How to Explain What Shipping Is

    Happy New Year, everyone! Here's the first post of 2018:

    I think everyone can agree how awkward it is when you mention shipping, OTPs, broTPs, or noTPs and someone goes, "Wait, what? What are you talking about?" You look around, hoping someone will save you, before finally saying something like, "Uh, nothing. Fangirl stuff." (And then they ask what a fangirl is, and you sigh over how hopeless this person is). So this post is going to cover all of these things, with a definition and how to explain to someone what these terms mean. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, this post will help you get a better understanding!

Shipping: According to Wikipedia, shipping in terms of a fandom (I will cover that later too, I promise) is "the desire by fans for two or more people, either real-life people or fictional characters (in film, literature, television etc.) to be in a relationship, romantic or otherwise." 
   How to explain this to someone: wanting a couple to be together.

OTP: This stands for "one true pairing" and basically means the ship that you ship the most. I happen to have multiple OTPs, and you can change your OTP all the time (for example, my OTP used to be Chaol and Celaena from Throne of Glass but something happened to change my views).
    How to explain this to someone: The ship you ship the most.

BroTP: This is kind of like shipping, except for instead of wanting characters to be romantically involved with each other, you want them to be friends (although the term "ship" can also be used in place of broTP).
    How to explain this to someone: What I wrote above ↑

NoTP: This is the opposite of shipping: you do not want these characters to be together, either romantically or otherwise. For example, one of my noTPs is Feyre and Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses or Hermione and Malfoy from Harry Potter.
    How to explain this to someone: When you don't want characters to be together.

Fangirl or fanboy: A fan of a book series, TV show, celebrity, band, etc. 
    How to explain this to someone: What I wrote above ↑

Fandom: According to Oxford Dictionaries, a fandom is "the fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc, regarded collectively as a community or subculture."
    How to explain this to someone: a group of fans all interested in the same thing. For example, the Harry Potter fandom is comprised of Harry Potter fans.

Fanfiction: According to the online dictionary, fanfiction is "fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc."
    How to explain this to someone: when someone takes the characters from a TV show, movie, book, etc, that they did not create and writes a story with those characters.

Canon: What actually happens in the TV series, movie, book, etc. The author has confirmed that it has happened.
        How to explain this to someone: What I wrote above ↑

    I hope you enjoyed my definitions and explanations of these terms. If you think I was wrong or if you have something you think I should have included, please add a comment telling me what you think!