...Dictionary of MarySue and Fanfiction Terms...
Below are the Laws, Abbreviations, Terms & Definitions, and MarySue Definitions, compiled through various sources and my own knowledge gathered from across the internet. If I am missing anything or you have a contribution to make, please send me an e-mail at captainjulieif@gmail.com, drop a comment on the news posts, or comment in the cBox. Thanks!
The Laws
Snacky's Law: Spun off of Godwin's law, it states that if during an argument, one side compares the other side to Hitler or the Nazi regime, then the side that made the comparison automatically loses the argument. In addition to Hitler or the Nazis, Stalin, Bin Laden, Bush, etc. are also qualifications for losing.
Ebert's Law: If during an argument, one side demands that the other party try their hand at something before they criticize another person's effort, the side that stated this loses. You don't need to be a chef to appreciate good food, a writer to know good books, or musician to know a decent band.
Not-Bob's Law: It goes along with Ebert's Law. Basically, if during an argument, one side says that the criticizer is just 'jealous' (or something to that effect) of their skills/talent, the person who said this loses. You don't need to be jealous of Paris Hilton to think she can't act.
Abbreviations
AU: Alternate Universe
AT: Alternate Timeline
A/N: Author's Note
IC: In Character
OC: Original Character
OFC: Other/Original Female Character
OMC: Other/Original Male Character
OOC: Out Of Character
OTP: One True Pairing
POV: Point Of View
PWP: Plot, What Plot?
or Porn Without Plot
R&R: Read And Review (also seen as r&r, RR, or rr)
SI: Self-Insert
Terms & Definitions
...!Fic: When a fanfic is mostly in one category, theme, character, or style. The '...' is replaced with, well, whatever is wanted. It can be an adjective or a noun, or whatever. Sometimes, the exclamation point is removed. Such examples include: crack!fic, sugarfic, humor!fic, dark!fic, Chrisfic, and Harry!fic.
Adjective!Noun: When a canon character has been written as OOC, has been altered dramatically, is being picked on, etc. that it is given such titles as Girl!Blaise, Slut!Hermione, Emo!Harry, Evil!Thranduil, Shawn!whump and so on. Any adjective and any noun can be interchanged. Not all Adjective!Nouns are bad, but the majority of them are.
Anti-Sue: A character that has purposely been shown as the polar opposite of a typical MarySue. (Ex: they are overweight, unintelligent, ugly, untalented, or have disabilities) These characters are often so bad and so pathetic that they are often classified as Sues anyways.
Badfic: (also seen as BadFic or Bad!fic) A type of fanfiction, that is, essentially bad. Usually includes one or more of the following: poor grammar and spelling, OOC canon characters, MarySues or GaryStus, poor plot, ultraviolet/purple prose, and generally horrible writing overall. For examples of the worst of the worst, visit the PPC page for
The Legendary Badfic. I would serious adivse you to read the warning on the page...
Canon: The "official" material of a work, accepted by all who write fanfiction as what is supposed to be. "It is canon that Aragorn marries Arwen in Lord of the Rings."
Crack!fic: A usually insane, nonsensical, random and pointless fanfic. The term was coined because readers and authors alike rationalized that the only way such finfics could be written was if the author was on crack. Also seen as 'crackfic' and sometimes called 'sugarfic' or 'sugar!fic'
Crossover: A fanfic where characters, worlds, objects, etc. from one or more fandoms are taken and put together. Some crossovers contain just a few aspects of one other fandom, others, are giant crossovers of 10 fandoms. It is often 2 or 3 fandoms combined.
Earth Logic: What would be accepted as correct, logical, and just plain common sense on our planet, but does not agree with logic that is seen as correct on the planet Sues are from. For example, if you're a typical witch that found a black dog that suddenly transformed into the well known murderer and psychopathic Sirius Black, the Earth Logic response would be to get out of there and call the Ministry of Magic, not say "Oh you're hot! I'll help you!"
Femslash: A romantic relationship specifically between female characters, also known as yuri, femmeslash, F/F slash, FS and girlslash.
Fandom: The people that enjoy a piece of a work and their community. "I am a part of the fandom of Charmed." It is also referred to as the world of a work, "Harry Potter is one of my favorite fandoms."
Fanfic: Also known as 'fic' it is a story or other piece of literary work that involves a fandom that is not of the author's ownership, and the author chooses to write about said fandom.
Fanon: A play on the word 'canon' it is the non-verified or "unofficial" facts or situations of a work. It refers to things that are not explicitly established by canon, but are so common that people take them for granted nonetheless. Such as Snake from the
Alex Rider series being the unit medic.
Movieverse: The 'universe' or canon storyline of a work (usually a book) that has been turned into a movie. Such as there is a 'movieverse' for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, as both book series were turned into blockbuster movies.
Mpreg: Male pregnancy. Can occur for various reason, is usually smut.
Oneshot: (Can be seen as twoshot, threeshot, and so on) A oneshot is a single-chapter short story. A twoshot is a two-chapter short story, and so on. Sometimes, 'shots' can be long literary works, sometimes depicting a full story, but the author did not break it into chapters for some reason. (Sometimes chapters break the reading flow, or whatever)
Pepper-Jack Cheese: A term coined on Pottersues from a Harry Potter fanfic where the author made Hermione Granger's favorite cheese pepper-jack, because the author's favorite cheese was pepper-jack cheese. It is used to describe a fanfic where the author has made a character share their tastes in something, from music to food to colors to anything in the universes.
Pit of Voles: A nickname for
fanfiction.net
Purple Prose: A prose is purple when it is a sickeningly detailed passage. "Her eyes roared with the blazing fire of a thousand burning suns, flashing like brilliant lightning on a dark, stormy summer's eve." An incredibly bad purple prose is often reffered to as "ultraviolet" instead of purple.
Slash: A romantic relationship between characters of the same-sex, usually reffering to male characters, but sometimes refers to female characters. Male slash is also known as yaoi, M/M, and maleslash.
Songfic: A fanfic that is centered around a song and most often, its lyrics. The lyrics are often corporated directly in the song and lines of the song are broken up by the fanfic itself. The theme of the song or the lyrics themselves are often the basis for the fanfic itself.
Suethor: A fanfiction author that has written at least one Sue.
Suvian: A play on words such as 'avian'. Anything that is related to Sues, such as Suvian colors (wilver, urple, etc.)
Wangst: A combination of the words angst and 'wank', coined by fandom_wank on Livejournal. It's angst, but the kind of self-pitying, petty angst. The Good Charlotte song "Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous" mocks celebrities who wangst. For example, "I hate being a prince, it's so hard. All the women fawning for my affections, having to learn how to rule and fight, and having to wear these uncomfortable tights, sometimes it's just too much to bear!" is wangst.
Whump: (Seen also as 'whumpage') A fanfic where a character is put through emotional and physical pain in large amounts, often repeatedly and without much mercy. For some reason, many times the charactered getting 'whumped' is a favorite character. For example, Shawn Spencer, the beloved protagonist of
Psych, is often featured in "Shawn-whump" fanfics.
MarySues
Sometimes, these creatures are called "Sues" or a "Sue". Both terms can be used as an abbreviation for MarySues or the lesser known evil, GaryStus (the male version of a MarySue). Sues are characters in a fandom, most often movies or books turned into movies. There are two types of Sues, and are almost identical except for one major characteristic. Type one is most common, and usually the more recognizable.
Type One (OCs)
These Sues are not part of the canon storyline, and are a character inserted by a Suethor. They usually have exotic looks, sometimes even looks that defy the laws of genetics. For example, a Sue might have violet eyes with black hair, and her hair has streaks of pink through it, and all of this is supposed to be natural. We know that humanoid creatures usually do not have these characteristics, natural or not. These type of Sues more often than not fall in love with one of the leading characters. It is not often, but not unheard of, for minor characters to be the victims of Sues. Sues often have ethereal or god-like beauty and skills. They usually are thin to the point of anorexia, tall, drop-dead gorgeous, have flawlessly clear skin, extremely intelligent, and unique in some way or another.
The more unique or special a trait or something is, the more likely a Sue will have it. For example, Parselmouths and Metamorphmaguses are extremely rare in the Harry Potter fandom, so this makes it a desirable trait, and more likely to be used to set the Sue apart from other characters. Many Sues often have special, magical, or sentimental objects, or even luxury objects such as iPods, laptops, a lot of money despite having no job, etc.
Sometimes, Sues have guardian fairies, angels, etc, or super-special pets (like a white tiger or a phoenix) that they have a bond with. Sues often have unique powers that separate them from the norm, such as wandless magic in Harry Potter.
As for their background, they usually have a horrible, tragic, angsty past. They sometimes had abusive fathers/guardians, lost their parents in a tragic accident, or lost a twin or close sibling. On the subject of family, many Sues are related to canon characters in some way, like being Captain Jack Sparrow's daughter or Harry Potter's twin sister, or sometimes the Sue is related to royalty.
On the matter of species, some Sues are crossbreeds in a place where this is not normal (or sometimes it is). Like, in Middle-Earth, half-Elves are incredibly rare, and it would be almost impossible for a Hobbit and an Elf to have a child. Sometimes, the Sues go all out and are creatures from other worlds or fandoms, like a Time Lord (from Doctor Who) being in Harry Potter.
There are, of course, many other symptoms, but these are the most common/most prominent.
Type Two (Canon)
Known as a Canon-Sue or canon!Sue in fanfiction, this refers to a canon character that has been portrayed as either much like a Type One Sue, or completely OOC. They often have the same characteristics of Type One Sues, by being perfect, attractive, extra-special, etc. However, this type of Sue can also be if a canon character has gone OOC. Such as Voldemort turning good, Captain Jack Sparrow not lying and becoming a straight-arrow, unadventurous person, or Dr. Gregory House becoming caring, sensitive, not sarcastic, and nice to people. It can even go so far as
Hermione Granger singing "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry in a Muggle bar, while kissing female patrons, and Severus Snape making out with her afterwards. And yes, if you click that link it will take you to the story where this happened.
Sources: Pottersue's FAQ,
Wikipedia's Glossary of Fanfiction Terms,
Wikipedia's MarySue article,
Universal MarySue Litmus Test,
The PPC
