Category: Industry Terms

The publishing industry is filled with terms that seem to mean one thing to the industry but something entirely different to everyone else. For the writer who is just entering into the publishing scene, this barrage of new terminology can leave us confused, staring at the word forever trying to discern its meaning.

Three of those words for me were literary, commercial, and upmarket. There really isn't a simple definition for these three terms as they apply to the nature of the narrative used within a story. Here's hoping that today's post can clarify it for at least some writers.

There are times when the terminology seems to confuse the hell out of me. Sometimes, it’s because the odd term is completely new to my ears. At other times, it’s a term or phrase that has an obscure reference that I spend forever trying to work how such an odd term could mean that. And there are those terms that have a common meaning within pop culture that seem to be at war with the literary meaning.

The term shapeshifter is one of those terms that falls into the last category.

While pop culture would have us believe that the term shapeshifter refers to someone whose physical appearances change, the term actually refers to their behavior.

Sometimes, a term gets thrown in our direction and we are forced to take a step back and blink. "What exactly does that mean?" It happens to the best of us—even me.

This week's literary term is no exception. We're talking about breaking the fourth wall.

To put it simply, breaking the fourth wall is when the characters acknowledge the audience's presence, eluding to the fact that the characters know that they are in a book or a play.

How many times have you been in a conversation with fellow writers and they have spouted off some term that you had never heard of before? And how many times have those around you nodded their heads, like they've heard it all before, making you feel even worse for not knowing the term?

Well, this particular feeling happens to me all the time. And you know what: it doesn't make me any less of a writer for not knowing the terms. In fact, like today's literary term, most of those random words are insignificant, but today's term is doubly so.

A MacGuffin (also written McGuffin) is an object or goal sought by the characters of a story, keeping the plot moving forward, though the object itself lacks intrinsic importance.