29 Words That Mean Something Totally Different When You're A Writer (2024)

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    29 Words That Mean Something Totally Different When You're A Writer (2)

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    1. "Writing."

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    What it means: Committing words to paper or text to an electronic document.

    What it means when you're a writer: Doing literally anything else.

    2. "Protagonist."

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    What it means: The main character in a story.

    What it means when you're a writer: You.

    3. "Friends."

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    What it means: A non-romantic relationship between two or more people.

    What it means when you're a writer: Characters for your novel.

    4. "Netflix."

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    What it means: A video streaming service for watching films and television series.

    What it means when you're a writer: Research!

    5. "Research."

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    What it means: Exhaustive, in-depth process of uncovering facts about a subject.

    What it means when you're a writer: Netflix!

    7. "Character development."

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    What it means: How a character changes and grows during the course of a story.

    What it means when you're a writer: Something literary writers worry about.

    8. "Secrets."

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    What it means: Sensitive information only shared with trusted individuals, i.e., close friends.

    What it means when you're a writer: Plot ideas!

    9. "Starbucks."

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    What it means: Pedestrian chain of cafés. Better at taxes than coffee.

    What it means when you're a writer: Day care!

    10. "Feedback."

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    What it means: A process of critiquing a narrative work in order to improve it.

    What it means when you're a writer: Compliments or GTFO.

    11. "Sex."

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    What it means: Penetrative intercourse.

    What it means when you're a writer: You're either doing it, or writing about doing it. You're writing about doing it.

    12. "Twitter."

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    What it means: A social media platform allowing for short updates up to 140 characters in length.

    What it means when you're a writer: A social media platform that allows you to stalk agents and publishers.

    13. "#amwriting."

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    What it means: A Twitter hashtag used to denote when a writer is sitting down to work on a story.

    What it means when you're a writer: #amtweeting.

    14. "Weekend."

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    What it means: A break at the end of the working week used primarily for leisure, typically Saturday and Sunday.

    What it means when you're a writer: Something other people have.

    15. "Alcoholic beverage."

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    What it means: Beers, wines, and spirits.

    What it means when you're a writer: Story juice!

    16. "Exercise."

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    What it means: An activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness.

    What it means when you're a writer: An activity where you try to write from the point of view of a chair/plant/member of the opposite sex.

    17. "Sprint."

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    What it means: Running at full speed.

    What it means when you're a writer: Writing as many words as possible in a short time with no regard for quality. Also known as trying to hit your word count.

    18. "Novel."

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    What it means: A book length narrative.

    What it means when you're a writer: So far you have the title.

    19. "Literary agents."

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    What it means: A person who represents writers and their work to publishers.

    What it means when you're a writer: Mythical creatures that everyone talks about, but no one you know has actually encountered.

    20. "Best-seller."

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    What it means: An extremely popular book.

    What it means when you're a writer: A book with an obvious lack of literary merit.

    21. "Critical darling."

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    What it means: A book that is well-reviewed and nominated for all the big literary prizes.

    What it means when you're a writer: No one read it.

    22. "Draft."

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    What it means: An in-progress version of a literary work.

    What it means when you're a writer: How you refer to your finished novel when someone criticises it.

    23. "Editing."

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    What it means: The process of correcting and modifying a manuscript with the intention of improving it.

    What it means when you're a writer: Crying into your keyboard because everything is sh*t.

    24. "Under submission."

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    What it means: The process of sending your manuscript out to agents and publishers.

    What it means when you're a writer: I haven't worked up the courage to send my manuscript to anyone yet.

    25. "Marketing."

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    What it means: Communicating the value of a product or service, for the purpose of selling that product or service.

    What it means when you're a writer: Desperately spamming your Twitter and Facebook friends with links to your book page.

    26. “I write for the purity of the art.”

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    What it means: What writers say when asked about their literary motivation.

    What it means when you're a writer: I want to be famous.

    27. "Reader."

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    What it means: Someone digesting a text, in this case a work of literature.

    What it means when you're a writer: An unseen enemy, impossible to understand and therefore to be feared.

    28. "Online reviewer."

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    What it means: A person leaving a "critique" of your work on Goodreads/Amazon/Twitter/a blog.

    What it means when you're a writer: Kill it. Kill it with fire.

    29. "Highly productive day."

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    What it means: Got a lot done.

    What it means when you're a writer: masturbat*d a lot.

    29 Words That Mean Something Totally Different When You're A Writer (2024)

    FAQs

    What is another word for a good writer? ›

    Articulate: This word can be used to describe someone who writes well. Masterful: This word can be used to describe writing that is expertly crafted and executed. Captivating: This word can be used to describe writing that is engaging and holds the reader's attention.

    What is a writer also known as? ›

    Author usually refers to a professional writer. In fact, author can be used interchangeably with the word writer. But author packs a little more punch — an author is involved in the creation of the work and generating the ideas behind it; strictly speaking, a writer could just execute the written product.

    What are nicknames for writers? ›

    Synonyms of 'writer' in American English
    • author.
    • hack (derogatory)
    • novelist.
    • penpusher (derogatory)
    • scribbler.
    • scribe.
    • wordsmith.

    What is the old word for writer? ›

    From Middle English writer, writere, from Old English wrītere (“draughtsman; painter; writer; scribe; copyist”) and ġewritere (“writer; composer”), equivalent to write +‎ -er and writ +‎ -er.

    What defines a good writer? ›

    A good writer pays attention to things like headers, consistent formatting, grammatical errors, varying content lengths, and writing in the language their audience likes. The ability to self-edit is another crucial tool the best writers possess. Show your attention to detail by editing your document more than once.

    What is a synonym for strong in writing? ›

    What are synonyms for "strong" that you can use?
    InfluentialDecisiveSolid
    CompellingPersuasivePowerful
    ConvincingRelevantSubstantial
    EffectiveExcellentHeightened
    GoodGreatValuable
    Jul 7, 2023

    What is a female writer called? ›

    An authoress is a female author.

    What is a lover of writing called? ›

    A creative writer, blogger, poet. A logophile is a lover of words. Also called a word lover or philologos. A related term is logomaniac, "a person who is obsessively interested in words”.

    What is a writers greatest work called? ›

    Magnum opus (disambiguation)

    What do you call a beginner writer? ›

    The term “novice writer” here means one who is encountering some challenging intellectual task for the first time.

    How do you say someone is an excellent writer? ›

    Point out something you think the writer is doing uniquely.
    1. “You have such a unique perspective.”
    2. “Your work always surprises me in the best way.”
    3. “I've never read about a character like this.”

    How do you say you're a good writer on a resume? ›

    Tailor your skills to the job description

    For instance, a job posting for a brand copywriter or content marketer might talk about skills like writing high-quality sales copy, being a strong collaborator, or easily adapting your writing tone between projects or clients.

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