I tend to use a lot of fan fiction terms here, and if there's any new fan fic authors around, I'm sure it's confusing. So I've created a little fan fic terminology dictionary. Some of them are more common to other fandoms, but I included them anyway. There is a huge list of terms here, and they include all fandoms and tons of terms that don't apply to The Outsiders fandom, but it's fun to know them anyway.

( Click here for Fan Fic Dictionary )

Here's a brief guide to fiction length, so you know what you're reading.

Micro Fiction - less than 100 words
Drabble - A story that is exactly 100 words
Flash Fiction - 100 - 1000 words (also called a one-shot, it's one chapter only)
Short Short - 1000 to 2500 (3-9 pages)
Short Story - 2500 - 7500 words (10 - 22 pages)
Novelette - 7500 - 20,000 words (22 - 61 pages)
Novella - 20,000 - 50,000 words (66 - 175 pages)
Novel - 50,000 - 100,000 words (over 175 pages) average novel is 80,000 words
Epic Novel - Over 100,000

Fiction under 500 words is sometimes called a Vignette. Chapters in a novel are usually at least 2000 words each.

And some lengths for different genres of original fic:

Picture Books - Up to 3,000 words (ages 6 and under)
Chapter books - 5,000 to 20,000 words (ages 6 to 8)
Juvenile books - 25,000 to 50,000 words (ages 9 to 12)
Young Adult books - 30,000 to 80,000 words (13 and above)
Detective novel - 70,000 to 85,000 words
Thrillers - 70,000 to 100,000 words

More and more often, mainstream paperback fiction, thrillers, suspense, horror, romance etc are breaking the 100,000 word mark easily. Book sizes have increased a lot over the last 10 years alone and books are now longer than they used to be - so if you're aiming for a certain genre, length-wise - go for the higher end now.

Tags: dictionary, fan fiction, fan fiction terms
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