How do you identify harmful tropes while developmental #editing?
Here are some resources!
@carolinavonkampen.com
@carolinavonkampen.comHow do you identify harmful tropes while developmental #editing?
Here are some resources!
@carolinavonkampen.comHere's the link to Writing an Identity Not Your Own! bookshop.org/a/6998/97812... affiliate link #ACESVCON26 #VCON26
@carolinavonkampen.comHow do you identify harmful tropes while dev #editing?
✅ Read in the genre you're editing
✅ Read the canon
✅ Ask the author what tropes they've used and what they're trying to do
✅ Karen Yin's Conscious Style Guide
✅ Writing an Identity Not Your Own lists tropes by identity
@carolinavonkampen.comHow can we subvert or invert these damaging tropes in stories?
✔️ Call out the problem as being a societal one
✔️ Set up the trope but then do a twist on it
@carolinavonkampen.comMore examples of damaging tropes:
Manic pixie dream girl: Makes them into a prop in someone else's story. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_P...
@carolinavonkampen.comMore examples of damaging tropes:
Disability cure narrative: When the disabled person is magically cured. Implies that disabled people are more valid if they're "fixed" and reduces characters (and thus IRL disabled people) to their disabilities.
@carolinavonkampen.comMore examples of damaging tropes:
Nonbinary = nonhuman: When the only nonbinary character is nonhuman; this is othering!
@carolinavonkampen.comSome examples of damaging tropes:
Tokenization
Magical Negro trope: when the only Black person (or only person of color!) only exists to help the non-Black protagonist
The assumption that mixed race people are confused about who they are or where they fit in society
@carolinavonkampen.comTropes aren't inherently bad.
Tropes can help readers find the types of books they're looking for and enjoy reading. The reader has an idea of what will happen based on the trope, and the author can play with *how* they get to the trope's end result.
@editrix-rachel.bsky.socialI'm also attending this! #vcon26 #ACESVCON26
@carolinavonkampen.comNext session at #ACESVCON26: Tropes in Developmental Editing: The Good, the Bad, the Twisted by @tanyagold.bsky.social, @cloviseditorial.bsky.social, and @elixireditorial.bsky.social!
#amediting #edibuddies #editorsky #developmentalediting #vcon26
@carolinavonkampen.comPeter Sokolowski has a book about dictionaries coming out in 2027! It's called By Definition: The Surprising History of the English Dictionary.
Preorder here: bookshop.org/a/6998/97812... (affiliate link) #ACESVCON26 #VCON26 #language #dictionary #words #linguistics #amediting #edibuddies #writing
@carolinavonkampen.comWe're used to print dictionaries being in alphabetical order.
But what if you could read the #dictionary chronologically and ~travel through time~
You can browse @merriam-webster.com by when was a word first used in print here:
www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/ #ACESVCON26 #VCON26 #language
@tanyagold.bsky.socialJoin us for a discussion about tropes in developmental editing today at 2:15!
@carolinavonkampen.comMerriam-Webster used to list definitions (or "senses") chronologically, but they recently decided to list the senses by the most relevant one first.
@carolinavonkampen.comI have a confession: I don't own a print dictionary!
This makes me want to buy dictionaries!!!
I had no idea the OED and MW had such different approaches to dictionarying. I thought it was just American English vs. British English! 🤯
@carolinavonkampen.com2 kinds of dictionaries:
1. Synchronic ("at the same time"). Rigorously functional, with a focus on definitions. Webster's approach
OR
2. Diachronic ("across time"). Broadly literary, with a focus on quotations. Johnson's and Oxford English Dictionary's approach
@carolinavonkampen.comThis session about words and dictionaries is making me want to attend a #linguistics conference! #ACESVCON26 #VCON26
@carolinavonkampen.comDid you know?
Dictionaries *used* to list the oldest definition of the word first. The word's definitions were listed in chronological order. (But not anymore.)
In 1983, it was a business decision to list the year of first known use in Merriam-Webster dictionaries.
@carolinavonkampen.comHow do dictionaries work?
Alphabetical order.
But alphabetical order is arbitrary. It's a skill. You have to learn alphabetical order in order to use a dictionary.