Terms of Endearment

As I've been learning more about fan fiction, I've frequently come across terminology specific to this subject. With the help of Hellekson and Busse (2006), here are definitions for a few frequently used terms and abbreviations:

Canon: Events presented in the media source that provide the universe, setting, and characters

Fanon: Events created by the fan community and repeated throughout the fantext

Genres of Fanfic
Gen: General story with no romantic relationship

Het: Story revolving around a heterosexual relationship either invented by the author or presented in the primary source text

Slash: Posits a same-sex relationship, usually imposed by the author and based on perceived homoerotic subtexts

Genre classifications generally play a large role in how fanfic is organized and categorized within archives, or online libraries.

Miscellaneous

OC: Original Character

OTP: One True Pairing

AU: Alternate Universe

Mary Sue: often an avatar of the author, a character presented as the perfect heroine who saves the day and gets the guy while virtually excluding the canonical characters.