Everyone
in the publishing industry is familiar with the concept of ‘genre’ but it’s
something of a flexible friend. Is ‘Crime And Punishment’ a literary classic
or a psychological thriller? Raymond
Chandler started out as a pulp fiction author but is now on the reading list at
universities. You can see the same
process now under way with Ruth Rendell and others. There is one rule you can apply though – if
the critics and academia are taking you seriously, you’re not genre. If, on the other hand, they’re not
name-checking you, then you probably are.
So the lines are blurred and often rather unhelpful. With my new novel ‘Vendetta’, I decided it was time to shift direction somewhat and it
proved to be an interesting experience.
My
first book ‘Running Hot’ initially
fell into the ‘Urban’ category, which critics have apparently decided is a respectable
genre. But the fact that there was also plenty
of crime involved meant I was fortunate enough to win the John Creasey Dagger
for it. Subsequently, I began writing books
set in East London gangland. This was a
natural development for me as I grew up on an estate in Tower Hamlets and saw
and heard more than enough stories to keep the wheels turning. But for me it was always about more than
murder and mayhem. In our Hampstead
orientated society, the lives of people in the poorer parts of our towns and
cities go largely unexamined and I wanted to examine them. Along with the guns and the twists, I wanted
them to be about people.
Then
I decided, after a couple of years break from writing books, to shift focus
again when I
began my new novel ‘Vendetta’. It seemed to me that I’d exhausted what I
wanted to do in East London. Vendetta falls into the thriller genre,
another very flexible format. I was glad
about this on a number of counts. Firstly,
because I’ve been a thriller fan since I was old enough to read. Secondly, because writing thrillers is a very
demanding task for a writer and I know as a thriller-reader just how difficult
it is to pull the wool over the eyes of consumers of this kind of fiction. When I swapped sides from reader to writer, I
discovered it’s quite a challenge, a hugely pleasurable one but a challenge
none the less. And finally, I discovered
that the thriller format offers just as many opportunities to explore subjects
as other genres do. As I finished my new
book, the misadventures of undercover cop Bob Lambert, his life, and loves
burst into the headlines. So closely did
some of these headlines match ‘Vendetta’,
it could have been part of the book blurb.
Of
course, there are basic building blocks, which you ignore at your peril. A compelling hero is a must, as is a clever
and rhythmic plot. The giants of the
genre assemble their stories like Swiss watches. You need pace - such stories don’t hang
around, if they do the reader gets off at the next stop. But what was interesting for me was not how
different writing thrillers were to what I’d done before but how similar. From ‘Running
Hot’ onwards, I’ve been committed to characterisation, plot, and pace
because those are the books I like to read and most authors like to write the
stories they want to read. There’s no
faking it in fiction, the reader can spot a phoney writer whose heart isn’t in
it a mile off. A lot of literary authors
think this sort of fiction is easy and they can turn their hand to it. They soon get found out.
For
now, I’m committed to writing thrillers; I love writing them as much as I love
reading them. Will I swap genre again? It’s possible. But one thing for sure, if I ever find myself
nominated for the Booker, my hero will still have a gun in his hand…
VENDETTA by Dreda Say Mitchell is out now in paperback and
eBook, published by Hodder, £6.99. For
more information visit www.dredasaymitchell.com and follow Dreda
on twitter @DredaMitchell
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