Month: September 2019

Writing

The Writer as Juggler

carolyncordon

Today was not the day for being a novelist, not during the day, anyway. I was the Editor of a community Newsletter, rather than being a Poet, or the writer of a Cozy Mystery book series …

This is how things go, sometimes, we all have certain responsibilities and we prioritise things, and do the best we can with all of the things we need to do … It’s a frustration, but at least I’m in the fortunate position of not needing to do a paid job, so I can arrange my life to suit myself, to a far larger degree than many other writers.

The newsletter needs to be ready to send off to be printed before the end of the week, for preference, the poetry is going to be less in focus for the time being, and the novel may happen if I don’t have access to the household’s PC (because my husband uses it too).

I did manage to write, or rewrite more like, around 500 words that are in the chapter breakdown I began yesterday or the day before, where I’ve been writing notes for chapters, or cut and pasting shorter pieces to their best spot in the novel I’m doing most of the work on. This will be book 2 ‘Kissing Cousins’.

I need another day to put in more novel work, I think, perhaps tomorrow morning dedicated to novel, and leave the newsletter until after lunch, when things I’ve requested to go in there, should have arrived.

It’s a busy writing life, and I love it, juggling from non fiction to fiction, newsletter to novel, and some poetry in there as well. And blogging and other Social Media too, of course. Not as much as that though, as sometimes. A bit of Twitter, and more Facebook than there should be …

It’s all going well though, and as I said, I love it!

Cozy Mystery, Writing

When Work is Huge Fun

carolyncordon

I spent almost all day yesterday, and into the night, working on various bits and pieces of my upcoming “Cozy Mystery” books. More words were added to the one I’ve written the most for, lots of work done on characterisations too, and more ideas for some of the titles already named.

This is so much fun, that even if I never ever actually get any of the ten plus books in the series planned, it’s still worth it. I can call it therapy, and revel in the amazing things my brain is doing, even with the damage my Chronic Illness (MS) may, or may not be doing to it.

I know more and more about the people in my stories, what they look like, what they fear, what their secret powers are, what their role is, and so on. As I learn more about my characters, more subplots pop up, for the various titles, and I’m working at putting relevant ‘bits and pieces’ in the correct story.

This is creative writing times twenty, putting together not one story, or one book, but a whole series of stories in books, and it feels like the best fun ever, as a writer. Creation of a town, its residents and writing about it in a new (to me as a writer) genre, and having fun doing it, what a life this is, wonderful!

I’ve found the thing I really feel I can go on doing for the rest of my life, and I’m loving it! My main character (Meredith Webster) is going to be my best friend, and my helper characters (Gert and Mister) and going to keep it all going! Murder in the small town of Talloola is going great, with Meredith there to find out Who Dunnit!

I created this town and these characters for the novel I’ve been writing (in bits and pieces) for a couple of years, but the Thriller genre wasn’t ‘thrilling’ me. But as soon as I changed it to the Cozy Mystery genre, Bang! It all started coming together beautifully well!

I’ve based my setting on one I know well, with the name and some details changed, to suit the story. Coming up with the various things, names, places, community details, these are the funnest thing, to change things at will, but always with an understanding of the real story, world building in small ways, creative fun for sure!

Uncategorized

My New Cozy Mystery Series – Some Bits & Pieces

carolyncordon
“Being the oldest biddy in a town of old biddies isn’t easy but she’s doing it with grace and good humour!” This is Gert,who is one of the characters in my current major writing work in progress, which will be a series of ‘Cozy Mystery’ books set in the town of Talloola.
 
I’m working on creating books with gentle murders and small town politics, as well as a bit of footy talk, and there will be dogs, some anyway, who may be useful to my amateur sleuth, Meredith.
 
I’m excited about the idea of writing these books, and have a lot of planning underway already, just a few days after thinking up this idea …
This series of books feels like what I’ve been building up towards writing, for many years. There have been some sideways steps, that could have been failed attempts at writing in other genres, but were in fact learning exercises, and helped me to realise what I really wanted to write!

I have a main character I want to be good friends with, a maybe love interest I’m a bit in love with myself (I’m far too old for him though and of course I’m married my main character, Meredith, isn’t though …), there’s dear old Gert, and a nasty (and possibly corrupt) mayor who tests every boundary there is, and always gets away with it. And there’s the trans hairdresser, Steph, at her business “Hair It Is” who hears many things in her little hairdresser shop (and who may have some hidden knowledge about the Mayor’s life from before he ever came to Talloola, and there are many, many more interesting Talloola-ites.

Meredith has a big love of dogs, and dogs always love here, it’s almost as though they can read each other’s minds … (or maybe they can read each other’s minds, in some weird way).
I’m loving writing this, so far I have titles for more than ten books, and have begun my writing, with more that 5000 words written of the first book, which will be the second book in the series. I also have a few hundred words of the first book in the series written, and some notes for other titles.
I’m excited about this, did I mention that?!
Cozy Mystery, meaning in life

From Poet to Writer of Cozy Mysteries?

carolyncordon

OK, so I’m relatively well known, in certain circles, as a poet, with two published poetry collections, and single poems published in various places, as well as a good many unpublished poems written. I like writing poetry!

I also have a first draft of a novel for children, that may never go anywhere, which is a little sad, I think, but not sad enough for me to actually do anything about it, not at the moment, anyway. I also have an unfinished novel, a thriller, that I have decided, just a few days ago, that will never ever be sent to a publisher, and I am not unhappy about that, not at all.

I love my main character (Meredith Webster) from that unfinished novel, and I love my other characters, and I absolutely adore the setting. I just don’t feel the ‘thriller’ genre is one that will work for me, it’s a little bit too much for me, getting the thriller aspects written. It isn’t a genre I’m drawn to as a reader, so the idea of doing it as a writer was probably not a great idea.

I do like murder mysteries though, to read. I started my serious reading life as an eleven or twelve year old lover of Agatha Christie’s cozy murder mysteries, but never thought of writing anything in that genre, until just the other day, when I had a brilliant thought. What about, I thought, I have Meredith, my main character in my thriller, as an amateur detective, solving murders that happen in her little town of Talloola? This feels to me like I have a new meaning in my life!

I did a little bit of study (ie, googled it) and discovered the name of the ideal genre for this, “Cozy Mystery”, and BANG! I had my answer on what to do with my failed wannabee Thriller, and all of the work I’ve already done with it. I have thousands of words written with my main character, other characters, and my setting, and if I can find ways to use them, I won’t have been wasting my time, I’ve simply been exploring my options.

So, at the beginning of this week, I began my proposed new career as a writer of Cozy Mysteries! I’ve got a list of over ten books, with ideas for most of them, and the order of publication organised for the first few books already. I’ve even begun writing the first two books, have planned how many words there will be for each book, how many chapters and how many words in each chapter. This feels like it’s going to work, and I’m excited!

I’ve been an avid reader of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series of books, and I’m looking forward to becoming known as Carolyn Cordon, with my series of Meredith Webster books, set in the fictional town of Talloola in the mid north region of South Australia. If this sounds exciting to you, it feels a gazillion times more exciting to me!

I love doing this writing, it flows along easily, and I am so much enjoying my writing of this. I loved doing the little pieces I’ve been doing at my weekly writing group, my friends there were always interested to hear what I was writing using the prompts given at the group, that I would write about, thinking on how they could relate to my thriller main character, and others in that unfinished book.

So now I can think about possible cozy mystery ideas and Meredith from now on, and it will be an easy way to get bits of writing done, with stories fleshed out, and new ideas played with. I’ve change the point of view too – the thriller was in Third Person POV, the cozy thrillers are in First Person POV. I’m very much enjoying pretending I’m an amateur sleuth!

dog pet cute
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Some of Meredith is like me, some isn’t, but she’s someone I can imagine being friends with. We both love dogs, although she’s never actually had one of her own. She has  special way with them though, and that is an asset in her mystery solving, at times. It also means she has someone to talk through her ideas with, which means the reader, as well as the dog currently with her, can follow her thought processes too, as she works on finding out who done it!

New Ideas, Writing

A Writerly Confession

carolyncordon

This is  little bit embarrassing, but I have a confession to make. I have been writing a book, a thriller in fact, for a long time. A very long time. I think about my main character sometimes, and especially when I’m at my weekly writing group, where I usually use the writing exercise prompt, to write some more of my novel.

I have many of these little snippets of my novel in (not much) progress, each snippet anywhere between 200 to 1000 words or more. If I gathered up all of the snippets, I might in fact have enough words to make a novel, in word count, anyway. But mere words do not a novel make. You need a coherent plot for that.

I have a kind of a coherent plot, I know what is happening, so some extent, and I have an idea of how it is all going to go. I have characters I love, and I have a snippet (or maybe more) of a love interest. I’ve written bits about the main character chatting to the love interest character, and I have little bits about other characters, including the bad guy.

This novel in progress is a thriller, did I mention that? Anyway, I have a bad guy, I have secondary bad characters, I have an interesting surprise person from the main character’s younger years, I have a wise older character, and a flamboyant and lovely transvestite.

So I have all of this stuff, but what I don’t have is the will to get on and get a thriller written – I have a plot idea, with the mayor being a bad person, doing terrible things, but I’m not feeling the passion for writing that story, because I know that a good thriller has many words, and I don’t feel like writing one story with all of the necessary words. I have ideas for dead bodies, though, and other interesting ideas (I think they’re interesting, anyway).

Now though, I’m thinking about and have done a tiny bit of looking into the idea of writing cozy mysteries, rather than thrillers. Cozy mystery sounds twee and sweet, doesn’t it? I have fond memories of reading many of Agatha Christie’s books and gee, I wonder if I could get into writing them?

It seems these kinds of books have become bigger these days, and while Ms Christie may have gotten away with a mere 40,000 to 60,000 words, publishers these days are looking for at least 65,000 to 90,000 words … So much for an easy little few months to write my mystery … Ah well, given that I already have a setting, and characters, as well as some ideas, and interest in the project, who knows.

From further investigation, it seems a Thriller Mystery could/should be in the 70,000 to 90,000 word range … So lots of words, but hey, I’m a writer, so I love words, yes? Yes, in moderation, that’s true. A further thought, as I sit here typing, bearing in mind that my m main character is a youngish, but not too young woman with a career, I could think about a genre cross Chick Lit/Mystery novel or series of novels.

The idea of having a series of books with my main character/setting I already know much about, is certainly appealing to me. I’ve been writing about this person and this place for I don’t know how long really, five to six years? maybe longer, not sure. It’s funny, I am using a different bag than usual today, and I found yet another snippet about young Meredith, and the town of Talloola, where all of my action takes place!

So, there’s my confession, I am going to abandon my book because of lack of interest. But my interest in the people in the book, and the town it’s set in are certainly still very strong, so that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on them. So don’t worry Meredith, there will still be much more action to happen for you! You and young Travis, who I’m very fond of too! And who wouldn’t be fond of a dark haired, blue eyed, very buff man, who knows how to keep his favourite lady happy!