lolicon

Yaoi - a story with graphic male/male sexual content. Contrary to popular belief, yaoi is not a Japanese anagram of "Ow! My ass hurts!". The lesbian equivalent is Yuri.

Back To Top