Tag: Writing

Cozy Mystery, Story Ideas

Being Cozy with Writing Cozy Mysteries

carolyncordon

I have to admit that my recent injury and hospital stay, followed by recovery at home, has slowed down the writing of my next writing project, a Cozy Mystery series. But with action on the fractured ankle front happening tomorrow, with more to follow the next day, I’m back to being interested in this project.

If you don’t know what a Cozy Mystery novel is, this website has lots of information to tell you about it. You could also take a look at thisĀ earlier blog post of mine on the subject, and continue reading this post.

Today I have taken a look back at my files on my laptop, where I have written some early notes for some possible books in my proposed series, as well as thinking harder about the first couple of books, what has to happen, and whether and what still needs to happen, to make it ALL happen!

A series of books, each having 28 chapters, is a big thing, but I feel that if I can get the first two written, and written well, it can happen the way I want it too. Cozy mysteries feel right to me, while the thriller I was going to be writing didn’t sit so easily in who I consider myself to be. If I’m going to be killing people, I don’t want to see the the blood and guts!

At the moment, I thinking about Who I’m going to kill off first, and How I’m going to do it. And Why of course … If I’m going to begin murdering certain townsfolk of the town of Talloola, there had better be a good enough reason for it to happen! Talloola only has around 500 people living in and around it, and while I’m sure some out-of-towners will be victims, some residents may have to go too.

I plan to write at least twelve to fifteen of these books in the series, if it works out, so I’d better hope Talloola can get a good tourism industry going, or maybe some industry, so the numbers of people there won’t ‘drop off’ too much!

Given my recent injury (I fractured my right ankle on Grand Final day), I had an idea that one of the football players, might also suffer from a fractured ankle too. After all the experts say you should write what you know, and I know know quite a bit more about having a broken ankle now, that’s for sure.

I really do feel like this is the correct writing genre for me, and I’m excited about making it happen! The writing, of course is the hard part, but I’ve enjoyed doing the actual writing of it so far, and have over 8000 words written on on book. There’s still quite a few more words to go, but it feels good to write it, so it’s a blessing, not a trial. I hope tomorrow a good few more word will come to being!

If you know anything about the Cozy Mystery genre, I’d love a few hints and tips! Many thanks, and goodbye.

 

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 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!

inspiration, Writing

Looking for Something …

carolyncordon

When a writer is in between projects, or has let one thing rest, and is working towards thinking about it again, and deciding what might do next, they may be looking for the inspirational thing that will pump up the volume, and get them going hard again on their writing. They may look like they’re not doing anything at all, but deep inside their head, there could be mighty ‘thinks’ going on, unknown to the rest of the world, and unknown even to them.

analysis blackboard board bubble
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It can be a time of ‘fluffing around’, doing little bits of writing, bigger bits of totally non writing things. Gazing at clouds and trees and birds may occur. The dog could be let outside, and let back in again, with resultant non-literary work a welcome step aside back to the ‘ordinary’ world.

Then a thought may come, and another, and suddenly that half-written novel or poetry collection springs back into life and the words may flow as strongly as a flooding river! That time can be a glorious one of inspiration, and words, all flowing together in beautiful ways!

If you have ever been in this wonderful time of “flow”, you will understand, if you haven’t been there yet, if you keep on writing, it is sure to happen at some stage, perhaps when you are able to give uninterrupted time to your writing. Sometimes, afterwards, it might feel like the words were written by another person, but take joy in it all, these may be the finest words you have ever managed to write!

Or there may be some bits of dross, stuff that doesn’t make sense to you, but keep on with what you’re doing, it might all come together at a later time. Look for any gems of inspiration, and who knows, it may be that what you wrote is actually a quite different style, that might take time to come to terms with.

If you’ve been writing poetry, perhaps your brain decided to write a novel when you weren’t paying attention, in that state of flow. Look at your work, your words, and prepare to keep an open mind about what you’ve done! 20190618_142947

I find Nature inspirational, the trees, the blue sky and the clouds, lovely!

 

Writing is a strange thing to do, a solitary thing, working alone, as you prepare something you’d like to share with multitudes! So keep an open mind, as I said, and always be prepared to trust your writer’s brain, when things really take off, you never know where you might end up. Sometimes a writing prompt can work like this, you’re given something random to write about, and Bang!, something beautiful happens with your words!

This is what inspiration is, you can’t guarantee it will come, but you should make the most of it when and if it does! If you have a story of a time you were inspired, I’d love to read about it, leave a comment here, and tell us about it!

poetry

Multiple Copies are Great!

carolyncordon
I had an accident today, and deleted all of the poems in the file n my laptop that is my poetry collection that I want to send off to a publisher soon. My intention is to have some other people read the collection, and give me feedback. If I couldn’t get give them the poems, they wouldn’t be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to send it to a publisher, either.
Ā 
I nearly freaked out, but I took a deep breath, got myself a calming (?) coffee and searched my laptop, for help. I found some of the relevant poems in emails I’d sent to myself, and that worked for finding some of them, and then, hooray, I found another copy of the file, on my laptop, an earlier one I’d emailed to our PC, to make a photocopy,Ā  that had almost all of the poems in it, phew!
When I say ‘I nearly freaked out’ it isn’t true, really. I did take a big breath, and get that coffee, but I would have looked calm to anyone present. I methodically considered my options, and worked away and cutting and pasting, taking poems from various places, and putting them in a new file.
Did my work with looking at Stoicism help me with this? Hmm, I think it may have. I felt quite calm, once the initial ‘oh no!’ feelings calmed down. Once I was sitting again, coffee and laptop present, I worked at it all afternoon, and got it done. I went outside, let the dog out and back in, and she and I both had lunch, but I did a good afternoon of work on it.
IMAG0306
Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā Missy slept through most of it, she’s calm like that, most of the time!
It was an interesting chance to look at these poems again too. I did some editing, making several of the poems better, and I added two new poems, and took out two other poems that I felt were too weak. So this ‘disaster’ was actually a good thing after all. I will remember that, and keep calm and work methodically if I ever need to work like this again!
This laptop is still new to me, and I’m very much in the learner stage with it. Using the home PC is easier for me, but of course, I can’t take my PC with me anywhere, and I can’t sit on the sofa with the PC comfortably on my lap!
So now that I have the poetry collection put together in the one file on my lap top, and the other copy there too, marked as Do not delete, it should all be fine. I’ll send that document to the PC tomorrow, and then hand that hard copy on for the review of others.
I’m so glad I found those versions, that’s for sure. And I think this collection is looking far more publishable than my most recent one, that was rejected. When I looked at it again, once I was over the hurrumphing angst of rejection, I could see that it was a bit of a mess, with little to say. Some of the poems were ok, but that isn’t enough, just some …
In this new collection, all of the poems have interesting things to say, and they blend together in good ways, in my opinion. I hope my readers will back up my thoughts on that, and if they don’t, that they will be able to give me pointers about where any failings are.
Giving a poetry collection to others feels like giving your newborn to a stranger, in some ways, but of course, that is something that all writers have to do, if they want to have their words read. And only a strange kind of writer wouldn’t want to be read by others, surely?
What do you think? About having readers before sending off to a publisher, and about how it feels to let your ‘babies’ go? Please leave a comment, if you have something to say about this!
poetry, writing exercise

A Small Workshop

carolyncordon

I’m a writer, and like many other writers, I find a variety of ways to go, as a writer, beyond just writing books. I write poems, I write articles and blog posts, such as this one, and I also do writing workshops, sometimes paid ones, other times just for a community group perhaps.

This workshop is one I am going to be presenting at a group that meets regularly in Gawler, a town I spend a lot of time in, even though I don’t live there. Many of my friends live in Gawler, and my writing group meets every week, in a lovely, historic hotel in Gawler.

This workshop is happening at a community centre, not a hotel, but that’s still a good thing. Anyway, this is the Workshop, take a look and give it a go. Feel free to ask any questions you have about it, in the comments section.

 

Workshop –Ā Loved Little Things

Writing simple little poems can be easy, if you scale back what you want to write, and just stick to closely watching one small aspect of something you love, or love doing. It may be a hobby, for instance knitting, and you could write about a favourite item of clothing youā€™ve knitted in your past.

Or it could be cooking, and you choose cake making as your topic, and perhaps write a poem about a kind of cake you like to make. I used to enjoy making muffins, and I’ve written about vegetable muffins in the past, I think. I was very ‘into’ vegetables, in a former line of volunteer work – I was a Community Foodie, teaching people about healthy eating, and cooking.

Nature is one of my favourite things to write poems about, and the poem Iā€™ve got on my notes here today is about a little part of Nature, the ant. I used rhythm and rhyme in my poem, but that isnā€™t necessary, itā€™s up to you to choose your poetic style. Or if youā€™re not in a poetic mood today, any form of writing will be fine,

You might write a small note about your small thing, or perhaps write a letter to it, or about it. Any kind of writing will be fine. So take that small part of the thing you love, and insert yourself, and your thoughts and wondering into the piece of writing. Think about how you relate to, or gain joy from, your loved thing, and write about that.

This little poem was one I wrote last year, think it was, after seeing a line of ants on our front veranda, and then over the course of a few days, realising there was always a line of ants in exactly the same spot. I thought it was an interesting little thing. I am a poet, and as a poet, I find myself looking, seeing, and finding many little bits of not much, that can broaden out, and become something – a poem.

Make your small piece your own, make it quirky, make it cute, make it something you’re proud of, or something that makes you small to yourself. Just write it!

 

macro photo of five orange ants
Photo by Poranimm Athithawatthee on Pexels.com

Ant March

 

Ants are marching, tramp, tramp, tramp

Ants are busy, gathering food

Ants are climbing, up that ramp

Ants in an adventurous mood

 

Ants on the veranda, ants on the lawn

Ants are spreading all around

Ants near that sheep that’s just been shorn

Ants up a tree, ants on the ground

 

What are they up to, those little ants

Will they bite if they get the chance?

I’m going to keep myself well away,

We’ll meet up again, on another day!

 

My poem is a rhyming poem, with the first two verses using this rhyming scheme: abab, cdcd, with final verse eeff
Can you see what I mean there with the term ‘rhyming scheme’? The letters refer to the rhyming final word in each line, ‘a’ is the words tram and ramp, ‘b’ is the words food and mood. and so on. I hope that makes sense for you. And I hope you get some nice small poems about ‘Loved Little Things’!

 

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Cordon, writer, poet, blogger, newsletter editor