The writer's vocabulary, defined and illustrated.

An abundant enumeration of terms of the same kind, producing an effect of profusion, vertigo or saturation.

A text whose line initials spell a word or message when read vertically.

Greimas's model distributing a story's forces into six roles: subject, object, sender, receiver, helpers, opponents.

An advance on royalties paid at signing: kept even if sales never cover it, deducted from future royalties.

A text placed after the main work to offer commentary, context or reflection.

The twelve-syllable line, king meter of classical French poetry, traditionally cut at the hemistich.

A concrete, developed representation of an abstract idea, often embodied by a character or an entire narrative.

Repetition of the same consonant in nearby words, creating a sound effect that imitates or underlines meaning.

Repetition of the final word of one clause at the beginning of the next.

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of successive sentences or lines, creating a hammering effect.

The force opposing the protagonist — a character, institution, nature or inner flaw. A good antagonist is right from their own point of view.

Saying the opposite of what you mean while letting the true meaning show: "Great job!" facing a disaster.

Placing two opposing ideas side by side in the same sentence or passage so each reinforces the other.

Using a proper noun as a common noun (a Scrooge) or a periphrasis in place of a proper noun.

Directly addressing a person, present or absent, or an entity: "O Death, where is thy sting?"

Repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words — alliteration's vowel twin.

Removal of conjunctions between coordinated clauses or terms: I came, I saw, I conquered.

The book's back and its blurb: a few lines on which a decisive share of the purchase depends.

A list of topics, names or concepts directing readers to relevant passages in a book.

Test readers reviewing a manuscript before submission or publication, to harvest real-reader reactions.

The visual arrangement of a book's pages, including margins, typography, headings and images.

The main cut dividing a line into two hemistichs — the classical line's rhythmic anchor.

A lexicalized metaphor that became the usual name of something otherwise unnamed: the legs of a table, the hands of a clock.

A character's trajectory of transformation between a story's start and end — what they believe, become or refuse to become.

A working document recording everything the author knows about a character: identity, want, wound, contradictions, voice.

A principle of narrative economy: every highlighted element must serve — the rifle on the wall must eventually fire.

A crossed construction (AB-BA) where two expressions mirror each other in reversed order.

Cutting the narrative at maximum tension — the character hanging from the cliff — to force continued reading.

The story's peak: the confrontation or decision where accumulated tension resolves — everything converges here.

A sequence of terms of rising (or falling) intensity that builds the sentence's power.

A note recording a book's production details, traditionally placed at its end.

A review of whether facts, movements and character knowledge remain consistent across a story.

A short element placed at a line's end, announcing the sentence unfolding in the next line — the rejet's mirror.

A pair of verse lines forming a unit, often rhymed but not necessarily so.

A ten-syllable verse line whose internal divisions depend on the poetic tradition.

The phase after the climax: threads untangle, consequences settle, the story lands.

A resolution parachuted in by an unprepared outside element — the god lowered by machine who saves everyone.

Pronouncing in two syllables a vowel sequence that makes one in everyday speech: "li-on" instead of "lion."

A gap in knowledge in which the audience knows something that a character does not.

A reference document recording language, spelling and consistency decisions for a manuscript.

An eight-line stanza whose rhyme pattern depends on the poetic form being used.

Omission of grammatically expected words the context lets the reader reconstruct — the sentence gains speed.

The sentence overflowing past the line's end, continuing into the next line without syntactic pause.

The quotation placed at the head of a book or chapter, offering a reading key — not to be confused with the epitaph.

Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or lines.

Softening a brutal or taboo reality with a milder expression: "he passed away" for "he died."

A narrative's final lines — the closing note that decides what memory the reader carries away.

A metaphor developed across several sentences or paragraphs, each element extending the initial image.

A struggle against another person, a social force or the environment that obstructs a character's goal.

The narrative describes characters from outside, like a camera: gestures and words, never thoughts.

A text's first complete version, written to exist rather than to be good — the book's raw material.

The classic five-stage story model: initial situation, inciting incident, complications, resolution, final situation.

A move back in the story's chronology to narrate an event prior to the narrative present.

Narrative anticipation: the story reveals or glimpses a future event before reaching it.

A character whose contrasting qualities bring another character's traits into sharper focus.

The discreet announcement of a future event through clues, echoes or symbols — preparing without revealing.

An outer story that provides the setting for one or more stories told within it.

A technique fusing the character's voice into the narrator's, with no reporting verb or quotation marks.

Verse freed from regular meter and mandatory rhyme — but not from rhythm: the line break becomes the central tool.

Writing without stopping for a set time, with no correction or censorship — to bypass the inner critic.

A brief poem of Japanese origin (traditionally 5-7-5), seizing a concrete instant, often anchored in a season.

Each of the two halves of a line cut by the caesura — six syllables in the classical alexandrine.

A staged narrative structure derived from Joseph Campbell's monomyth: call, trials, transformation, return.

Transferring an adjective to a word near the one it logically qualifies: a lonely man becomes a "lonely house."

Deliberate exaggeration that amplifies reality to make it striking: dying of laughter, a flood of tears.

Vivid description that makes a scene seem present before the reader's eyes.

Opening the story "in the middle of things": the action has already started; context comes later.

The opening lines of a narrative — the ones that set the voice, the reading pact and the book's promise.

A block of exposition interrupting the story to explain the world, its history or technology — speculative fiction's enemy #1.

Direct rendering of a character's stream of thought, in its own syntax, without narratorial mediation.

A struggle between a character's desires, values or fears that makes a decision difficult.

The narrative is filtered through one character's consciousness: we know only what they know, see only what they see.

A deliberate gap between what is said and what is meant — or between what the reader knows and what the character knows.

A book edition's unique international identifier (13 digits) — each format gets its own.

The most famous revision precept: cut the passages you love too much, precisely because you love them too much.

Sentence- and paragraph-level revision focused on voice, clarity and rhythm.

A figure that says less to suggest more, often by negating the opposite: "not bad" for "excellent."

A quest object whose exact nature barely matters: it exists to motivate characters and launch the plot.

A work's complete text as submitted to publishers — today a file, formerly handwritten pages.

A figure of speech that names one thing as another, without a comparison word, fusing the two images.

A figure that names a thing through another logically linked to it: container for content, author for work.

A work embedded within the work: a story within the story, a play within the play, mirroring the whole.

Julia Cameron's ritual: three handwritten stream-of-consciousness pages every morning, before anything else.

The final "e" that counts or vanishes depending on position: the central rule — and main trap — of French syllable counting.

A time jump that skips a portion of the story: "three years later…" — the art of cutting time.

A line of eight syllables, counted according to the conventions of its verse tradition.

A narrator who knows everything about the story and its characters, and may comment, judge, anticipate.

A word whose sound imitates or suggests the noise it names.

A structured plan of a text's sections, their contents and their purpose.

The pairing, within one phrase, of two contradictory terms: a deafening silence, sweet sorrow.

Managing a story's speed: alternating scene and summary, accelerations, slow-downs, breathing room.

The numbering of a document's pages within a particular layout and section structure.

A statement contrary to common opinion or apparently self-contradictory, revealing an unexpected truth.

Saying something while claiming not to say it: "needless to mention that…"

Repetition of a grammatical pattern to connect or contrast ideas.

Wordplay that brings together similar sounds with different meanings.

The formal approval given on final proofs: the text goes to print as is, under the signer's responsibility.

Replacing a word with an expression that describes it: the City of Light for Paris, the king of beasts for the lion.

A figure that lends human traits (gestures, feelings, speech) to an animal, object or abstraction.

The story in one to three sentences that spark desire: protagonist, want, obstacle, stakes.

Redundancy of terms expressing the same idea — an error when accidental, a figure of emphasis when chosen.

The two writer temperaments: one plans everything before writing; the other discovers the story by writing it.

Multiplying coordinating conjunctions, stretching the sentence into an ample or obsessive breath.

An opening text discussing a work's origins, context or approach to reading it.

The typeset text as it will be printed, submitted for final corrections before sign-off.

A poem presented in prose rather than verse lines, using rhythm, imagery and compression.

Giving speech to an absent person, the dead, an abstraction or a thing: making the Nation, Nature or a lost one speak.

The character whose quest and transformation carry the story — not necessarily a hero, nor necessarily likable.

A four-line stanza — Western poetry's most widespread stanzaic unit.

A revision technique that makes rhythm, ambiguity and awkward phrasing audible.

A clue or suggestion that temporarily directs the reader toward a mistaken conclusion.

A recurring line or phrase that helps organize a poem or song.

A short element of the sentence thrown to the start of the next line, highlighted by that isolation.

Deliberate reuse of a word or structure to create rhythm, emphasis or obsession — distinct from accidental repetition.

An outline built from an existing draft to reveal the structure actually on the page.

The multi-pass work that turns a first draft into a book: structure, scenes, sentences, proofing.

A question used to make a point or express a reaction rather than request an answer.

The return of the same sound at line endings — classified by richness and by arrangement.

Both the legal framework protecting the work and, by extension, the author's proportional remuneration on sales.

Blake Snyder's method: 15 beats precisely positioned across the story, from Opening Image to Final Image.

Dwight Swain's rhythmic unit: an action scene (goal, conflict, disaster) followed by a reaction sequel (emotion, dilemma, decision).

An ordered breakdown of scenes or sequences showing how a story progresses.

The author publishes themselves: keeping all rights and margin, and assuming all the publisher's functions.

A six-line stanza or verse unit, with no single required meter or rhyme pattern.

Dan Wells's method: building the plot backwards from the ending, through seven symmetrical milestones.

Show through action, gesture and detail rather than assert through adjectives: "he clenched his fists" rather than "he was furious."

An explicit connection between two realities using a comparison word: like, as, similar to.

Randy Ingermanson's method: building a novel through successive expansions, from a one-sentence summary to the full manuscript.

A fixed-form fourteen-line poem — closed by a final turn — in Petrarchan or Shakespearean arrangement.

What a character stands to lose or gain depending on the outcome of an action.

A group of lines forming a unit, separated from others by white space — the poem's paragraph.

A document laying out the project behind the work: why this book, why you, why now, for whom.

The reference document centralizing a work's entire universe: characters, places, timeline, world rules.

Revision focused on a text's organization, progression and balance rather than individual sentences.

A narrative line running parallel to the main plot, enriching it, contrasting it or giving it air.

The unspoken meaning readers infer beneath a scene's dialogue and behavior.

The pact by which readers accept a fiction's implausibilities — as long as the work respects its own rules.

Merging two contiguous vowels into one syllable: "lion" as one beat — diaeresis's inverse.

A type of metonymy naming the whole by a part (a sail for a ship) or the part by the whole.

Figurative language that describes one sense through the qualities of another.

A complete plot summary — ending included — meant for editors and agents: a working document, not a literary text.

An ordered list of a book's sections with page references or navigation links.

A three-line stanza — the sonnet's closing unit and, chained as terza rima, Dante's vehicle.

The fundamental dramatic division: setup (act I), confrontation (act II), resolution (act III).

An interior page displaying the book's title, author and often the publisher.

The classic model: the publisher bears all costs and risks and pays the author royalties — money flows toward the author, never the reverse.

An unexpected ending that overturns the reading of the whole text — the short story's specialty, from Maupassant to O. Henry.

The typed or printed version of a text — the precise term for what is commonly called a "manuscript."

A narrator whose account can't be trusted — through lies, blindness, madness or self-interest — and whom the text betrays.

A model where the author pays the publisher to be published — to be sharply distinguished from traditional publishing and self-publishing.

An unexpected pairing of two words never meant to sit together — the oxymoron's extended family.

Building a coherent fictional world — geography, history, cultures, rules — and the art of revealing it without explaining it.

A lasting inability to write despite the desire to — a symptom with many causes rather than a single ailment.

A short, timed writing session, solo or in a group, where only the word count matters.

The narrator knows everything: every character's thoughts, past, future, and what happens elsewhere.

Yoking a concrete and an abstract term under the same verb: she took her coat and her leave.