Learn How to Write a Cozy Mystery
If you want to make crime pay, why not plot and write a series of cozy mysteries?
Sales have increased in leaps and bounds since the 90s and fans of the genre are always avidly on the lookout for new writers.
Mysteries are cozy when they feature amateur detectives who solve the crime.
Think Agatha Christie and you find the genteel Miss Marple knitting her way through murders in tranquil English villages and the peculiarly foreign Hercule Poirot who is totally averse to country life.
He uses his little grey cells to unmask criminals and nasty murderers mainly in more exotic locations.
Devise a Detective with a Difference
An intriguing amateur with a compulsion to solve crime is a must.
Finding a new angle for your sleuth is also a must.
Alison Golden’s lady vicar, Annabele Dixon, has a penchant for cupcakes as well as a determination to solve mysteries.
The 21st century sleuth is often a female entrepreneur, has interests in needlework, patchwork, herbs, gardening—you get the picture.
Scroll through the lists of cozies on Amazon, note the variations–animal detectives, human, or even paranormal if you go in for cross genres.
Give your brain time to mull over possibilities before settling on an obvious clone of another author’s creation.
Crime is Crucial
In the cozy mystery, the murder takes place off stage.
The reader is not given the chance to see it happening.
It is always a fait accompli.
In addition the corpse is often someone whom the reader has not yet had the chance to get to know or even like.
What we need here is an unusual method and/or location for disposing of the body.
Poirot solves a Murder on the Links.
Miss Marple is involved in a Murder at the Vicarage, and at Bertram’s Hotel.
She even investigates a Body in the Library.
Cast of Characters
Not for nothing do the mystery authors of the 30s insert a list of characters that reads like a Who’s Who at the start of their books.
These include highly placed figures from the church, the military, the nobility.
Ohm and a pair of star-crossed lovers.
Today‘s reader might expect a pop idol or two, theatrical or film celebrities, politicians at a crisis in their career.
We are all fascinated by the great and good (or not-so-good.)
Reviews Rev Up Your Writing
Read the reviews.
Why do readers dislike particular characters?
What do they find disappointing about plots?
Take note of criticisms and try to avoid the most obvious flaws.
If people have taken the time to write valid reviews, see what stops them finishing a book or reading another by the same author.
You may love your heroine but will she appeal to your readers?
Let’s Get Planning
Are you a people person?
Do you prefer the puzzling out of plot?
Don’t settle for your first answer for everything.
Some authors suggest writing out up to twenty possibilities before choosing.
I don’t, but then I do a lot of rewriting and reworking as my characters develop in unexpected directions.
I start with my characters–and the most important one for me is my sleuth.
What makes her different?
What is her particular hobby/interest that affects the outcome of the case?
The sleuth in my present series is a woman about to enter the fab forties.
What has she done to be entangled in a threatening murder case?
Why is it vital for her to solve it ahead of the police?
Who is the body and where will it be found?
Then add your cast of characters.
What is the secret in their past?
All your characters will have a secret that leaves them open to suspicion.
They will all be investigated, suspected and discarded in turn.
Around five should be enough to spread the blame around.
Will you have a real police presence as well as your amateur sleuth?
Will he/she be a sympathetic or brusque no-nonsense presence?
What is your crime? Why would it be different?
Don’t choose your first answer.
Yes, I said that before.
I mean it.
Thinking time now will save you hours of writing time later.
I say this with the sad voice of experience.
If you love planning, you can create strong, detailed outlines.
If not, these questions give you a starter framework ready to begin writing with me next time.
Oops…I haven’t mentioned the villain.
This is not an oversight.
Find out why when we timetable the chapters and start to write a cozy mystery in part 2 of How to Write a Cozy Mystery.
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.
She 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 love reading cozy mysteries and hope to write one one day. So thank you for the article.
I enjoyed the article! I just decided to start writing cozy mysteries and I find this information enlightening (as well as a little serendipitous). Thanks again for sharing!
Thank you, Anne. I enjoy reading cozy mysteries and have tried my hand at a few. Your article was helpful and I’m ready to try one for real.
Thank you Susie. You’ve given me food for thought here too.
Thank you so much Jo, Sheila and Alicia. And let me know about your cozy mystery achievements and /or problems on the writing journey. If you want to know anything specifically, you can contact me through the comments or the Working Writer’s Club on FaceBook 🙂
Another quick reminder–if you’re considering a series, keep a record sheet for all your main characters so that they stay consistent book after book.
Thanks, Anne, for a very informative article.
While cozy mysteries is not my genre, actually far from it, I found your last section, Let’s Get Planning, quite interesting.
Many of your thoughts there will serve well to challenge my thinking as I write.
After all, whatever we write, we want to invite our readers into the story.
I will look forward to reading more.
Susie
http://www.susiekinslowadams.com