blog.david-oneal.com

One of the biggest movie events over the past year or so was “The secret.” It’s basic message was that our thoughts create our reality on a day by day basis. Specifically, this message says that whatever images lives most predominately in our moment to moment consciousness is what does that creation.

For most people that’s where the creation process unknowingly breaks down, mostly because people’s thoughts are so unfocused. To assist with that dilemma, a number of tools were crafted to overcome that lack of focus. One of them is the “mind movie,” a unique tool created in Australia

The primary purpose of a mind movie is to create images that focus a persons thoughts on the images they want most in their future. David has just released his first mind movie, and he is so proud of the images it creates for him.

Initially, he posted it on YouTube.com, yet it seems like the easiest way to view it is on his MySpace.com page. The link for doing that is located at “http://www.myspace.com/daveo0099”. When you go there, look for the picture of “Wonder Woman” on the left-hand side of the page. That’s one of the many fabulous images in his movie.

If you watch his movie and it speaks to you, whether positive or negatively, please send him an email. You know how writers, and especially novelists, love the opportunity to talk back to their readers.

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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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As a published novelist, I’ve practiced my craft since 1994. Over the past month, I’ve moved my literary presence online. So, as an Internet newbie, I’m now exploring a number of writer and reader related blogs and websites.

The ones with the greatest impact on me in a literary sense are the ones you can expect me to post about.

“Storytellers Unlimited” is such a blog. It’s been online since June, 2005 and is staffed by a group of thirty authors, editors, booksellers, and publishing professionals. Each shares their view of the literary world in their own blog posts once a month. The posted material spans a wide range of interests, and that blog is now one of the links on my desktop.

This past Monday, Gerard Houarner made a post, “The Vision Thing,” that caught my attention. We’ve both literally on the same page. As he develops his vision thesis, he touches on a number of possibilities and ends up with one’s personal outlook on life. For me, that really takes the vision idea home.

Actually, what Gerard discusses is what I call passion. Among other things, he suggests authors ask tough questions of their characters and of their story, implying it’s really done of themselves.

Seems to me that questions of that nature seldom have solid answers.

Inside my own passion, I find most ideas being birthed as a complete whole. Often, I recognize its characters living comfortably around me and can easily feel the intended flow of the story. Usually, all that’s left for me to do is orchestrate its final literary presentation for my readers–finding just the right words to tell that particular story.

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