Editing Fiction Containing Gender-Neutral Pronouns

CIEP guides provide a short, basic introduction to the various skills and knowledge needed to work as an editorial professional. They are intended for copyeditors and proofreaders, both practising and potential, and will also prove useful to others involved in publishing content, including businesses, organisations, agencies, students and authors.



Every person has the right to choose the pronouns that align with their own sense of self. This has implications for fiction editors. Basing its examples on real works of fiction, the guide offers a wealth of options for working with gender-neutral pronouns.

The guide includes:

traditional and conscious-language approaches to pronounsdifferent narrative viewpoint styles and why they matterhow single- and multiple-pronoun universes workacknowledging gender identity without pronounsa comprehensive list of third-person gender-neutral pronounshow much explanation writers should give about the pronouns they've used.