'Writing Fiction, Reading Theory' is this thesis author's investigation into her creative process of fiction writing. Using contemporary political and social theory to illuminate the practice of writing, this thesis proposes and examines multiple rationales for aesthetic and political choices inherent in the various elements of the writing process. The writer utilizes theoretical work, such as Edward Said's discussion of the responsibility of the intellectual and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's notions of the rhizome and assemblage to understand the impetus to write, the methods, and the kinds of issues she chooses to address in her work. This understanding allows and leads to an aesthetic and political validation of both impetus and method, as well as the resonances that simultaneously mirror what the writer attempts to say in her work and push beyond a merely theoretical understanding to a moment of creativity that remains ineffable.