: Re: Which term is more appropriate and mainstream in fiction: made up proper nouns or invented proper nouns? I am working with a beginner writer to help typeset their book for self-publishing. They

@Jamie945

Neither. These are terrible options for titling a glossary appendix. Neither is anywhere in the neighbourhood of mainstream usage.

“Terrible” may sound harsh, but that’s my immediate reaction as a reader. As a writer, I can explain the reaction: They emphasize the author’s relationship to the words—the author made them up—but that kind of intrusion of the author is contrary to keeping your reader’s thoughts within a state of suspended disbelief where they’re more accepting of made-up words. The reader already knows most or all of those words are made up; they just want the meaning.

Title the appendix “Glossary” and be done with it.

If there’s a particular unified source of these new words within the fiction, you can incorporate that in the title to strengthen the in-fiction (as opposed to out-of-fiction) source relationship in the mind of the reader: “Glossary of Atevi Terms” or “Glossary of Shevek’s Math”.



Reading the comments rather than question, this section seems to have a different purpose than a glossary.

For an appendix of the author’s notes on invented language or terms, neither “invented” nor “made up” are great.

Be specific instead: what are these? Are they names of planets or people?
Title it “Author’s Notes on the Names of People and Places”. “Notes on…” or “Author’s Note (on…)” is mainstream.

Make the intrusion explicit. Let the reader know they’re exiting the realm of the fiction and sitting down with the author personally. The title should tell the reader what to expect.

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