Glossary
Writer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential writer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key writer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in writer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Advance
- Upfront book payment.
- Byline
- Writer’s name on a story.
- Clips
- Published samples.
- Copyright
- Legal ownership of creative work.
- Copywriting
- Writing for marketing.
- Deadline
- Time work is due.
- Freelance
- Self-employed project work.
- Literary agent
- Represents authors.
- Manuscript
- Book draft.
- Pitch
- Proposal for a story.
- Query letter
- Pitch to agents.
- Royalty
- Share of sales.
- SEO
- Search engine optimization.
- Style guide
- Rules for writing.
- Treatment
- Script summary.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Writer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Writer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.