Writing Terminology: My Way

If there is anything I try to stress about myself, it's that I am not a professional writer. I am not a technical writer. To be quite honest, I don't know much about technical English (hence my reason for wanting to go to school for it), and I skated through all my years of school by knowing how to form sentences, and not necessarily being able to name sentence parts.

In the writing world, or what I've gathered, there are a bunch of fancy terms for literature, different parts, and plot devices. These are also things I'm unfamiliar with. Most of the time, when I write, read or review something, I use descriptive words from my own vocabulary, words that other people might not know or be familiar with. That's why I'm writing this entry. I will start with a word that I use frequently:

Sceney:

A sceney is a short piece of writing. It can be as long as a chapter, or as short as a page. A sceney can be an excerpt from a story, or a small stand alone situation in and of itself. The majority of short stories are sceneys. I think I consider a sceney anything under ten pages, but usually more around five. Better terms for sceney may be excerpt, short short, short story, or essay.

Plush:

Plush is a word I use to describe a certain style of writing. Plush writing has very long paragraphs, incredibly descriptive language, and delves deep into each thing it covers. Plush writing is a double edged sword, because it can enthrall a reader, or make the person drift away. Plush stories are definitely not everyone's taste, and more often than not, are not as awesome as the author thinks. Some examples of plush authors/books are "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" by Gregory Maguire (he's the man that wrote "Wicked").

Fluff:

This word goes back to my fan fiction roots. Fluff is anything that is sweet, mushy, sometimes romance novel-esque. Fluff, fluffer, or fluffy as a character description usually means that the character is sweet, mushy, soft. Sometimes the character is stereotypically good, with predictable actions and responses to certain stimuli. Sometimes a character, especially if a dominant character, is fluffy, it means that they are more of a kind, caring Dominant. I used this in a slightly derogatory manner when referring to Wanda in Venus in Furs. This definition is strictly for literature, because fluff has definitions outside of this when used in other contexts.

I think these are the big three words that I use that aren't standard. If any reader has any other terms they've found, and are confused by, I'd love to know. I will add more, and I do check this blog frequently.