Episode 52: Craft--a Look at Theme and Literary Conventions

Jeremy has an MFA in creative writing, is a published author, and a teacher of creative writing at the graduate and undergraduate level. He wears these hats on top of being editor-in-chief of Sley House Publishing and host of Sley House Presents. Trevor has a Master's in Spanish literature and was working on his PhD when Sley House started, and has taught numerous literature courses at the collegiate level. So, both guys figured it's about time to take their knowledge of literature and writing to the airwaves. Hence, this series on craft.

Art, Trevor suggests, is subjective, but all art is created through craft, and craft can be objective. Craft is taught in schools and classrooms and passed down from teachers and masters to students. Whether you are a painter or a musician or a photographer, a sculptor, or a writer, you study the craft to improve your art.

The guys want to use this series to present the craft of writing to the listeners so that they can better understand, appreciate, and craft their own art. Perhaps you're a creative writing student wanting to better nail down the vernacular so you can have a deeper understanding as you progress in your studies. Perhaps you're a writer wanting to elevate your craft or the genre you write in. Perhaps you're a book reviewer looking to up your game by using technical, objective ideas to analyze the books you read. Or maybe you just like Jeremy's bad puns. Any way you slice it, this multi-part series is for you.

In this introductory episode and season three opener, the guys start with a couple of concepts key to understanding the rest of the series, as Jeremy structures this entire series off of classroom lectures he's led countless times before. In this episode, the guys discuss theme and literary convention. They define key terms, examine them in relationship to genre, and provide great literary examples of these terms. This will be the structure as they move through the rest of the series. So sit back and enjoy this thorough and entertaining discussion on craft.

Some key terms: TOPIC -- topics are the building blocks of themes. Topics are things like "love." "Good and evil." "Friendship." "Family." A lot of people argue these are themes, but that isn't really true. These are merely topics. THEME -- the theme comes through the writing, and is the author's statement about the topic. The message they want the reader to take away. When you look at theme, look at the major topics discussed and ask yourself what the author is saying about these things. That is your theme. LITERARY CONVENTION OF MEDIUM -- How can you tell a book of poetry from a short story collection? How can you open a book and identify plays rather than a novel? How can you identify nonfiction, or an article, a biography, a blog, a listicle? The graphology of the words and the structure of the provided information suggest the literary conventions of the various mediums. LITERARY CONVENTION OF GENRE -- In contrast, how can you look at a cover and open a book to differentiate a romance or bodice ripper from a supernatural horror, or a western, or a science fiction novel? The contents provided herein that best represent the genre are literary conventions.

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