Category: Cozy Mystery

Cozy Mystery, Public Speaker, writing prompts

A Day Late, But Here’s the Writing Prompt

carolyncordon

Yesterday was ‘one of those days’ and I didn’t get around to doing much at all regarding my blogging life … I did get some more of my current work in progress though, so I’m happy with that. I’m hoping I may be able to find a way to sneak this writing prompt I’m going to put up here, into my Cosy Murder Mystery, “Winds of Death at Talloola”, which is that current work in progress.

So here is the prompt, do with it what you will! What on earth was that?

So, I’m sure there’s a lot I could do with that writing prompt, given my current work in progress is a Cosy Murder Mystery … Things that go Bang! in the night anyone? My main character (Meredith) is at the moment beginning to wonder about the large number of deaths in her new little town, that she is beginning to call home, and falling in love with. But the local copper doesn’t like her, and doesn’t like her friend, Gert …

But Meredith is also friends with Mister, the dog who lives next door, and she’s going to use him as a warning system, in part, because she and Mister (and other dogs too, it seems), have some kind of an understanding … If Mister doesn’t like someone, Meredith will know to watch out for them too. And Mister is going to show Meredith that her initial distrust of this police officer was wisdom indeed …

This is Mister, a red kelpie something cross, former sheepdog, now, lounger around on the grass, and a fine judge of character in people, helping Meredith to stay safe …

Mister may look a little grizzled (or quite so, actually), but he, like Gert, still has all of his marbles, even though some around town may doubt that. If Mister doesn’t like you, you’re probably not a nice person, not at all.

So in my novel, perhaps Mister is going to help Meredith when there’s a big Bang in the night, and she goes out of her front door to see what caused the sound … I haven’t written any of that yet, but the prompt was there, and it seems like it will fit in well, for my story …

That is the thing about writing prompts, the best ones will have a connection with what is already in your head, or written down, and will, ideally, prompt lots of other useful ideas too. I sure hope this is going to help me to get lots more words written down. Writing a Cosy Murder Mystery series, as I am, seems like a grand idea, and with luck, bit by bit, I will eventually get to ‘The End’, and ‘Winds of Death’, book one in my “At Tallola” Cosy Murder Mystery series will be done. And then book two will be my obsession, as well as getting book one published, of course …

Cozy Mystery, Uncategorized

Cozy Murder Mystery Writing Day Today

carolyncordon

As the headline reads, I hope to get some more of my Cozy Murder Mystery written today. It is Saturday today, so from after breakfast, to after lunchtime and after, until getting on to tea time, the house will be mine. Well, mine and Missy’s of course. If Missy the dog needs to go out, that’s my role …

I actually wrote a tiny bit more of this first Murder Mystery book yesterday, and a very cosy little piece it was too. My main character, and one dear old lady from their quaint little town were having a visit to the local hotel, for some lunch, and to discuss … Murder! I haven’t actually written about the murder, yet, but today, Gert may well make the suggestion about the possibility of it, or at least get Meredith thinking about it, anyway.

I’m enjoying writing this, and I really wish I would give more of my time to getting this first book in my series of Cosy Murder Mysteries written. I have this mystery series planned in advance, with book titles, and characters, both the main character, who will be the amateur sleuth who solves the crimes, to some possible bad people, and lots of possible helpers, or suspects throughout the series.

My main character, Meredith, is a newcomer to town, working at the council office, as the Towns Coordinator, a new role, that she took over from someone else, who left abruptly. Meredith doesn’t know why the job became available, she was just happy to get the two year role, and hopes it may continue on for longer.

So, I’ve written some of the second book in this series, and some of the first book. I am currently aiming at getting all of the first book written, and edited, before I do any more on the second book. Once that is done, I’ll get other people to read it and give me feedback. I have a few writer friends who will happily perform this task for me, and they are eagerly awaiting the completion of “Winds of Death at Talloola”! All I have to do is get on and finish writing it.

So, why am I fluffing around with this blog post, you may ask? Well, I am doing it to guilt myself into writing some every day, every morning, at least 200 more words in the first book. Two hundred words should be an easy half an hour or so of writing, and I should easily be able to manage that small amount of time, after breakfast, every day. Whether on my laptop, or on my phone, the same file is there, in the same format, with the same new words.

No excuses, it is today, after breakfast, and I have at least two hundred words to write! I’m planning on many more words that that today though, the house is mine, the time is mine, and I will gradually, as the pace of my thoughts and written words helps to dry out my clothes that were spattered by the hose nozzle that kept flying off as I completed my main ‘house/yard work’ task for the day, which was water the bonsai trees and others as needed.

That’s done, as evidenced by the water all over me, and now I’m wondering if that incident may have a role in this book, or one of the others to come … Everything that happens in life is possible fodder for their writing, for a keen writer!

That is all I’m saying, other than to say this – I have currently have 3,897 words in ‘Winds of Death at Talloola’ the first book of my “At Talloola” Cosy Murder Mystery series, and by the end of the day, I want to have many more than two hundred words added to that total! I will check back much later today, and give the running total in the comments!

Cozy Mystery, Writing

Life Experience

carolyncordon

Fiction writers write fiction, there’s no doubt about that. But that fiction it it’s going to be read and appreciated, has to contain some kind of ‘truth’. If you have a character who has a certain job, for instance, you, as the writer, has to know enough about that job to make it seem ‘real’.

So learning about things, gaining a broad range of different life experience, it seems to me, is an important thing for the writer to do. Having an open mind, seeing various different points of view on many matters, these are important things as well. Remaining open to what life is all about, this is a good way for a writer to be, in my opinion.

What do you think I was up to in this photo? I was getting ideas to write about!

In my fiction, I plan to be writing about a small town, and things that happen in that small town. One of the important places in the Talloola, the town, is, or at least used to be, the bowling club. The Talloola Bowling Club is now the Talloola Bocce Club, and there was a lot of small town politics that happened there.

Small towns have many stories, and I intend having fun with Talloola, exploring all of the incidents that go on, those small town political things … My main character, Meredith, is new in town, and she and I will be learning all about what makes a town like Talloola tick. Oh, and there will be murders …

Hmm, what happened here?

I’m writing in the genre of ‘Cosy Murder Mysteries’, so of course people will be killed, and the killers be brought to justice. Meredith will be the person to do that, assisted by her sidekicks, Gert (the oldest person in Talloola), Travis (the deputy mayor), and various dogs around town.

Meredith has a special connection with dogs, an eerie understanding and connection. Dogs know and trust Meredith, she knows and trust them. Dogs are great at helping to sniff out clues, dig for evidence, and bring down those who would runaway from justice!

Don’t worry, the cops are onto it! Or are they?

Writing these books will draw on my experiences gained in my almost 57 years, about small towns, and bowling clubs, dogs, and people, as well as a great many other things that happen in a well rounded and open minded life … I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this series of books – I have many titles and short descriptions written down, as well as around 10,000 words written.

I’ll need a lot more words than that though, so getting stuck into it will have to happen, if I’m to meet my goal of becoming known as the writing of excellent Cosy Murder Mysteries!

If you love this genre, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Cozy Mystery, New Ideas, poetry

Prioritising Your Writing Tasks

carolyncordon

OK, that mad but fabulous month of daily writing prompts is over now, so that means I’d better get stuck into doing some proper writing, I think. And in fact, today I’ve produced some more words to go into my most important work in progress, the first of my Cosy Murder Mysteries. Or is that actually the most important? Maybe the poetry collection is more important? Oh dear …

Actually, it isn’t an either or thing at all. The two different things are different genres of writing, and are both at very different stages of completion. One is almost ready to hand out for possible first reading, and feedback, the other is barely begun, and many, many months from having anything to give to others for a first read. I can work on both of these things, one in the morning, the other later in the day, perhaps.

Books, books and more books!

I have almost enough poems written for the poetry collection, because February was a full on prompt wriitng and responding to prompts month. I intend going through the list of prompts I posted on this blog every day in February, and I will write new poems, for any of the prompts I haven’t yet written anything in response to.

If I was asking others to respond to my prompts, I should put my money where my mouth is and respond too, shouldn’t I? Yes, I think so! And for anyone interested, this is the full list of my Fabulous February Writing Prompts. If you missed it last month, you can have a look, and use it as a resourse the next time you need a writing prompt!

My Fabulous February Writing Prompts
(one for every day of February 2020)

1st Rush

2nd Star

3rd Maybe I will, or maybe not …

4th Next

5th Never

6th After

7th Yesterday

8th Because

9th When the time is right …

10th Mine

11th Asleep

12th Trees

13th Superstition 

14th Some things I love … 

15th Knowing is one thing …

16th Senses

17th Could you ever?

18th Friendship

19th It’s getting closer! Are you ready?

20th Underneath

21st Philosophy, finding meaning for being

22nd Vision – looks can be deceiving

23rd Inklings – much in small hints, and intuition ? maybe  …

24th Reasonable action, beats thoughtless reaction

25th Lies

26th Open or shut

27th Worthy or worthless?

28th The American Sentence – read about it for this day –

29th Prove it!

So I thoroughly enjoyed February, with the fun of the prompts, but I’m going to get some real writing done in March, in both my Cosy Murder Mystery series – (the first book), and my next poetry collection. If I keep on with as much passion and effort for these two things, as I put into the Writing Prompts in February, there’s no telling, what I can achieve! Good things though, I’m sure about that.

And about the Cosy Murder Mystery series, I was listening earlier today to a webcast seminar thing, which indicated there was no point talking to an agent about a piece of fiction, a book, until you had written it, and tidied it up and made it as shiny and bright as you possibly could. That kind of put a dampener on my enthusiasm, but not for my book, but for the thing I was watching and listening to.

If I have to get the book written, I was wasting my valuable time, listening, and instead I actually wrote a bit more of that Cosy Murder Mystery book. This felt like exactly the correct way to spend my valuable time! So from now on, every morning after breakfast will have some time put toward one or the other of my book projects, and all will go well. That’s how it feels to me, anyway!

Do you have any thoughts about any of this? Feedback is always welcome, that way I don’t feel like I’m talking to no-one! I love receiving comments!

Cozy Mystery, writing exercise, writing prompts

What Comes Next?

carolyncordon

So February is over now. I no longer ‘have to’ post a new writing prompt on this writer blog of mine, and instead I will be actually writing some prose of my own, primarily. Sure, some poetry will be written, because I can’t help myself. I’m addicted to those stripped back words, I admit it!

I will be doing the weekly writing prompt thing that I’ve written about previously though, so new writing ideas will still be emanating from this blog, as well as other writing related things. It would be good if I can get a decent bit of my first Cosy Murder Mystery story written, so I can post an excerpt of it here … 

I learned a number of useful things in February, as I posted the daily writing prompts, and responded to them myself. I learned that having a daily program of writing, every single day, makes it a habit, and the writing simply comes along, because that’s what I now do after breakfast, every day.

I also learned that if you post every day, you definitely increase the number of readers you get to your blog! I sort of knew that, and now have the proof, right there in my blog stats. And I’m getting more likes, and a couple more people are writing a comment here and there, in response to what I’ve written, or the fact that I’ve written something.

Connections are always good, for writers! People interested in the written word, who like what you’ve written, great! And I’ve been expanding what I write, exploring things, doing new things, and that’s gone well too.

I’ve found also, that having prompts, leads to the feeling that what I will be writing has some kind of purpose, and so I put more of my attention into getting it right, as well as getting it written. 

And putting the word out about the writing prompts made it feel like it was something I had to do, so I kept it up, easily, it was just what I had to do in the morning, once I’d finished having my breakfast. Get up from the table, go to laptop, switch it on, and post the writing prompt. Done.

Yes, I’ve enjoyed this, but my next writing mission is to actually get a much larger prose piece written, an actual book, in fact a series of books. And once that first book in the series is written, time to get onto (or back onto) the second book in the series. And get feedback on the first book, edit in response to feedback, and then work at getting it published, another form of writing-related fun!

And then theres that new poetry collection … I have nearly seventy poems for it, I think, and I have a few of the prompts from February that didn’t end up with poems written, so I’ll have to get that all done. A job for later on today, I think. I have time for that right now, so I’ll get it done, right now.

I am going to post a new writing promt still, but it will be happening only once a week, probably on Monday, so this isn’t the end really, it’s the beginning of something easier, and less of a ‘burden’. Not that it was actually a burden to do these prompts, I enjoyed it. But my prose didn’t happen, when I want it to get going … Poetry/prose. Prose/poetry … I can do both, if I give myself the necessary time for both, which is why the once a week prompts are happening instead of daily ones. All good!