Almost any story or novel has at least one thematic concern at play, in addition to all the other elements of narrative craft \u2013 plot, characterization, and so on. But often in our own writing, these elements can come across too forcefully or not forcefully enough to our readers. So-called \u201cgenre fiction\u201d often relies on ideas\u2014science fiction in particular has famously been called \u201cThe Literature of Ideas\u201d\u2014and as a result, can offer techniques to writers of all types of fiction to help integrate theme into their work. Many published authors have made good use of these, and at my own desk, I try to use, subvert, or otherwise remake these techniques or \u201ctropes\u201d towards my own ends.<\/P>
\n
In this generative intensive, we\u2019ll look at techniques both genre and literary writers have used to integrate thematic \u201cideas\u201d into short- and long-form fiction\u2014writers like Carmen Maria Machado, Joyce Carol Oates, and Robert\u00a0Coover, among others. We\u2019ll use exercises to explore these techniques, both to use toward works-in-progress and new\u00a0work.<\/P><\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"fiction-idea-driven-techniques-2018-404","image":{"url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cropped-intensives-photo-for-Intensive-events-e1432334260476.jpg","id":"2901","extension":"jpg","width":594,"height":315,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","ewww_image_optimizer":"Reduced by 37.4% (4.0 kB)","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cropped-intensives-photo-for-Intensive-events-e1432334260476-150x150.jpg"},"medium":{"width":300,"height":159,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","ewww_image_optimizer":"Reduced by 24.2% (4.1 kB)","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cropped-intensives-photo-for-Intensive-events-e1432334260476-300x159.jpg"},"nav-thumbnail":{"width":75,"height":75,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","ewww_image_optimizer":"Reduced by 60.2% (4.0 kB)","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cropped-intensives-photo-for-Intensive-events-e1432334260476-75x75.jpg"},"event-thumbnail":{"width":600,"height":400,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","ewww_image_optimizer":"Reduced by 10.4% (5.5 kB) - Previously Optimized","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cropped-intensives-photo-for-Intensive-events-600x400.jpg"},"flex-gallery":{"width":300,"height":200,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","ewww_image_optimizer":"Reduced by 22.4% (4.2 kB)","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/cropped-intensives-photo-for-Intensive-events-e1432334260476-300x200.jpg"}},"ewww_image_optimizer":"Reduced by 1.9% (824.0 B)"},"all_day":false,"start_date":"2018-11-03 13:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2018","month":"11","day":"03","hour":"13","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2018-11-03 16:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2018","month":"11","day":"03","hour":"16","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":"2018-11-03 18:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2018","month":"11","day":"03","hour":"18","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2018-11-03 21:00:00","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2018","month":"11","day":"03","hour":"21","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"America\/Chicago","timezone_abbr":"CDT","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"","currency_position":"","values":[]},"website":"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/fiction-idea-driven-techniques-2018-404-tickets-47966597384","show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Writers Workshops","slug":"writers-workshops","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":357,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":368,"filter":"raw","id":356,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/356","collection":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":1638,"author":"1","status":"publish","date":"2014-11-12 18:44:19","date_utc":"2014-11-12 18:44:19","modified":"2020-02-24 09:38:33","modified_utc":"2020-02-24 15:38:33","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/venue\/inprint-house\/","venue":"Inprint House","slug":"inprint-house","address":"1520 W Main St","city":"Houston","country":"United States","province":"TX","state":"TX","zip":"77006","stateprovince":"TX","geo_lat":29.7362907,"geo_lng":-95.3985267,"json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"Inprint House","description":"","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/venue\/inprint-house\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"1520 W Main St","addressLocality":"Houston","addressRegion":"TX","postalCode":"77006","addressCountry":"United States"},"geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":29.7362907,"longitude":-95.3985267},"telephone":"0","sameAs":""},"show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"global_id":"inprinthouston.org?id=1638","global_id_lineage":["inprinthouston.org?id=1638"]},"organizer":[{"id":29287,"status":"publish","date":"2019-07-17 09:48:51","date_utc":"2019-07-17 14:48:51","modified":"2020-12-22 11:55:22","modified_utc":"2020-12-22 17:55:22","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/organizer\/inprint-3\/","organizer":"Inprint","slug":"inprint-3","website":"http:\/\/www.inprinthouston.org","json_ld":{"@type":"Person","name":"Inprint","description":"","url":"https:\/\/inprinthouston.org\/organizer\/inprint-3\/","telephone":"0","email":"0","sameAs":"http:\/\/www.inprinthouston.org"},"global_id":"inprinthouston.org?id=29287","global_id_lineage":["inprinthouston.org?id=29287"]}],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"FICTION: IDEA-DRIVEN TECHNIQUES 2018-404","description":"<p>Almost any story or novel has at least one thematic concern at play, in addition to all the other elements of narrative craft \u2013 plot, characterization, and so on. 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