How to write a book (2) - Genres
Someone asked me if I write erotic novels. I said, ‘No. What would my grandchildren say?’
When I started writing, I wrote stories. It was only later that I discovered the importance of choosing the genre in which I was writing.
Writing stories is for my own entertainment. Writing in a genre aims for a specific reader who likes to know what to expect.
Choosing a genre dictates rules, structures, style, story type, characters who act in predictable ways and the genre tells you how the novel will end, more or less.
You can move to the next level and pick which of the seven basic plots so brilliantly explained in The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker. Now you are seriously observing the craft of writing and identifying the framework within which your creativity will run wild.
I don’t write Mills and Boon type novels. If you want sci-fi you will not find it in my books. I am fascinated by the work of biographers but I found the genre rules too restrictive. I don't like being confined to being true to the facts and being restrained in interpreting the life of the subject.
You would never guess my preferred genre by looking through the books on my bookshelves. The range is broad and wildly varied - Elmore Leonard, A L Kennedy, Kevin Barry, Stephen King, James Lee Burke, Brian Moore, David Morley, Studs Terkel, Tolkien, Tom Sharpe, Julian Gough, Roddy Doyle, Colm Toibin, Zora Hurston and my favourite Ed McBain. That list does not include Indian and Spanish writers and the tantalising work of Brando Skyhorse.
I discovered when writing Snuff O’Brien’s Private War that I like writing historical thrillers. I enjoy working with historical facts, creating characters who are true to their time, developing the atmosphere and expressing the expectations that were current when the action took place.
Sometimes the events occurred within my lifetime. It gives me pause for thought when I am told they qualify to be called ‘historical’.
I use the stories to poke at a deeper meaning that resonates with issues of today.
Snuff O’Brien is the battle-hardened fighter returning to his home town that has not moved on since he left. If anything, attitudes have solidified.
Religion and politics are too insecure to be tolerant. His home-coming is seen as a threat. People protect what they have. Hostility and aggression are as evident today as they were when Snuff came home looking for peace.
I was intrigued by how Snuff would deal with opposition when all he wanted to was to live in peace. Would he succeed in his ambition?
The answer could not be a happy one. It isn’t the genre for that type of ending.
