Tag: research

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as a poet, with two published poetry collections, and single poems published in various places, as well as a good many unpublished poems written.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
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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 hasĀ  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!

Writing

As A Writer, I …

carolyncordon

In my blog post before last, I wrote about the idea that what writers are simply people who write. Whatever genre or form they write in, if they write, then they are writers. I’ve been doing some research this morning (by research I mean – wandering around the internet). What this ‘research’ has made me think, or realise, is that people are strange, and they are normal, and they are wrong, and they are right, and that I am all of those things too.

access app application apps
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I read a Facebook post, a random one, where someone posted a comment telling she had breast-fed her two children for twenty months each, and by her calculations, she had produced a particular number of litres of breast milk. This statistic seemed weird for a number of reasons, but there were other people on that Facebook page who didn’t seem to think what she’d written was odd.

So that got me thinking – if they didn’t think it odd, what right did I have to think it was? And then that got me thinking, hmm, I could write something about that, because I’m a writer, and having things to write about is one of the things I am always looking for. And that led me to the heading for this particular blog post “As A Writer …”.

Because as a writer, I sometimes do things that most other people may never think about doing. I look at things quite deeply, sometimes, with no other aim but to know more about it, and how it may affect an invisible person or thing that is in my head, ie a story character I have.

And as a writer I actively don’t want a full time job, because that would completely take away too much potential writing time. I know there are some writers who have full time jobs, people are different, I know that. And as a writer, I am thrilled that people are different, because that means I can make my characters do all kinds of different things, sometimes things I’ve never done, but want to know more about.

As a writer, it can be my job to find out about such things, find out for my characters, and for the story, or for an article or a blog post. That breast feeding mother I mentioned before had a job title that completely surprised me, and as a writer, I will probably look further into that job, and what it entails, well, I might do that anyway.

As a writer though, I may find some other eye-catching job title, and research that one instead. I have a novel I’m working on at the moment, and I can’t see how that snippet of information would fit in, so I may just leave it and follow up if it ever feels relevant. As a writer, I can wander the world, online, or for real, and I could be working as I travel. As a writer, I am always working, potentially, even if it looks like I am being a tourist.

I’ve been reading about Stoicism lately, and as a writer, I am finding many worthwhile ideas there, especially the ideas about having meaning and purpose in life, beyond the day to day things. The Stoics believe in wisdom, ethics, having courage, justice, and temperance. I feel these things are the best way to go personally, if I am to be the best person I can be.

As a writer, I feel that part of my task with my writing is to teach, to interest, and to inspire my readers. I may not write directions on how to be a better person (although some of what I write may help there), what I am doing, or aiming to do with my writing is to open up hearts and minds, to the millions of ways to be, and ideas for leading a better, or more worthwhile life.

So really, the point of this blog post is to reinforce the idea that if you are, or want to be a writer, the world the there waiting for you, so pick up your pen, or your keyboard, and, as a writer, do your thing!