Beware the Radish/ImproFanfic Glossary
- admin
- Short for "administrator", someone who oversees some number of impros,
or an entire impro website. The ultimate admin is, of course,
Twoflower, although he is now
basically retired from impro-style works.
- anime
- The Japanese word for "animation", used by American fans to refer to
Japanese animation specifically.
- anime flavor
- A story which, in some way, captures the flavor or feel of some particular
type of anime or manga. This is a notoriously difficult thing to pin down.
Most impro sites, arising as they are from anime fanfic writing, tend to have
(or even require) stories with anime flavor.
- BNA
- "Big-Name Author", a derisive, sarcastic term used to refer to fanfic
authors who are excessively proud of having done a lot of writing, or of being
well-known.
- chapter
- One section of an impro story. Also referred to as a "part", a "segment"
or a "seg".
- chibi-impro
- "chibi" is a Japanese word which sort of means "small and cute". A
chibi-impro is one with short deadlines, where continuity and quality of
writing are not as important as in other stories. It's basically more
informal than other impros. The first chibi-impro was
Girls with Guns; the ultimate
chibi-impro is, of course,
Zeitgeist Eggbeater.
- extension
- When an author requests more time to write a chapter.
- fanart
- Art which goes along with an impro in some way, and is submitted as
omake to go along with it. The most common type of fanart is the depiction
of characters from the story.
- fanfic
- Technically refers to fan fiction, stories written by fans on existing
works. However, in the impro community, the term has broadened in meaning to
include stories that aren't based on particular works.
- fic
- A shortened form of "fanfic". Has an even broader meaning than "fanfic".
- impro
- An improvisational story, with successive chapters written by authors who
sign up to write. Each author has a set time in which to write their chapter,
usually about a week.
- impro community
- The people who read, write and generally enjoy impro, whether it be at
ImproFanfic or indie sites.
- ImproFanfic
- The first, largest and most well-known impro site, run by Twoflower.
- ImproManga
- A site much like most impro sites, except that the stories are in manga
("comic book") form instead of text. ImproFanfic was actually inspired by
ImproManga.
- indie site
- A website with one or more impros, that is not ImproFanfic (the original).
Short for "independent". Beware
the Radish, where you are now, is an indie site. The first indie site was
(still is, in fact) Indie
Madnesse.
- manga
- The Japanese word for "comic books", used by American fans to refer to
Japanese comic books specifically.
- mark
- Someone who really likes a particular story or plot angle, like a
"Heart Heart High mark" or a
"Yuki/Gai romance mark". Has an alternate connotation when discussing
MTCFF Ultra; see that page for
details. Originally from professional wrestling jargon.
- moderation
- When someone exerts control over the content of a story, by providing
guidelines for the story, or by using an application process to choose which
authors write, or by any number of other means. Most of the
Beware the Radish impros are
moderated; specific rules are on each story's page.
- omake
- Japanese word meaning "extra". It refers to extra things that are
submitted to go along with a particular impro, such as artwork or side
stories. "Omake" usually refers to stories in particular, as contrasted
with fanart.
- part
- One section of an impro story. Also referred to as a "chapter".
- preread
- Edit, in a sense. When an author sends their chapter to someone who
checks it over for mistakes before it gets officially submitted, that second
person is prereading.
- queue
- The list of authors who have signed up to write parts for an impro.
- quirk
- Some eccentricity of a particular impro that doesn't have to do with
its content. The most common are title quirks, such as High
Stakes' gambling-themed titles, HHH's
repeating words and FFL's "X
and Y" titles. Other quirks include DG's
end-of-chapter CAPITALIZED QUESTIONS? and
HHH's "Next episode" lines.
- sandbox fic
- An impro where beginning authors write to "get their feet wet" and gain
experience in writing impro.
META was envisioned as the
quintessential sandbox fic.
- seg, segment
- One section of an impro story. Also referred to as a "chapter".
- Twoflower
- The main ImproFanfic admin, the guy who thought up the whole concept in
the first place, and a well-known amateur author in his own right.
- Wai!
- A Japanese expression of happiness, cute and vaguely feminine. Equivalent
to "Yay!" or "Hooray!".
Beware the Radish
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