blog.david-oneal.com

I’ve been creating stories since I was eight years old. So over those years, I’ve put considerable thought into what stories are about and into that classification label everybody refers to as genre.

Let me start off by flatly saying, “I don’t write genre fiction!”

I can hear all the literary types gasp, and then they lean a little closer, perhaps thinking, “What’s this guy going to say?” Seems to me that genre is little more than a bookshelf classification to help shoppers find a particular title.

I admit it; genre is helpful for doing that sort of stuff.

As a creator of fiction, this whole genre thingie looks very different to me.

Since I began writing professionally in 1994, I’ve attended a number of writer workshops. All were helpful in some sort of way, especially when it came to developing my literary craft. Most taught me what to do and then to do it better. A few taught me what not to do.

Presentations involving genre settled easily into that latter category. Somehow, genre simply didn’t fit well with how a new story appeared to me.

For me, ideas seem to rise up from unexpected places in the world around me.

Once an idea takes root and begins to grow, I put very little effort into molding or shaping it. At that point, I’m mostly a recorder of how the idea will form its own shape. Besides taking notes, I’m deeply thrilled by the whole experience.

It’s well-documented how characters often take control in a writer’s mind and move the story in directions the writer had not planned. Occasionally that happens with me, but what I’m saying here is that “that thing called genre” is not within my conscious control.

So, if I don’t control it, how can I write to its many demands?

Of the stories I’ve created, there’s action, suspense, murder, mystery, crime, romance, drama, violence, children, hit men, and the list goes on. Some of those are very definitely genre headings. I settled on calling them “thriller.”

Anyone notice how we’re seeing a lot more thrillers being created today?

Perhaps, I’ll need to do a much longer article on this topic.

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Imagine for a moment, you’re enjoying a relaxing getaway weekend in Las Vegas that beautiful desert city of lights. Gambling and drinking quickly become your highest priorities. Your friends warn that in Las Vegas trouble lurks all around you. As usual, you don’t listen.

Before your vacation is over, you inadvertently offend a stranger. A relaxing drink eases your upset. You’re feeling okay now, but ignorance is bliss.

Here, the author poses a provocative question, “Do law-abiding people kill?”

If so, what might be the reason–heat of passion, revenge, survival, blood lust? The ultimate list is sweeping, but for Doug Carlson, it is emotional and painful, challenging the foundation of his humanity.

Doug’s life is drifting, but after an accidental encounter with Mr. C, it will never be the same. The Mob’s relentless pursuit spews a path of death and destruction leading directly to him.

Forced to defend himself, he faces a past he sought to hide, even from himself. Throughout the ruthless assault, Catherine’s strength, courage, and undying love comfort him.

As the violence escalates, Doug finally acknowledges the joy of their relationship, but is it too late? Will his past sabotage their future as they become casualties in the war on the bloody streets of Los Angeles?

More info about the powerful “first novel” of David O’Neal, ebook author, novelist, and storyteller is found here: http://www.whatgoesaround-thenovel.com/. You can also listen to five audio readings created especially for you by the author from the pages of this unusual story.

Technorati Tags: Imagine, provocative, Do law-abiding people kill?, heat of passion, revenge, survival, blood lust, Doug Carlson, Mob, first novel, ebook author, novelist, storyteller, audio readings, unusual story

If you’re like so many people, you read everything around you, and reading is a valuable part of your daily quality of life. If this describes you, you’re about to find a nice surprise.

For most readers, fiction is the more pleasing of the many choices. Clearly, you like what you read, and I’m betting I can make that private experience a whole lot more enjoyable.

As a creator of original fiction and a published novelist, my job is to do exactly that, yet my message today is not about the quality reading experience found in my work. Instead, I’ve identified a number of essential qualities that make all of humanities’ most-loved stories somehow live-on magically inside our imaginations.

Actually, there are seven essential qualities. Some of them you probably all ready know and will easily recognize. Seeing them all together and imagining how they interact to deliver whatever reading experience you have has been an eye-opening moment for many.

1. There must be a response. The most essential quality of dynamite fiction is that it leaves you feeling as if the story you just finished reading was…well, a WOW story…a place you’d like to visit again and again. In life, when we are so wonderfully satisfied by a particular moment’s experience, we usually want a little bit more of it.

2. There must be players. Every story has a varied collection of both good and bad guys, and here’s what’s interesting about them. When arranged best, they are simply euphemisms for love and hate, and you’ll find those diverse human qualities live all around us in a variety of disguises we often mistake for something else.

3. There must be emotion. A story character’s overall depth must be focused in exactly the right ways so as to compel your imagination to immediately and magically create them and the interesting details of the world they live in.

4. There must be a deeper message. Readers often see only the surface content of a story, like a spy stealing a highly sensitive secret, when the underlying context, what’s often hinted or unspoken, is usually the most important part.

5. There must be meaning. Stories that affect us the most are those with a rich storyline and related yet interesting subplots designed to fill in the auxiliary detail our “always-on” imagination is so hungry to receive in whatever we read.

6. There must be an invitation. The most critical factor in making a story believable, in making it come alive, is how that story interacts with the reader’s imagination–the place where authors balance their storytelling art and their expertise in literary craft.

7. There must be recognition. Beyond expecting characters to appear real, WOW stories have characters that allow readers to easily slip into them and become a part of their daily lives, whether good or bad, and live for a while because they are exactly like you.

Seems to me that how any one particular author puts all these essential pieces together in a masterful work is an expression first of their capability within their craft and then an expression of their individual practice of their art.

Throughout the ages, the literary masters figured out how to do it, and if their work survived, they obviously got it right. Today, we see many variations of these qualities in the “bestseller” markets. Now, that market is testing today’s authors for survival in much the same way.

Technorati Tags: fiction, original fiction, published novelist, quality reading experience, seven essential qualities, WOW story, rich storyline, interesting subplots, our “always-on” imagination, reader’s imagination, storytelling art, literary craft, literary masters, today’s authors