Writing Ruminations: How Do I Cozy?

Many years ago--about 10, to be precise--I decided to try my hand at writing fiction. I cut my teeth on short stories while I learned about the three act structure, hook lines, characterization, sub-plots and sub-text. I read craft books, attended writing conferences, perused writing magazines and even took some online courses. I put my writing in front of anyone who might read and offer critique. 

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Finally, Voila! I had written a novel. And then I even wrote a second one. Granted that one took a whole lot longer to finish, but that's another post.

I started thinking about my next novel and realized that I wanted to try something a little different. It was time to try...a cozy mystery.

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I turn to all the experience and education I'd gathered over the last ten years. I try to organize myself. I try to characterize. I try to plot. I try to figure out exactly what the heck I'm supposed to put into a cozy mystery. I check blogs. I check books. I create spreadsheets. And still...

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It feels like I'm starting over at the beginning all over again. Same sense of not having a clue and not really knowing where to go to get the answers I need. My spreadsheet has helped, but even though I've been able to meet my goals for the basics (character development, setting development, etc...), when I get ready to start plotting, I feel a little lost.

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Luckily, I follow several people on twitter, including Elizabeth Spann Craig and Kellye Garrett.

Elizabeth Spann Craig has a great blog series about the basics of writing cozy mysteries. It's helped me to see the general process and she has a ton of links to other resources on the internet.

Just last week on Twitter Kellye Garrett shared a book she used to write her award winning Detective by Day mysteries. It's called Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron. I'd actually seen it a couple of weeks ago at the Barnes and Noble in Lincoln, but didn't purchase it at that time because I wasn't sure it would be helpful. After Kellye Garrett's recommendation, I made sure to stop by the Barnes and Noble this past weekend when we were in Lincoln picking out a cello for Boy 1 and grab the only copy.

So far it has been enjoyable to read and the exercises at the end of the chapters are practical, definitely doable and helpful for clarifying what I need to be doing to plan the novel before actually writing it. Since I'm a plantser, this very much appeals to me.

I plan to keep to my spreadsheet goals, but use the book to help me fill out the plotting part, most especially. I may switch to completing chapters by a deadline, but haven't really gotten deep into it to decide.

What do you do when you need guidance? Do you have a trusted person who is your go-to? Or do you prefer to utilize books and blog posts?

**Quick note: I STILL can't access my comments. I don't know what to do, but I wanted to say thanks to Joe and Cindy for the nice comments!!

Writing Ruminations: Goooooal!

Have you ever been trying to write something and you feel like an unmoored ship, drifting along on the currents of confusion?

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For the last two months I've been in the developing stages of my next novel, Growing Old is Murder (working title.) It's a cozy mystery and I've never written one before. I've been alternating researching how to write a cozy mystery, creating settings, and developing a workable plot, subplots and characters. As I've had no real method to all this madness, I've become confused, distracted and overwhelmed, and consequently, I've not made any real progress.

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Earlier this week Jeanne Kisacky's blog post "My Boss is a Pushover" was featured on Writer Unboxed. I've linked it for you, if you'd like to read the post, because it is a good post. However, for the sake of my post, I'll quickly summarize that in her post, Ms. Kisacky mentioned that she'd developed a project management outline to help her track tasks and give rewards. I realized that something like a project management outline may help me clear the fog in my head.

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So, last night I spent the evening creating several Excel spread sheets, separated into task categories (as suggested by Ms. Kisacky.) My categories are Develop Characters, Develop Setting, Plot, and Scenes.

On each spread sheet I included a projected due date. My goal is to have enough character development completed by July 19th that I can "see" them enough to start writing. The development of the three main setting locations are due for July 26th; broad plot points and subplots chosen by July 31st. Then, as you can see above, I start writing scenes, with the whole first draft done in November. Once I get the first draft done I'm going to develop a spreadsheet for editing. 

I will say right now that my goal dates are quite challenging in my mind, but I have already developed quite a bit of the characters and settings. It's not as if I'm starting at the very beginning.

I'm trying to keep the pace somewhat rapid so I am forced to make decisions and move ahead. With Through the Fairy Ring I got so mired in choices and the anxiety of making a bad decision that it took for-freaking-ever. Trying really hard this time around to keep my momentum and enjoy the process.

Also, I subscribe to the "If you shoot for the moon and miss, you'll still land in the stars" point of view.

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Yes, I am aware that there's tons of empty space between the moon and our nearest star which is not the sun. Let's just not acknowledge that fact when trying to motivate, right?

I was completely surprised at how much more centered and grounded I felt when I completed the spreadsheet. I know what I need to do and now have an idea for when I need to have it done. I'm hopeful my spreadsheet will help keep me on task and motivated. 

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Oh! That's the last piece of the puzzle. I've decided a mocha frappe from McDonalds is going to be my reward for when I complete a task (at any time), but maybe I'll give myself a double-reward if I finish a task by the due date. I like that idea!

How do you keep yourself organized and focused while writing? Or even just in everyday life? Any tricks you'd like to share?

Lazy Saturday Photos: A Cozy Mystery Setting?

It's been tough to find funny photos the last couple of weeks, so I thought this week I'd do a random photo post, instead. Welcome to Lazy Saturday photos!

I've been toying with writing  a cozy mystery. I know, I know. I have a contemporary fantasy I need to get finished and really shouldn't be thinking about anything else. But, I haven't written anything new in a really long time, and I think I'm finally sorting through my writerly issues and am ready to soldier on (I'll need to do a blog post on that some day.) And the plotting of a new story is some of the best fun I have in writing.

So, anyway...back to why I should write a cozy mystery... I love Murder She Wrote and mystery dramas on television, read reams of cozy mysteries, and realized many of the thrillers I've enjoyed over the years owe much to the mystery genre as well. Even my own books are kind of mysteries hidden behind a fantasy veneer. And my love of mystery, specifically of the cozy variety, came early to me, as I loved the Encyclopedia Brown books, Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew as a child.

My home town (the current one) kind of lends itself as a setting. It's not very big (25,000 people) but still big enough to have complex relationships. We've got a college, a community college, a museum, library, courts, crime, (limited) retail, a nifty downtown area, bike paths, and will be at totality of the solar eclipse this summer. Seventy-five percent of the population is retired, and people still wave and smile at each other, go to the parks on a hot summer day, and attend high school sports events. And it's beautiful here! Lots of trees, green grass and flowers. There is a seedy underside, of course. My husband is a probation officer and I hear about some of the problems of the area from co-workers, too. It's not perfect, but it seems like a nice setting for a cozy mystery, a la the Cat Who books.

So, I thought I'd take you on a tour of our town today. My family and I went for a bike ride this morning, and I took some photos of a couple of the places we went by. I'll share just a few that give an idea of what I find appealing about this little town.

We started off by going to the park where bricks were made many years ago. The stacks are still standing and the size of the park is immense. It's more like an over-sized meadow than a park, with lush green grass and graceful trees sharing the space with an amphitheater and some pretty ancient playground equipment my kids adore.

This picture was actually taken on a different day.

Then we headed downtown and decided to stop for a bite to eat.

I always forget how expensive Jimmy Johns is. So much time passes between our visits to the restaurant, because of how expensive it is, I forget and then am always shocked at the tab when we do go. Today was no different. It will now be another 9 mos to a year before we eat at Jimmy Johns again.

This is one panel of a connected row of buildings whose rear exteriors are painted in a colorful mural along the bike path. I liked this one because of the flying moose. Just joking. I'm actually quite perplexed at the flying moose. It's not like there are moose in Nebraska. In any case, all the panels are whimsical and bright. Very interesting to look at, and I imagine have meaning to the area.

Just a picture of my family going down the bike path. I'm so enchanted with the amount of trees in this town. Very different from where we lived in Wyoming.

The bike path follows a viaduct over the train tracks. I love how train tracks look when seen from above. They seem to hold a promise of travel and novelty. Even if you aren't going to be hopping a train soon!

This was new along the path. We can't tell if it's someone's personal tree house or if it was built along the path for the public to play in.

And then finally we ended up at a different park than the morning. Actually, by taking the bike path in a big (10-12 mile) circle, we managed to go through the three major parks in town. This one has new equipment, old equipment and a spray park. We enjoyed all three, proving once again that playgrounds aren't just for children, they're for the young at heart.

I hope everyone had as nice a Saturday morning as we did. I decided to limit my social media/internet usage today, so as to not taint the day with the craziness of the outside world. I wish all of the world could have some of the peace and contentment I had today.

Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next Saturday!