Acronyms in Writing

In the world of texting, acronyms are used like a first language. When you need to end a texting conversation, you simply send TTYL, versus typing out ‘talk to you later.’ No one nowadays would dare say, ‘laugh out loud,’ while chatting with someone, it’s LOL. While using acronyms is convenient, it can also be confusing.

Couldn’t LOL stand for ‘lots of love’? How about MVP? In sports, it’s ‘most valuable player’ while in the business world it’s ‘minimum viable product.’

The medical field is full of acronyms: AMA (American Medical Association), BI (Brain Injury), NDA (New Drug Application), and RBC (Red Blood Cells), are just the few among thousands of acronyms used daily by nurses, doctors, and pharmacists.

In the music industry there are also acronyms in use. Electric Light Orchestra is known as ELO, while STP is the reference often used for Stone Temple Pilots. Perhaps the most well acronym band is Creedence Clearwater Revival, or CCR.

Even our government uses acronyms with FBI, CIA, POTUS, and so forth.

But what about our world, that is us, the writers and authors? Here is a list of writer acronyms:

BICHOK – butt in chair, hands on keyboard

BP – blog post

BR – beta reader

CE – copy edit

CG – critique group

CMS – Chicago Manual of Style

DE – developmental edit

DL – deadline

EOS – Elements of Style (book)

F – fiction

FB – feedback

GTP – going to print

FM – finished manuscript

LA – literary agent

MC – main character

NF – nonfiction

PC – page count

PH – publishing house

POV – point of view

PR – proofreader

PT – plot twist

PW – Poets & Writers magazine

QL – query letter

SCOPE – spelling, capitalization, order of words, punctuation, express thoughts

TOC – table of contents

WB – writer’s block

WC – writers conference

WD – Writer’s Digest magazine

WG – writers group

WIP – work in progress

WPM – words per minute

WR – writing retreat

What are some of your writing acronyms?