What acronym is that? Let’s lift the mystery on acronyms in the writing world

​Are you new to the writing world? Not sure what all those acronyms mean. Then I hope that this post will shed some light on the subject.

A few months ago, a friend and I attended the Geelong Writer’s Group on the night of their 2016 Anthology book launch. My friend, who is a talented children’s book illustrator, and I, were chatting to another writer. The following was in response to a question I asked about what she was currently working on.

“So my current YA MS WIP is going well. I started it NaNoWriMo. It was a good way to start it off. What about you?”

“I’m working on a couple of ideas for a picture book MS. I did think of taking part in PiBoIdMo. I started my list while travelling up on the train up today and got a bunch of ideas.”

Around this time I glanced at my friend. She had the most dumbfounded look on her face; as if we were speaking another language.

“What are you two talking about?” she asked.

So I proceeded to translate for her. In the ensuring conversation, I realised that we can become so used to the acronyms in our writing world, that we forget that to most, it is another language. Yet, it is a language that can be learnt. So I’ll break down what I know so far.

YA: Young adult

Pic Book: Picture book

MS: Manuscript, the story

WIP: Work in Progress

Lit: Literature

MC: Main Character

​​NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.

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PiBoIdMo: Picture Book Idea Month. The challenge is to create 30 picture book concepts in 30 days. 

12 x 12: 12 Picture Books in 12 Months. The challenge is to write 12 picture books manuscripts, to draft stage, in 12 months.  

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As I write children’s picture books, I have discovered terminologies that can leave others perplexed as they sound like one thing but they may not be unsure if what they think it, is really what is meant. Examples are: the page turn, and page breaks, dummy books and storyboards.   

This week’s post is a short one as I am getting ready to submit two pic book MS to a publisher for assessment. I also needed to do an author bio; a synopsis of each MS; format each MS according to conference submission guidelines; discover a half decent recent photo of myself to include and then email once ready. It is leading up to the KidLitVic2016, Meet the Publishers Melbourne – a conference for YA and Kids Lit writers that I will be attending. (Did you manage to decode all of that?)

It’s all exciting times and lots of fun.    

I am sure that there are heaps of other acronyms and industry specific words and phrases that we use that I have not included. Feel free to let me know in the comments of any that I may have left out. 
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