I’m reading a great book by Donald Maass: Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling (2012), which was recommended to me by a writer friend. The thrust of the book is the death of genre, and transcending genre conventions. He has many approaches toward creating compelling fiction that is personal and original. I’ve also just finished reading Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories, which is a beautifully written family story combined with a mystery, but focused more on family dynamics. I’m now reading her Life After Life, which is more experimental (time travel aspects, etc.) but focused again on family dynamics. I think these are examples of what Maass is talking about in his new book on writing.
The novel I’m writing now (I’m about halfway through the first draft) may appear at first glance to be a legal thriller, but as I focus on the main character, Natalya Findlay, a young lawyer, I realize that it’s primarily about her grieving the death of her husband and deciding what she wants from life. There’s also the theme of motherhood vs. career, mixed with the legal/crime aspects of the story. So it’s about idealism and disillusionment, and rethinking values in one’s thirties, especially after a traumatic event. The novel also involves capital punishment, which is still in effect in California, where the story takes place, and which is of course a controversial topic in the U.S.
So my new novel is not a genre crime thriller; it’s a blend of things, and I hope it will appeal to a wide audience, especially readers of mainstream and literary fiction, but also to readers who enjoy stories involving legal cases and crime. Likewise, Boundaries, which my agent is now marketing, is a blend of literary fiction and a non-genre love story.