Creative Writing: Setting and Genre Secrets

Whether goal is to write a novel or a wedding speech, understanding the genre of your story will allow you to deliver it with confidence.

Ages 16+

Creative Writing: Story Structure and the Business of Fiction also recommended.

A story’s setting is more than simply where it occurs. From the gritty streets of crime fiction to the complex world-building of high fantasy and the reality-grounded backdrop of memoir, setting is a lens that focuses and intensifies the characters and conflict at the heart of your story.

In this class you’ll learn how to select and cultivate a setting that immerses your audience in a rich sense of place. With short in-class group work and examples drawn from novels and films, we'll explore the ways setting is intertwined with characterization and action.

In the same session we’ll examine genre, learning what it is, how it impacts the way a narrative is perceived, and how it can be used to surprise and entrance an audience. No matter if your goal is to write a novel or a wedding
speech, understanding the genre of your story will allow you to deliver it with confidence.

Tickets:

Idea Foundry Member: $45

Non Member: $60

Instructor: Dan Stout

With stories published in venues ranging from The Saturday Evening Post to Intergalactic Medicine Show, Dan Stout has made a career out of charming and terrifying readers in equal measure. In addition to feature, his ability to create a compelling narrative has allowed him to work as biographer, futurist, and ghost writer. 2019 marks the release of his debut novel Titanshade, the first installment in a series of noir fantasy thrillers from DAW books.