Schinders just informed us that her computer has gone into a coma again, so she will be back next week with a new word for discussion. Will the whumping ever end?

Feel free to continue recommending fannish terms for our glossary in the forums.

I got up early Sunday morning and went to a meditation class. Before I left the house I checked my emails, had a little tea, etc., and I put the computer to sleep. When I returned, it would not wake up. I wrapped it warmly in swaddling clothes and rushed it to the emergency room — The Apple Store. I love Apple; I’m two weeks out of service plan, and they gave me a new motherboard free. But for two and a half days I was without computer, jonesing like a junkie, and my poor little computer was so ill and distressed. You might say there was major Schinders Whumping going on, as our Glossary defines the term: to put your characters through literary torture. I feel my torture was literary, because it precluded my writing. No fear, my computer and I are all better; otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.

Are there characters you love to Whump? That you feel deserve Whumping? Do you feel like you’ve been Whumped?

So, we’ve been doing these Word Wednesdays for awhile now, and I’m a little stumped, a little blocked, heck, I’m just stuck. To that end, I put it out to you, our beloved readers. Is there a word not in the Glossary that should be? Is there a word in the Glossary you’d like to see discussed more fully? Heck, do you have a favorite fan term? Feel free to comment here or in the forums. Thanks ever so.

The People have spoken… okay well, the proud readers of the blog have spoken, and the official FanLib word choice is… drum roll… Fanerism. So, from now on, in our Glossary, Fanerism will be defined as: when a fan begins taking on the mannerisms and/or traits of a favorite character.

I don’t know how the rest of the web’ll feel, but hey, I don’t care. Use the word Fanerism, abuse it, spread it on toast, but be sure to drink Earl Grey tea with it if you do, like any good fan of Picard’s.

Last week we discussed what term to use when a fan takes on an attribute of a fictional character. There were a lot of responses from you all — and a lot of suggestions. So, to make a decision I thought we should choose from among what seemed the favorites. To that end, a poll!

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No, query isn’t the word of the day, but I do have one - a query - and I need your help. There’s been discussion in the forum, and query, as to whether there is a term for something. I’ve done some research, found nothing, and turn it over to you. I figure someone will know a term, or, we can invent one together.

Is there a term for when a fan, or fannish author, takes on the attributes of a character they like? For example Zeropoint confesses to having tried to drink Earl Gray tea because of the Trek connection (though it wasn’t his/her cup of tea, so to speak) and Epalladino does like the Earl Gray and says Crap a lot because Hellboy does. Personally, as a kid I tried to save gum on the bed post a la Violet Beauregard, and growing up in New York City I looked in trash cans for Oscar. Now you may call these affectations, but there must be a fannish word. Affantations?

I turn it over to you. Got a good word for us? A story of behavior or language you “borrowed” from a character? If we get enough term choices we can vote in a poll and create our own word to enter fan lexicon. Put on your thinking caps!

Today’s word comes to us, once again, from Japan: Otaku. Otaku literally translates to mean "in the house," but in Japan it has a negative connotation, meaning nerd or geek.  In the US though, Otaku has come to mean a fan of Japanese culture. 

The use of Otaku as today’s Word Wednesday is really just an excuse to introduce you all to the world of Kaiju Big Battel!  In Kaiju Big Battel real live monsters fight for world domination.  There are the Heroes: Club Sandwich, Silver Potato, American Beetle, and Dusto Bunny; the Villains: Team Space Bug and the evil Dr. Cube; and the Rogues, who know no alliance: DW Cycloptopuss III, Kung Fu Chicken Noodle, and Call-Me-Kevin, to name but a few.  The fights are an odd mixture of art and cage match.

The website not only has info on upcoming events - the next battle is this Saturday, March 29th in Providence, RI - but also Kaiju manga, fan art, and photos of fans as Kaiju monsters.

Sounds right up our alley, huh?

I’ve been thinking about the concept of Author Insert and how I feel about it (can you believe this is how I spend my time?).  Our Glossary defines the term as: an original character that is a stand-in for the author in the story.  Now Gary/Mary aside, here’s my issue: As an author, almost every character is a stand in for some aspect of me; do I really need to walk into the story as myself?  For example, a friend of mine started dating someone new, and I rarely see him any longer, so to deal with my annoyance, I wrote an Uglies piece where Shay deals with her ambivalence towards Tally and her relationship with David.  I can’t imagine having me, Schinders, walk into a story; it  seems so incongruous.  Fiction is a place where I get to not be me, hooray!

But then again, I’d love to use a holodeck… What do you think?

And I know, it’s two words… don’t be so pedantic.

A couple of weeks ago we covered Glomp, which we then included in the Glossary.  Another word from Anime that has made its way into common interweb use is Squee, a sound of joy and excitement, which is primarily made by over-excited fans, but as previously stated, it has spread rapidly and is in wide use online.  I’d also like to point out, as a secondary definition, which I doubt we’ll include in the Glossary, the macabre Squee comics by Jhonen Vasquez, which may or may not have influenced the use of the term as a sound of joy.

I’m wondering, are there other anime and/or manga words that have made it into common usage?  Any you all can think of that ought to be in the glossary?

Today’s word is Filk, partially ’cause it sounds kinda dirty, but it’s not.  Filk is musical fan fic, song lyrics, often set to a pre-existing tune, about a specific fandom. The word comes, originally, from a typo of the word folk, but was latched onto as a way to distinguish fan music from mainstream.  Traditionally Filk is sci-fi music, but we here at FanLib embrace all musical fan fic, and label it as Filk.  Can you believe I even found a site dedicated to Filk and its history?  You can even buy "professional" Filk music.

Here’s a couple examples of Filk, some traditional, others, not so much:

What do you all think?  Is it okay to call a Harry Potter song Filk?  Or should music fic from non-sci fi fandoms have another name? 

Wednesday Word Day here, and the beta debate rages on… you might say there’s a bunch of debetas in the glossary forum (groan).  In the glossary we define a Beta Reader as a person who gives feedback at the author’s request before publication. Over in the forums, Live2Tivo pointed out that the term derives from the Greek alphabet, Purplepopple pointed out that the term was used a ton in computer programming, and Epalladino questioned the need for the term, asking if it wasn’t the same as an editor. I felt that the difference was that an editor actually edits, while a beta reader gives feedback, but it feels much more casual.

What do you think?  Is there a difference or no need for the term?   

I was looking through the glossary, and I was thinking about Author Inserts vs. Gary Stus and Mary Sues.  An Author Insert is an actual stand in for the creator in the piece, whereas Gary and Mary are original characters who generally warp cannon.  Here are my questions:

Are author insert fics a cheat, or a great way to be a part of a universe you love?

How often are Gary Stu and Mary Sue also Author Inserts?

Which term do you prefer, or do you use both/either for different fics?

I’m not sure how I feel, but I certainly had a lot of thoughts.  What are yours?

I’ve been seeing this word used on the site, mostly by anime fans, but still, it’s being used: Glomp or Glomps.  Wikipedia says it means "a hug between anime fans."  So, while it’s not a word used to describe fanfic or vid or art, it’s certainly a fannish term.  Should we put it in the glossary?  What do you think?

We’re adding Drabble to the Glossary, as we’ve filtered all your responses and made a decision, at least as far as the FanLib definition is concerned.

Drabble is a piece of writing that’s exactly one hundred words in length.  There is debate as to whether or not that includes a title.  A Double Drabble is exactly two hundred words and a Triple Drabble would be exactly three hundred.  I have yet to hear anyone say Half Drabble, but I suppose it would be only fifty words.

A little word history, ’cause I like a good etymology: The term Drabble is credited to the 1971 Monty Python’s Big Red Book: `Drabble. A word game for two to four players. The four players sit from left to right and the first person to write a novel wins.’

Do you think the title should be part of the one hundred words, or not?

We all know crack is whack, but is all crackfic?  Not necessarily.  Our glossary’s definition is: Weird or outside the norm fan creation; as though the author was on crack when writing.  Here are a few self-proclaimed examples:

and

In retrospect, I think a lot of what I write might be considered crackfic.

Anyone else?