What do you put in a glossary?

AndrewMowere · 09-23-2016, 04:26 AM

I'm about to finish a short story collection. It's a fantasy one created in order to sort of establish a realm called Grimea for future work. This means that it would help to add more information, and I thought using a glossary would be nice for that.

Now I'm stuck. I like glossaries but the only thing they seemed to have in common was the strange names. What do people generally put in them? Names of continents? magic system explanations? political terms of the time?

gmw · 09-23-2016, 04:53 AM

A "glossary" is for explanation of words or terms, so it's not an appropriate heading for offering detailed explanations of "magic systems" - to take one of your examples.

My three currently published novels include a glossary. There were three types of words I included:

* standard English words that had some particular meaning/emphasis within the story; words like "stand" and "glade".

* Sanskrit words (or words I had derived from Sanskrit) that became part of my story, for which I gave their derivation and definition as relevant to the context of my story. Words like "aaranya" and "prana".

* Made up words.

I also used the glossary to offer suggested pronunciation for the words.

I left off any detailed explanations of the eco-system in order to keep the glossary items as brief (and relevant) as I could. If ever readers should demand it, I might consider offering more complete explanations of how it all hangs together (the rules, if you like, of this fantasy) on my website. Such explanations all exist - as I imagine they do for most writers - but they have little place in the main text of the publication.

ETA: A glossary should be redundant. I offered a glossary in my novels for convenience, but my hope is that readers will not actually need it to make sense of the story.

AndrewMowere · 09-23-2016, 09:17 AM

I think I understand what you mean. Thank you, it seems a glossary will be useful after all. I'll use it purely to add a tiny bit of extra information regarding the made up/derived terms, especially for the names of creatures. It seems like it would be fun to add one extra unneeded tidbit here and there.

ApK · 09-28-2016, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewMowere

I think I understand what you mean. Thank you, it seems a glossary will be useful after all. I'll use it purely to add a tiny bit of extra information regarding the made up/derived terms, especially for the names of creatures. It seems like it would be fun to add one extra unneeded tidbit here and there.

I think that could work well. It may give some style and flavor to the glossary. But if you have a lot of those tidbits, maybe consider putting them in an appendix, and leave the glossary for it's standard purpose.

crich70 · 09-29-2016, 02:06 PM

And if you have enough extra stuff you could instead of putting them in an appendix put them in a companion volume. J.K.Rowling did that with her "Fantastic Beasts and where to find them" and "Quidditch through the Ages." J.R.R. Tolkien did it as well with his Silmarillion and the "books of lost tales" that his son sorted out later.

AndrewMowere · 09-29-2016, 03:39 PM

Thank you all. It turned out to be a fun experience, and the book has been on smashwords for a couple of days now. It's my highest downloaded item, but I guess that's to be expected of a free story collection. The glossary turned out to be a couple of pages. random examples of its entries are:

Dodomeki: A creature native to the wilds of Sehkai. It resembles a globe of eyes sporting four arm like limbs. It is said, strangely, that a Dodomeki’s most dangerous aspect is its breath.

The Mist: a shroud covering most of Grimea’s oceans. Sea travel is impossible through it, and as such restricts marine travel to specific routes. In particular, it allows only intercontinental travel between Veld and Baku.

Veld: A continent. Contains the mighty nations of Regalia and Indellekt.

I am already well into my next work, set in a different realm. I intend to return to Grimea in the future for some fully fleshed out books, since this collection was just meant to sort of introduce the continents and juggle around imaginations.

09-23-2016, 04:26 AM	#1
AndrewMowere Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 2050612 Join Date: Dec 2015 Device: none	What do you put in a glossary? I'm about to finish a short story collection. It's a fantasy one created in order to sort of establish a realm called Grimea for future work. This means that it would help to add more information, and I thought using a glossary would be nice for that. Now I'm stuck. I like glossaries but the only thing they seemed to have in common was the strange names. What do people generally put in them? Names of continents? magic system explanations? political terms of the time?

09-23-2016, 04:53 AM	#2
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	A "glossary" is for explanation of words or terms, so it's not an appropriate heading for offering detailed explanations of "magic systems" - to take one of your examples. My three currently published novels include a glossary. There were three types of words I included: * standard English words that had some particular meaning/emphasis within the story; words like "stand" and "glade". * Sanskrit words (or words I had derived from Sanskrit) that became part of my story, for which I gave their derivation and definition as relevant to the context of my story. Words like "aaranya" and "prana". * Made up words. I also used the glossary to offer suggested pronunciation for the words. I left off any detailed explanations of the eco-system in order to keep the glossary items as brief (and relevant) as I could. If ever readers should demand it, I might consider offering more complete explanations of how it all hangs together (the rules, if you like, of this fantasy) on my website. Such explanations all exist - as I imagine they do for most writers - but they have little place in the main text of the publication. ETA: A glossary should be redundant. I offered a glossary in my novels for convenience, but my hope is that readers will not actually need it to make sense of the story. Last edited by gmw; 09-23-2016 at 05:00 AM.

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09-23-2016, 09:17 AM	#3
AndrewMowere Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 2050612 Join Date: Dec 2015 Device: none	I think I understand what you mean. Thank you, it seems a glossary will be useful after all. I'll use it purely to add a tiny bit of extra information regarding the made up/derived terms, especially for the names of creatures. It seems like it would be fun to add one extra unneeded tidbit here and there.

09-29-2016, 02:06 PM	#5
crich70 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,310 Karma: 43993832 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Monroe Wisconsin Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)	And if you have enough extra stuff you could instead of putting them in an appendix put them in a companion volume. J.K.Rowling did that with her "Fantastic Beasts and where to find them" and "Quidditch through the Ages." J.R.R. Tolkien did it as well with his Silmarillion and the "books of lost tales" that his son sorted out later.

09-29-2016, 03:39 PM	#6
AndrewMowere Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 2050612 Join Date: Dec 2015 Device: none	Thank you all. It turned out to be a fun experience, and the book has been on smashwords for a couple of days now. It's my highest downloaded item, but I guess that's to be expected of a free story collection. The glossary turned out to be a couple of pages. random examples of its entries are: Dodomeki: A creature native to the wilds of Sehkai. It resembles a globe of eyes sporting four arm like limbs. It is said, strangely, that a Dodomeki’s most dangerous aspect is its breath. The Mist: a shroud covering most of Grimea’s oceans. Sea travel is impossible through it, and as such restricts marine travel to specific routes. In particular, it allows only intercontinental travel between Veld and Baku. Veld: A continent. Contains the mighty nations of Regalia and Indellekt. I am already well into my next work, set in a different realm. I intend to return to Grimea in the future for some fully fleshed out books, since this collection was just meant to sort of introduce the continents and juggle around imaginations.