I myself, searching the wonderful world of fan fiction, have asked What is the difference between a preference, imagine, and one shot?
Those two words imagine and preference seem to be a very new thing.
I was scared to read any because of what might come up >.>
K, here is the explanation!
Preference
A couple sentences with a scene about a certain character.
So, a preference is a Certain fandom with a basic topic for each chapter and a couple sentences for each character.
One shot
A story (usually an X reader) that can be short, long, or otherwise, but is just one plot and one storyline.
Sorta like a short story.
Imagine
An imagine is like a super short, two paragraph version of a one shot.
That's it.
Really, its shorter (ish) version of a one shot.
It doesn't follow rules of grammar and usually is set up like a chat room
Hope this helps!!!