TWAP: Twitter Writer Acronym Primer

Twitter is a wonderful place to meet new writerly friends. I regularly connect with people in such exotic places as Glasgow, London, Sweden, Japan, and Arizona. I follow international bestselling authors and hopeful wannabes. Some of them even follow me.

We discuss Important Writer Things like:

* How much coffee is too much?

(Answer: Define this foreign concept of "too much.")

* Does the Crap Writing Muse have a name?

(Answer: Yes. It is "Latrine." This exchange gained me several follows by potty-bots. No sh*t.)

* If there were a group of publishing industry superheroes, what would they be called?

(Answer: the Literati. Duh.)

So you can see why it is imperative to a writer's career that Twitter be a part of one's daily routine. Like coffee. Or Nutty Bars. Or trolling the internet for news of one's favorite celebrity crushes. (Oh, Rob, when will you realize that Kirsten just doesn't deserve you?)

Because of the 140 character restriction, writing-related acronyms crop up with enough frequency that they have become part of my normal typed vocabulary. But I often find someone new to the medium who, upon reading something like:

"Yay! Today my YA WIP super-bad MC meets LI!"

reacts much like a tourist turning a map in a new city: "Huh?"

Twitter is not a "Let's Keep 'Em On the Outside" clique for the Chosen Few. Rather, it is an all-inclusive community who welcomes all with equal enthusiasm. (Unless you're an SEO spam-bot. Then: get lost!) And so, in the interest of open communication, I have begun to compile the T.W.A.P.: The Twitter Writer Acronym Primer.

The list that follows is by no means conclusive or exhaustive. Or even well-researched. If I've made a mistake, please alert me to it. Or, better yet -- let's keep it our little secret and start a trend! If I've missed one of your favorite writer-related acronyms, let the world know by dropping a comment below.

(For non-writer-related acronyms dealing with aforementioned celebrity crushes, just DM me... I'd like to maintain the illusion of professionalism here.)

The T.W.A.P Thus Far:

WIP – Work in Progress

Common uses: “Off to work on my WIP." “WIP is kicking my butt.” “I did 2100 words on my WIP today! Virtual mocha lattes for everyone!”

MC – Main Character

As in: “MC continues to amaze me & do stuff I never intended.” “My MC needs a better arc.” Or, in my case, “Am madly crushing on WIP’s MC…”

POV – Point of View

“Story is muddy. May shift to alternate POV.” “Diving into deep POV for better insight into MC’s motives.”

(Warning! Using the #POV hashtag may garner you a whole passle of p0rn bots & followers of a questionable ilk. Evidently, it’s a particular filming style for adult-movies. This, I must stress, was news to me.)

LI – Love Interest

A must for romance and, often, for YA. “Help! LI is currently more interesting than MC.”

YA – Young Adult

Not just books for ages 12 & up, but books that speak to the perpetual teen in all of us. From “Tom Sawyer” and “Pride and Prejudice” to “Artemis Fowl,” “Harry Potter,” and “Twilight.”

MG – Middle Grade

Books for kids 8 – 12 years old. Classics of the genre include “Nancy Drew,” the “Hardy Boys,” “Chronicles of Narnia,” and “Charlotte’s Web.”

SF/F – Science Fiction / Fantasy

See? Now “Worried about nailing the drones’ POV in SF/F WIP” should be readily understandable.

NF – Non-Fiction

Or Newfoundland.

RWA - Romance Writers of America

Also Risk-Weighted Assets. Which may have more to do with one's friends than one's writing...

PW - Publisher's Weekly

Affording bragging rights to published authors & their agents everywhere.

ARC – Advance Reader Copy

The pre-release prints of a book distributed to reviewers. Generally used by excited agents & publishers. “Want to win an ARC of my @greatnewauthor’s #greatnewbook! See my #blog for contest details!”

And that, dear readers, is all the TWAP that's fit to print for now. My job here is done. Coffee calls! Now back to work on my WIP. I'm feeling lonely for my MC...