Ready for Some Tips for Plotting a Cozy Mystery?
Oops! Learn how to get started writing a cozy mystery in Part 1 of this 2-part post first.
Now, after creating your characters – or watching them create themselves – the next step is The Mystery Plan.
Even if you are a committed pantser, please experiment with this to create a working outline.
You do not need to plan every move rigidly.
Leave yourself as free as you like within the outline.
But it has been proven that outliners produce more books in a shorter time.
And detective novels can be the trickiest of all to write.
The first thing to decide is your word count.
Yes, I know novels take as long as they take, but if you have your commercial head on, you need to research what sells best.
No reason to stick to this slavishly.
You can sell as a Kindle Short – often recommended – but looking at hundreds of reviews in the genre as
I do, I see many critics complaining that some cozies are too short. 🙂
Put short story in the description?
Readers just don’t seem to take it in.
I think perhaps the genre needs more than 10,000-15,000 words to develop characters and plot satisfactorily.
You either have to skimp on characters or have a great rush to tie up ends.
Decide your word count
I’m aiming somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 words.
Less if that’s all I need, more if there’s more to say.
But it gives me a target for when I write the cozy mystery.
My 16 point has-to-happen list is based on info found freely on the web.
It mixes plans for successful novels and screenwriting for effect.
I can’t share it here since after I worked it out, I found almost the same plan in Rock Your Plot by Cathy Yardley
☺ Great minds!!
So this time I’m going to tap dance my way through and see if it’s less hassle. (Just learning to tap dance and I love it.)
That said, when you’ve done something once, it’s easier to adapt to suit you.
My Plan: Act 1
My plan divides into 16 steps – shared classically into 3 acts, 4-8-4, though I think 4-4-4-4 could also work.
And each of these steps is for me a scene or two.
I make these scenes into chapters.
E-book readers (and remember that many new readers now read on their mobiles) like short chapters.
They’re easy to read while commuting or in the five minutes waiting for the kettle to boil.
So my first Act is a four step: 2500 words approximately each step, or 1250 per small chapter if using scenes.
You may not like writing mathematically but readers prefer equal length chapters.
So they say.
• step, step, step back and STOMP (forward)
Step 1: introduce main character and her external problem–the one everyone can know about but not the murder itself.
Murder happens towards the end of this chapter or not much later.
Step 2: show her character through actions with friends and/or work.
Murder happens here if not in Chapter One.
Step 3: shows her learning about the murder, but she wants no part of it.
She is too preoccupied with her own problem.
And STOMP – The stomps in your novel are strong changes of direction.
This is where, in a cozy, your main character has to decide she MUST take a hand in solving the mystery or murder to protect herself or someone important to her.
She commits to involvement in the investigation.
Short Outline
The outline does not have to be long.
• Chapter 1.
Emma shows house buyer round what has been her home for past ten years. If he buys, she will be homeless (No problems for pantsers here—scene can be scary, funny, contemporary, romance –you name it. The outline is just a marker to keep you on track.)
• Chapter 2.
Emma’s work day and visit to a friend. Murder is announced. (Again, Emma can have any job from coffee shop waitress to executive secretary. She can like her friends, hate them or have a mix of anything in between.)
• Chapter 3.
Discusses murder with villagers. Learns she was the last person to see the victim alive.
(Your choice here of how and where she finds out or who tells her what and why)
• Chapter 4.
Questioned by police. Realises she might be under suspicion. Vital she clears herself to continue working and finding new home. (This is where you put the pressure on and find a way to make her dive headfirst into the investigation. By now a few cracks may appear in her façade and her internal problem begins to show.)
Action Steps
1. Create a short Act 1 outline based on your characters.
2. Read an article every week about technique.
Here’s Dennis Palumbo, taking the mystery out of writing mysteries.
3. Find the first article of this series. Here’s the link.
About Anne Duguid Knol
Anne Duguid Knol was a news reporter and features writer for national newspapers in the UK before freelancing from France and Portugal.
Anne has edited websites and magazines online since 2002 and is presently a freelance fiction editor with The Wild Rose Press. Her first cozy mystery, ShriekWeek, came out in 2014.
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I just came upon your blog, and wanted to thank you for posting the link to one of my articles on writing. I’m taking the liberty of suggesting you check out my book on writing, WRITING FROM THE INSIDE OUT (John Wiley). You might also enjoy my collection of mystery short stories, called FROM CRIME TO CRIME (Tallfellow Books). While not exactly cozies, the stories are mostly what are termed “armchair mysteries,” and are safe for readers from 7 to 97. For darker mysteries, may I suggest you check out my Daniel Rinaldi series of crime thrillers. All from Poisoned Pen Press.
Anyway, thanks again for the mention.
Anne, I enjoyed your article even though I don’t write cozy mysteries. Funny thing though is that your chapter outline resembles maybe the first four chapters of my novel which is women’s fiction. Maybe I need to switch genres.