Package Description

Date: November 16, 2023

Time: 4-5 p.m. ET

Title: Editing for complete and creative worldbuilding: Insights from cultural anthropology

Description:

Fiction editorial reports are unique creations that showcase the breadth of your knowledge and perspective. Level up your developmental editorial toolbox in this webcast with insights from cultural anthropology. The webcast will focus on editing for complete and creative worldbuilding. By linking cultural theory with examples from popular culture (including the recent Barbie movie), I will show you how to make suggestions that sculpt more complete worlds and avoid lazy, uncreative tropes. You'll gain practical insights that will enrich the feedback you provide to authors. But that's not all – I'll also discuss how to adapt your editorial workflow, ensuring your interventions hit the right mark without leaving you feeling uncomfortable or exposed.

Learning outcomes:

• Establish basic knowledge of two core anthropological concepts (cosmology and the crisis of representation)
• Apply these concepts to recent examples from popular culture
• Advise on how to integrate these approaches into your editorial workflow

Cost: Free for ACES members/$30 for nonmembers

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About the presenter: 

Dr Andrew Hodges is a developmental editor who edits fiction and cultural anthropology. His expertise is in worldbuilding and cultural considerations when crafting settings in stories. Andrew lived and worked in Croatia from 2008–2018 as a cultural anthropologist. In 2019 he moved to Scotland and set up his business, The Narrative Craft. He is an active member of the CIEP and the LGBTQ+ Editors Association. He loves chatting with authors about worldbuilding and point of view issues whenever he can, and is passionate about LGBTQ+ rights and representation in literature.