8 Clues About Writing a Cozy Mystery

Audra here.

As we continue filling in for Ruthy on hiatus, I chose this legacy post from June 8, 2017 on writing a Cozy Mystery. I hope you enjoy my choice and leave comments on Ruthy's views!!

THE BEST OF RUTHY presents:

8 Clues About Writing a Cozy Mystery

I had to change the title of this post... it started as "6" clues... and grew to "8", hence the flexibility of the world wide web... but 8 it is!

I will never write a mystery. (Ruth Logan Herne, 2008)

MY FIRST MYSTERY RELEASES SOON!!!!  (Ruth Logan Herne, 2017) 

2023 - Available at Guideposts

Grandma Eichas used to say "Never say never."

Sage words.

She'd also say "Better they cry now than you cry later."

More sage words, but that first saying "Never say never" has never been truer than it is today. 

I've written my first mystery and I'm halfway done with my second and I had no idea they would be THIS MUCH FUN!!!!

Huge thanks to Susan Downs of Guideposts for bringing me on board for this delightful series "Mysteries of Martha's Vineyard".  Yes, of course, I want you to go buy the book.... and yes I want you to love it. There are 8 authors in this series, 3 books each... and the heroine is a 58-year-old woman finding a new path after losing her husband.... And I have to believe you will love, love, love Priscilla Latham Grant and her cousins Joan, Trudy and Gail...  

But over and above all of that, lies this: writing a mystery isn't as difficult as I once believed... and it's so much fun that I'm amazed. So if you've ever considered this mode of story-telling, the very same thing that made Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Stuart and Daphne Du Maurier world-famous... it's this.

Let's break it down:

1. Sleuth (or sleuths): A mystery needs a problem solver. That's your sleuth. It can be a Jane Marple, a Hercule Poirot, (both Agatha Christie), Kinsey Millhone (The Alphabet Mysteries), Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich) or many, many others.  Your sleuth has to be relatable. They don't have to be perfect, or cunningly bright (Poirot and Monk and Columbo come to mind).... They don't have to be gorgeous ( Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) comes to mind, or Jane Marple or the second Mrs. DeWinter in DuMaurier's "Rebecca"...) and they don't have to be  all that likable (Monk, Holmes...) but they have to possess some form of puzzle-solving skill. That ability to put together thin pieces of facade to create a true ornate table-top puzzle.

2. Setting: Whether your mystery is set at 221b Baker Street, the Orient Express, a Midwestern town or a New England village, how you set the story(ies) is a part of your ongoing thread... and can affect each story in different ways. Setting is important in what it adds to the stories... but it is also flexible because CRIME HAPPENS EVERYWHERE!

3. Suspects: There is no mystery without suspects. While that seems obvious, it's important to figure out who those suspects will be, and give them parts throughout the story. Not everyone conveniently has all of the suspects and victims trapped in a house (And Then There Were None) Agatha Christie... So your suspects need to have a reason why they might fall under suspicion. In a "cozy mystery" they don't even have to be real bona fide suspects.... but they need to have a reason to be under a cloak of suspicion. What are they hiding? What do they know?

4. Clues!!!! Oh, this is the most fun yet! Sprinkling clues in and among the regular normal every-day conversations and observations to tempt the reader to wonder... was that a clue??? And if it looks too obvious, the answer might be no!!! Just like the many choices in Milton Bradley's "CLUE" game, there are obviously many options in a mystery... which ones lead to the final solution?

5. Red Herrings.... Here's the bend in the road that takes you down the wrong garden path, the wrong direction.... the assumption that proves it's wrong to assume! 

6. Gripping Opening Chapter... This could be graphic in a suspense or murder mystery (think openings of "Castle" before they ruined the show) and then off-set by humor and human interaction for the duration.... or in a cozy mystery, it's gripping but not necessarily scary or frightening... maybe thought-provoking or emotionally inciting/exciting.... 

7. Action-packed scene toward the end!!! All right, don't get your knickers in a twist... For a cozy, you don't want to go Jason Bourne-deep-end, floating body death scenes here.... but you want something to upset the comfort of the cozy mystery, to threaten the peace and love we find in small towns or island settings, of urban neighborhoods... Something needs to HAPPEN HERE.... and when it does, it might show part of the path or it might show the culprit/villain.... but it's not the end of the book. Because now you want a: 

8. Wrap Up.... After raising myself on a diet of Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Agatha Christie, Trixie Belden and Sue Barton.... I loved the wrap up, the reasoning behind how they figured things out!

Now your readers will be DELIGHTED if they figure this out toward the end and beat you to it! If they figure it out too early, they will Not Be Happy.... Yes, You've Ruined The Book For Them... Because part of the fun of a mystery is the puzzle solving.

The reader longs to pick out the clues and then follow them to a logical conclusion BEFORE THE SLEUTH figures it out!

Now sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't, and if it doesn't work because you didn't give clues... or you didn't lay the groundwork... well... Oops. Your bad!  Because sprinkling in a few hints along the way is our job.

Figuring them out is the reader's responsibility.

Here's my back cover blurb for book 9 of the series:  When a raging storm, a multi-million dollar robbery, a Hollywood movie and a missing child stir up interest in a cold case, Priscilla must risk her friendships and her reputation in order to reveal what really happened to little Katie Farnsworth the night Hurricane Bob slammed into Martha’s Vineyard nearly thirty years ago.

Nothing hits home like the loss of a child, so the poignancy of this story has classic Ruthy depth... wrapped in a cozy mystery package. And I think you'll love it! 

What do you think about mysteries? Have you considered writing them? How is a mystery different from a suspense?

Well, in a suspense, someone is AFTER THE SLEUTH.... or the heroine, or the hero.... Someone generally wants them dead. 

In a mystery, the sleuth may feel threatened.... but the sleuth is after the perpetrator, following clues and deducting theories.

Not a subtle difference... a major difference. 

Think Castle vs. The Bourne Identity.

Castle bumbled his way through, case by case...

Jason Bourne was a human killing machine, misunderstood and programmed to be heartless... except they forgot one thing. They left his heart in his body, and the heart never truly forgets.,

Let's talk mysteries... your favorites and your hopes and dreams!

I've got a couple of other mystery authors coming by this summer for a Summer Series of Mysteries... feel free to consider this Installment #1!

LINK TO BUY BOOK HERE!!!!

Best of Ruthy: BACK TO BASICS: Editing to Match the Story

 

  As we continue filling in for Ruthy on hiatus, I chose this post on editing. I hope you'll find something useful here today. Join in and let us know your most useful tips for editing!

 

BACK TO BASICS: Editing to Match the Story

This is the kind of post we can all use at times.

Few authors pen a masterpiece.

Fewer yet pen a masterpiece with no need of edits.

But when you're a new writer, the questions of what to edit, how to edit and when to edit are totally legitimate. Because you don't know what you don't know.

So let's start with my way (which I stole from Margaret Daley because it made sense to me and she's a prolific author of great stories... and she worked full time for decades while writing, and I like that kind of tenacity.)

1. Start your story. Write a few chapters. Describe your characters, get to know them, figure them out. Get to a grabs-your-attention spot now that you know your hero/heroine/protagonists and/or antagonists...

And begin there. 

Yes, you heard me. Set aside those initial getting-to-know you chapters and drop your reader into the action. I know, it's not how you learned it in grammar school with Miss Brown, but trust me, guys and gals: Miss Brown won't be seeing this and you want that editor hooked, hooked, hooked. (That's if you're aiming for traditional publishing. If you're going indie, it is just as important to hook the reader the same way. If you don't, they can click out of your book in a heartbeat and be reading someone else's story... edits matter. Do not sell readers short... they don't like that and they will let you know it.)

So now you know where your story starts. You've gotten to know your characters. I'm a "Pantser", I do minimal prep for my story because I'd rather see it come alive daily, so I'm going to talk from that perspective, but friends, EDITS ARE EDITS.

They are needed.

Necessary.

And like chocolate ice cream, they are good for you because you need to learn/see/spot your own weaknesses.

2. Do you mess up timelines? 

Do a chart that tells when important things take place for backstory or historical segment for easy reference. Keep it open as you work.

3. Do you overuse body parts? I saw a reader complaining about so many "He sucked a breath through grated teeth" or something like that. 

Oft-used phrases become annoying in genre reading, mostly because they fit and they're easy.

But there is a problem with expression vs. simple expression and it's kind of like a really good dance... change the tempo, change the moves, change the angles, change the rhythm... and end on a good note! 

FINAL DANCE SCENE FROM DIRTY DANCING!!!!!!!!! SWOON! 

Those closing scenes, from black moment on, carried your emotions on a roller coaster ride of why nots and what ifs, and that's what great edits can do: They take your reader on that ride because that's what a great story does... (having just returned from an amusement park and roller coasters, I can attest to this!)

Expression vs. simple expression is often about timing. If you overuse either maneuver it sounds unnatural so I pick and choose where I'm going over-the-top with descriptors. And I often do that in dialogue because old ladies and young children often talk that way. Here's an example:

The sun set.

She didn't move. Didn't sigh. Didn't let one tear fall onto the over-washed farm shirt she'd been wearing all day.

It was over.

She knew it. Understood it. Had expected it, even, but now--

Reality had taken it's shot and struck out like Casey at the bat and she was left to pick up the pieces. Again.

Ruthy explanation: The setting of that scene makes the scant description come alive in the reader's mind. The starkness offers the picture without me using too many words. 

Here's a different sunset scene:

Layered brilliance lit the western sky with shocking tones of gold, peach, orange, pink and red bordered by a thin splash of green. So thin she almost didn't see it.

The green hugged the horizon like a summer stole before the brighter tones overtook its subtle grace, shrouding it from view. Or maybe they didn't blanket the green. Maybe the power of their glorious salute to day's end sucked it up like a sponge seeking water. Stone-gray wisps filtered eastward, like sashes on a little girl's dress. 

She didn't live for sunsets, but the woods surrounding her tiny home were thick enough to make them a rarity, so today's fiery show drew her in. She could live here if she made that choice. Here with the beauty, the opulence, the gorgeous home, the stately cliffs reaching down, down, down to the sandy beaches below. Here where her heart resided with his. With him. How she wished it were an option.

It wasn't. She knew that.

He didn't.

But as the warm glows of the sinking sun faded to obscure shadows of what had just been, her hopes sank with them. Not her resolve.

She knew her duty. Knew where she had to be.

Now she had to tell him. Tell Carrick. Make him understand. 

He wouldn't. Couldn't. He believed that love conquered all and what he couldn't conquer with love, he'd conquer with might and he'd proven that, time and again but this time...

She stood and brushed grains of sand from the folds of chiffon.

This time she had to face the demons of the past alone and she'd do it because she'd either succeed--

Or die, trying.

And she was okay with either scenario.

Edits aren't just about changing words, slicing and dicing, and strengthening your story's arc. Sometimes they're about making the scene fit the story, the moment, the emotion. If you mess with the emotion of the moment, the scene or the story by giving the readers too much or not enough, it feels wrong, and that's what your edits need to avoid: You don't want your story to feel "wrong"... 

I liken great storytelling to beats of music. When the music works for me it's because the tune and the lyrics and the harmony all feed the moment, making it come alive.

Zach Williams and Dolly Parton's duet on "There Was Jesus" is a perfect example of that... The fact that you can see their breath in the cold barn only adds to the pathos of the song.

There Was Jesus official video here...

As is her partnership with For King and Country on "God Only Knows" that added a layer of absolute pathos to a song that was already wonderful, lifting it to beyond wonderful status.

God Only Knows video with For King and Country and Dolly Parton here...

The two compilations have inspired a new series in my head, a beautiful series of second chances, rough times, bad choices and absolute deliverance, the kind only God can give because humans are so very narrow. 

When you edit, bleed emotion. Choose words with care, not abandon. And don't be afraid to do it again and again because getting it right isn't just your responsibility... it's your duty to the beauty of story.

Somewhat bossy and always opinionated, award-winning and bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne has over 60 novels and novellas in print with over 2,000,000 in sales so she's pretty sure she's smart but equally sure that she doesn't know everything about publishing and/or writing so that's why she loves chatting it up with aspiring authors and industry pros over here in Seekerville. Friend Ruthy on Facebook, visit her website ruthloganherne.com and email her at loganherne@gmail.com (where yes, she actually reads and answers her own email.... happily!) 

Best of Ruthy: BACK TO BASICS: The Synopsis

Family, farm and writing responsibilities are taking a chunk of Ruthy's time for the 2023 calendar year so instead of kicking her to the curb... which we were so very tempted to do... we're tucking in a "Best of Ruthy" post in her spot each month because you know she can be bossy with or without being here. She's not sick... not dying... just juggling like we all do and so grateful to the gals for stepping in to give her this bit of space. And she made us say that part about kicking her to the curb.  

 

BACK TO BASICS: The Synopsis

 The Seekers are thrilled to see so many new aspiring authors stopping by, chatting about their work and emailing us with questions. They've also requested some guidance on things, so we're going to be offering some BACK TO BASICS posts that help new authors, but can also help those authors on the brink of traditional publication because it's a very competitive business. Anything that gives you the needed polish on your work is a wonderful thing! So below, here's a fresh new look at how to write a synopsis:


I don't know anyone who loves writing a synopsis.
There's a reason for this.

Creative writers tend to abhor technical writing. It's not our groove, our wheelhouse, our thing. So when a proposal requires a synopsis, our palms sweat. Heart rate ramps up. And suddenly the refrigerator needs cleaning, the dog needs walking, and surely the car needs washing. Doesn't it?

We'll do pretty much anything to avoid the synopsis, so today, in the midst of turbulent times, let's do a back-to-basics post about something we may dread but are required to have as part of our arsenal.

What is a synopsis?

It's basically a summation of the story. It must include all pertinent points that the author knows about the story.

How do you start a synopsis?

This may vary from author to author. Here are the opening paragraphs of my synopsis for "A Hopeful Harvest" my January Love Inspired release. Note that I started it with a mini-summation of why this story will work between these protagonists, and absolutely why it shouldn't work. This draws the editor's interest if the plot idea works, and that's your first goal is to draw the editor's or agent's interest.
RUTHY'S OPENING PARAGRAPHS:

Jax McClaren excels at helping people while keeping his distance, but when he stumbles onto Libby Creighton’s life, a perfect storm of opportunities erupts. There was her grandfather, a sick fruit farmer caught in the throes of growing dementia. Jax had seen his Grandma Molly through Alzheimer’s years before. His compassion then guides his moves now.

Libby and her daughter live on a Central Washington orchard, in need of skilled hands and a full harvest. As the heir to a major Washington apple and fruit producer, Jax has that one nailed, too. But most of all there was Libby and her daughter CeeCee. He read the pain of the past in their faces, but he wasn’t planning on fixing that.

He could fix the blown-down barns. And the apple crisis. He had connections she knew nothing about.

But her broken heart was something else again so he was determined to come to their farm, put in a day’s work and go back to his lonely cabin in the hills. In the cabin his bad dreams and sorrowed thoughts did no harm. But as time went on he found it impossible to maintain his distance, and maybe that was the best possibility of all.

So now you have the intro done. Seriously, that's the crucial thing in my thoughts. You don't have much time to snag an editor's or agent's interest, sometimes a page is all you get before they set the work aside. Make the most of that opening page (and your cover letter, but that's a different lesson.)

From the intro I go into a brief backstory for hero and heroine to set up their characterization in the story, then a brief summation of the opening chapters, and then... I make stuff up. 

I kind of have to do this because I don't plan scene by scene ahead of time, and 53 books in, I'm okay with that... now if you DO plan scene by scene, then give a brief summation of those scenes. Those scenes should show the action/reaction of hero and heroine, or hero to events. What's moving the story forward? What outside influences (an angry mother, a caustic neighbor, a church that's falling apart, a town on the skids, a storm, a natural disaster, a death, a lost child.... Show a hint of what outside/external conflicts are going to try and wreak havoc with your character's lives. 

This is important, even if it's not 100% accurate to what the final story will be, because you need to show the power thrusts that keep the story moving forward. You may have some leeway here as you actually write the story, but the editor or agent needs to see that the story has good bones. Like a house, with a solid frame, a good book needs good bones because the emotions flow through and around those bones.

Then you want the black moment, as best you know it.  Why does it all fall apart? Secrets, lies, misunderstandings, outside influences, etc. If this is a suspense or thriller, explain the resolution. Don't hold back. Give spoilers because this isn't a casual reader, this is the person offering the contract or representation.

If there is a faith thread, show how that changes or grows as the story moves forward. You don't have to go into big detail, but this is an important thread for Christian fiction, and can also be a major part of the story's moral.

And then the ending. If it's a happy ending, that's pretty simple. If it's a more literary-style ending with vague resolution, you need to show the character's internal growth, even though you're not necessarily wrapping things up in a neat bow.

Add idea for an epilogue if applicable.

If you're self-pubbing, you don't need to worry about a synopsis, right? 

(Ruthy frowns here, because here's the skinny on that...) Honestly, learning to write a solid synopsis helps you to see holes in the story. Editors see that, too, and offer advice on those possible weak spots so you can fix them as you write. 

It's like the basics of writing in junior high. There is a difference between the gradients of all right, good, very good and excellent. Seeing the holes in your story is very hard for new writers. It comes with experience, and the only way to gain experience is to keep writing. And that's exactly what the Seekers want you to do. Keep writing.

And keep learning!

And Ruthy has two copies of "A Hopeful Harvest" to give away today, so leave a comment below and she'll toss your name into the Easter candy bowl...  Then check our Holy Saturday Weekend Edition to see who won!

USA TODAY bestselling author and somewhat bossy but fun person, Ruth Logan Herne is sequestered like everyone else. Only she's on a pumpkin farm in Western New York where mud is currently ruling the day. Fortunately she knows that warmth is coming and she'll be growing all kinds of things and writing sweet books in the wee smalls of the morning when there is no one to bother her... although that's not a problem at the moment, is it? :) Friend her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, stop by her website ruthloganherne.com or email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com She loves to hear from writers and readers. And she actually answers her own mail!