Riley Adams's Blog, page 69

December 9, 2018

Developing a New Cozy Series: Nuts and Bolts

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Today I thought I’d cover my process for starting a new cozy series. This post isn’t intended to replace the more in-depth posts I created for developing a sleuth, sidekick, setting, et al. For tips on the nitty gritty part of developing those specific elements, see those particular posts and this series.

My thought on creating a new series this time was to look at all the specific elements and put them on a Word document. I brainstormed ideas for each element and wrote down pros and cons of every choice.

I started out with the sleuth. Considerations were: age of the sleuth, gender of the sleuth (there are cozies with male sleuths…I’ve been asked about this regularly by male mystery writers), sleuth’s occupation (the theme/hook is incredibly important in a cozy mystery), and his or her personality type.

The theme or hook of the book came next. As I mentioned in this post, the choice of theme is a big one for cozy mysteries. I made the list, considering how comfortable I’d feel writing the theme long-term, how much research was entailed in the hook, and how saturated the market was with that particular theme.

The setting came next. Considerations: fictional or real (there are advantages to both, although now I prefer a made-up town with real origins so that I can map the setting in my head)? Small town or city (the majority of cozies use small towns, but there are successful series set in cities)? What is the main setting for the hook (for me, it’s been a barbeque restaurant and a quilt shop…the Myrtle series, however, doesn’t have one and it works fine)?

Then I considered the sidekick. What was I looking for in a sidekick? What age in relation to the sleuth? What gender? Does the sidekick provide the humorous bits (humor also important in a cozy), or is the sidekick the straight man? Is the sidekick a friend or a colleague? I came up with a list of candidates and pros and cons of all the choices. (Would having a retired male sidekick be too similar to another of my series? Would having a really outgoing sidekick with my more-introverted sleuth lead to scene-stealing?)

I moved on to quirky recurring characters. You guessed it: this is another vital component of cozies. First off, how many should I have, considering that I’d need 5 suspects for each story and didn’t want to bog readers down? Next, what was their relation to the sleuth? (In my other series, they’ve been everything from neighbors to book club members, to members in a quilt guild, to shop owners.)

Next, I considered whether to have a love interest for my sleuth. There are a lot of single sleuths out there in cozy mysteries (widowed or unmarried) because avoiding a husband in a mystery series is similar to avoiding having parents in YA books–spouses tend to hold a sleuth back because of the danger involved in their chosen pastime. Considerations: how good am I at pulling off romance (not my forte)? How many recurring characters do I already have? What are readers drawn to…more or less romance (for this I read customer reviews for many series on Amazon. I found that too much focus on the romance seems to irk a lot of cozy readers. It apparently needs to be very secondary to the mystery)?

Pets. Pets are important in cozies (there is an entire subcategory for animal cozies at retail sites). Cat or dog? Animal’s personality? How involved is the pet in the story and in the life of the sleuth? How can the pet help the story along?

After this, I set about on an outline for book one, feeling that I had enough in place to be able to get started on the first story.

How much mapping-out of basics do you do before writing the first book in a series? If you’re a cozy writer, what’s your process like?

Developing a Cozy Mystery Series: Nuts and Bolts:
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Published on December 09, 2018 21:02

December 8, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 48,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately? Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox! Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

Business / Miscellaneous

5 Tips for Writing an Introduction for Another Writer’s Book: @Sara_HeartStory @DIYMFA
7 Lessons Learned from Writing for Publication: @_HannahHeath
Managing Deadlines: @EricaVetsch
The 7 Deadly Sins of Editors (According to Novelists): by Steven James and Pam Johnson @WritersDigest

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

School Visit Resources: @sarahlynnereul
The FutureBook’s Breath-Holding Conference: Waiting for Clarity: @Porter_Anderson @TheFutureBook
Frankfurter Buchmesse Announces RightsTech: Europe for April: @Porter_Anderson @themediawonk @nedsherman
The UK’s Sunday Times/PFD Award Names Adam Weymouth Young Writer of the Year: @Porter_Anderson @adamweymouth

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

1 Writer’s Year With Thoreau: @austinkleon
Writing Exercise: POV Swap: from Just a Writing Aid

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

Five Books About Heroes Who Shouldn’t Babysit Your Kitten: by Weston Ochse @tordotcom
But How Much Are You Reading? @Porter_Anderson @WriterUnboxed
What Happens When Your Book Collection Goes Up In Smoke? @JeffAbbott
Auspicious Days: Musing on Childhood Readings: @SarahMMcCoy @WriterUnboxed
“How I Would’ve Died In 20 Stephen King Novels”: @helpfulsnowman

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

How to Incorporate Procrastination into Your Writing Schedule: @KathyEdens1 @WritersDigest
4 Ways to Find Time to Write When There Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day: by Warrior Writers
How To Focus On Writing Right Now: @BadRedheadMedia
Keep the Momentum Going with the Good, Better, Best Method: via Warrior Writers

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

5 Ways to Get Your Writing Unstuck: @terrywhalin
How to Smash 4 Roadblocks That Prevent You from Writing: @LiveWriteThrive

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

7 Steps to Publishing Success by an Accidental Writer: @amyshojai

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Does Anyone Care About Your Book? @JFbookman
A Cat’s Guide to Being a Mentor: @LisaLisax31
Say Yes To Your Writing AND To Your Relationships: @sowulwords @DIYMFA
Letting Go of Kids, and Characters: @VirginiaPye @WomenWriters
Why you should spend LESS time writing: @pubcoach

Genres / Horror

33 Cool Podcasts for Horror Lovers: @AnnieNeugebauer @LitReactor
How to Write a Horror Story: 7 Tips: @ReedsyHQ
8 Great Horror Podcasts and Their Spookiest Episodes: @slidingbookcase @CrimeReads

Genres / Memoir

3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Writing a Memoir: @EliJaxonBear @WritersDigest

Genres / Middle-Grade

Is the Story Middle Grade or YA? @Jean_Hall

Genres / Miscellaneous

Writing magical realism: by Jack Smith @TheWriterMag

Genres / Mystery

The Mother Archetypes of Crime Fiction: @CatrionaMcP @CrimeReads
Unexpected Investigators in Crime Fiction: @eawright @CrimeReads
The Detective’s Opponent in Your Mystery: @ZaraAltair
Writing a Mystery With Public Domain Characters: @Matt_Ferraz
Keep the Mystery in Your Mystery: @ZaraAltair
How to Bring Action to Your Mystery: @ZaraAltair

Genres / Non-Fiction

How to Succeed with a Second Nonfiction Book Project: @theladyck @NinaAmir

Genres / Poetry

Using Tips from Poetry to Strengthen Our Prose: by Pamela Donison @JamiGold

Genres / Screenwriting

How To Read A Screenplay : Style and Language @GoIntoTheStory
Why Spec Scripts Fail: Formula vs. Structure: @stewartfarquhar @scriptmag

Genres / Short Stories

Flash Fiction: A Short Guide: by Craig Anderson @pbackwriter

Genres / Young Adult

Don’t Sugarcoat Teen Issues in Fiction: @AmySGiles @CrimeReads

Promo / Book Reviews

Pitching Book Bloggers for Reviews: @Bookgal @BookWorksNYC
Clearing up the Confusion About Launch Teams, Influencers, & Book Reviewers: @JodyHedlund

Promo / Connecting with Readers

Which Readers Would Also Read Your Books? Finding Comp Titles: @AmyAlessio @RomanceUniv
Your Target Reader: Identifying and Making the Connection: @SmartAuthors

Promo / Influencers

How to Get Book Blurbs, Endorsements, and Testimonials from Big Names: @TCKPublishing

Promo / Miscellaneous

How Writing Fiction of Different Lengths Offers a Book Marketing Advantage: @alison_morton @IndieAuthorALLI
Five Ways To Maintain Book Buzz While Writing and Managing Post-Pub Life: @LizbethMeredith @AngelaAckerman
Quick and Easy Content Creation Strategies: @KarenBanes

Promo / Newsletters

The Top 4 Pitfalls of Running a Newsletter: by Julianne Q Johnson

Promo / Platforms

Book promotion materials: think branding: @BookDesignBook

Promo / Podcasts

Writing, Marketing, and Publishing Podcasts: @thDigitalReader
Podcast Your Way to Greater Author Brand Recognition: @DaveChesson @BookWorksNYC

Publishing / Miscellaneous

An Agent on Writing, Publishing, and Coaching (Podcast): @RachelleGardner

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Rights Roundup: A Handful of Titles for the Holidays: @Porter_Anderson @malusken @GuillaumePitron @SiriPettersen
Four Agents on Rights Trading at Guadalajara: ‘Hunger and Passion’: by Adam Critchley @pubperspectives
London’s Indonesia Rights Forum: ‘Creative Economy’: @rogertagholm @christmas9 @rickypesik
PEN America Files an Amicus Brief on the Right to Literacy in the States: @Porter_Anderson @PENamerican
Olga Tokarczuk’s Widening Recognition: Switzerland’s Jan Michalski Prize: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
Brexit Watch: Authors Join Calls for the UK’s Creative Industries’ Protection: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
Industry Notes: Wales’ Hay Festival Tickets, Wattpad’s India Office: @Porter_Anderson @wattpad
Words Without Borders December: ‘Black Literature’ of the Afro-Brazilian Resistance @Porter_Anderson @ericmbbecker @wwborders
Croatia’s Pula Book Fair 2018: Focusing on Freedom: @oliviasnaije @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing 3.0 And How To Build Success As An Indie Author: @OrnaRoss @thecreativepenn

Writing Craft / Beginnings

5 Ways to Successfully Start a Book With a Dream: @KMWeiland

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

What is in Your Character’s Lifeboat? @diannmills @EdieMelson
How I Write: Going Somewhere with Characters: @jamesagard
How to Balance Character and Action: @JulieHyzy @CareerAuthors
Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Mechanical Engineer: @beccapuglisi

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

Leveraging The Emotional Spectrum in Your Writing: by Bonnie Randall

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Six Ways to Bluff That Your Hero Will Die: by Chris Winkle @mythcreants
How Do You Handle Protagonists Who Kill? by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Endings

Your Story’s Promise: Do You Need an Epilogue? @JamiGold

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

5 Tips on Writing a Trauma Backstory: @LisaHallWilson
Holding Back Your Backstory: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

4 Things Writers Can Learn From Making a Movie: @KMWeiland
5 Story Grid Lessons Learned from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: @mrushingwalker @StoryGrid

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Time as a Literary Device: Flashbacks vs. Non-Linear Structure: @KristenLambTX

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Cause and Effect: A Clear Path to Better Stories: @TheWritership @StoryGrid
How to Use Background and Foreground: @AJHumpage

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Naming

Are you overusing character names in your novel? @lisapoisso

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

How to Deal with Plotter’s Block (Worse Than Writer’s Block): @FrancescaHornak @SignatureReads
5 Moral Dilemmas That Make Characters and Stories Better: via Writers’ Society
A three-act structure is how readers understand stories. Here’s a guide to what should be in Act One: @HankPRyan
How to Plot Your Story Using the But/Therefore: by Bucket Siler

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

How to Destroy Civilization and Not Be Boring: @jamesdnicoll

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Concept

7 Steps For Beta Testing A Story Idea: @thecreativepenn @Weifarer

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Spellcheck Cannot Save You: 5 Author Mistakes to Avoid: @GramrgednAngel @BookWorksNYC
How to use apostrophes in fiction writing: A beginner’s guide: @LouiseHarnby

Writing Craft / Revision

6 Questions to Help You Gut Check Your Story Structure: @swatiteerdhala

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How to Process and Filter Feedback: @AnnieNeugebauer @WriterUnboxed
5 Tips For Writing A Helpful Critique: by Manuela Williams @DIYMFA

Writing Craft / Scenes

How to Track a Scene: from Warrior Writers
Brainstorming a Scene: @davidfarland

Writing Craft / Series

Pixar and Standalones: When Sequels Work and When They Don’t: @VictoriaGHowell
Should My Novel Become a Series? @erikaliodice @WriterUnboxed

Writing Craft / Tension

Suspense Writers: Here’s How to Keep Your Readers Up All Night: @LauraDiSilverio @CareerAuthors
How to make your writing suspenseful: by Anna Davis @CurtisBrown

Writing Craft / Word Crafting

Six Wordcraft Questions Writers Fight Over: by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

Writing Tools / Apps

Google Docs: An Affordable Writing Program: @WordDreams
Best Apps For Writing A Book: @writeonepub

Writing Tools / Resources

Free Online Marketing Courses: by Janet Lane @RMFWriters

The Top Writing Links From Last Week Are On Twitterific:
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Published on December 08, 2018 21:02

December 6, 2018

Writing a Mystery With Public Domain Characters

Writing Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game

By Matt Ferraz, @Matt_Ferraz

The genesis of Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game was a challenge I made to myself: pick two public domain characters that apparently have nothing to do with each other, and somehow make them work together. I’ve been a Sherlockian all my life, and wanted to write a book with the detective for some time. But who could I match him with? Other writers already crossed Holmes Jack the Ripper, Mr Hyde, Captain Nemo and so many others. What could I bring to the table that was new and fresh?

I was at a bookshop in my home town when I saw brand new editions of Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up, by Eleanor H. Porter. Those were books I had never read, but knew the basic premise: a girl who always sees the bright side of everything no matter what. I had seen the 1920 movie with Mary Pickford, one of my favourite actresses, but remembered little of it. So I bought copies of those two books, and while reading them, a novel started to form in my mind.

No one had ever had the idea of putting Holmes and Pollyanna Whittier in the same story. After all, they’re so different! But my mind was made up: I was going to write a book where Pollyanna comes to London and assists Holmes and Watson in an investigation.

People didn’t believe I could pull it off. In fact, my fiancée thought it was a crazy idea to begin with, but decided to give me the benefit of doubt. I wrote the first draft of this book in a month – faster than I had ever worked before! For that whole month, I was completely immersed in the story, having re-watched several Holmes movies for inspiration and re-reading big sections of Porter’s books.

My idea wasn’t simply to have Pollyanna ringing at 221b Baker Street offering a case for the detective to solve. I wanted to fit her in the Holmes canon as organically as possible. My book starts with Pollyanna becoming a good friend of Dr. and Mrs. Watson while Holmes was considered to be dead after facing Professor Moriarty.

Pollyanna is in London to see a special doctor due to an injury she suffered in her childhood – which is shown in the first Porter book. She eventually returns to America, but shows up in London two years later, when Holmes is already back from the dead, with a brand new husband and a lot of trouble on her back.

The best part of writing this story were the comedic possibilities in the interaction between these characters. I tried to avoid making Pollyanna too annoying and naive – she’s actually pretty smart and kicks a few butts. It was also nice to create a more humane Holmes, different from the stubborn and arrogant versions we’ve seen in movie and TV in the past few years. It’s a little, quirky and funny book I’m very proud of.

Matt Ferraz is a Brazilian author with works published in English, Italian and Portuguese. He writes stories since he was five, when his mother gave him a typewriter, and hasn’t stopped since.

Writer @Matt_Ferraz on Using Public Domain Characters in a Mystery:
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Photo credit: gregwake on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

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Published on December 06, 2018 21:01

December 1, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Quick note–thanks, as always, for your comments and for reading the blog! I’m going to be offline until Wednesday so I’ll be slow to respond to comments on this particular post. :) My next post will run on Friday.

Business / Miscellaneous

How to prepare your book file for a fiction editor: @LouiseHarnby

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

At Guadalajara International Book Fair: 300 Spanish Publishers: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
The UK’s Costa Book Awards Shortlist: Half Debuts, £35,000 in Prize Money @Porter_Anderson @CostaBookAwards
Industry Notes: Norway’s ‘Bookstore Award,’ the UK’s SpecSavers Winners @Porter_Anderson @Simonstranger
The National Book Awards’ 2018 Ceremony: Five Categories: @Porter_Anderson @AcevedoWrites @Justafknminute
Aspen Words Longlists 16 Titles for 2019 Prize in Issue-Driven Fiction: @Porter_Anderson @adriennebrodeur @AspenWords
Colombia Kicks Off Hay’s 2019 International Festivals: @Porter_Anderson @hayfestival_esp @pubperspectives
FutureBook Live 2018: ‘Putting a Rocket Up the Book Trade’: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
The UK’s 2018 ‘Building Inclusivity’ Conference: A Safe Place for Discussion: @rogertagholm @pubperspectives

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

7 Emotions You Will Feel After Publishing Your First Book: @ScottMa96624306 @theindiepubmag
How to Write a Book in 6 Steps: @ReedsyHQ

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

6 Books About Women With Superpowers: @caiemmons @ElectricLit
A Century of Reading: The 10 Books That Defined the 1900s: @knownemily
How to Get Back into Reading: @writingcookbook

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

The Writing Sprint: from Just a Writing Aid

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Put A Vampire In It! @helpfulsnowman @LitReactor
5 Pieces of Writing Advice No One Tells You: @amplecat @SignatureReads
How to Enjoy Your Writing Life More Than Ever: @ChadRAllen
The Writer Who Can’t Write: @MukherjeeRheea @WriterUnboxed
On the Impossibility of Locating the Line Between Fiction and Non: @mbailatj @lithub
7 Ways Your Cell Phone Steals from You: @colleen_m_story
Who is the Villain in My Adoption Story? by Alice Stephens @lithub
When Does Editing Become Censorship? @debluskin
7 Things A Writer Should Never Do: @colleen_m_story

Genres / Fan Fiction

What Writing Fanfiction Taught Me as an Editor: @writersyndrome @UncannyMagazine

Genres / Mystery

Developing a Cozy Mystery Series: The Hook:
Cameo Appearances by Sleuths in Crime Fiction: @mkinberg

Genres / Picture Books

Defining Kidlit: @bronniesway @DIYMFA

Genres / Screenwriting

Screenwriting: Examples of Recent Log Lines: @dougeboch
10 Top TV Writers Share Their Writing Craft Secrets: @Bang2write

Genres / Short Stories

The Rollercoaster of Writing a Short Story: @LisaLisax31

Promo / Blogging

Why you should blog before writing your book: @pubcoach

Promo / Metadata

Choosing the Best Categories for Your Book: @IndieAuthorALLI

Promo / Miscellaneous

A Marketing Timeline for Authors: @KarenHWhiting @EdieMelson
The Ultimate Guide to Promoting a Book Launch [Free Download]: @DianaUrban @BookBub

Promo / Social Media Tips

Twitter: What You’re Doing Wrong and How to Make it Right: @BadRedheadMedia @annerallen

Promo / Websites

5 Ways to Give Your Website a Facelift: @KarenBanes

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Barnes & Noble Needs A Turnaround Expert: @SeekingAlpha @PassiveVoiceBlg
Freelancing: Reslanting Articles: @WritersCoach
Get Paid to Write Articles and Blog Posts: @TCKPublishing

Publishing / News / International Publishing

PEN Afrikaans, Authors Forum, Criticize South Africa Copyright Amendment Bill: @Porter_Anderson @PenAfrikaans
‘Giving Tuesday’: https://t.co/QWdPXSARAV Supports Worldreader, Ingram Supports Binc: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
Germany’s Publishers’ Forum and THE ARTS+, Publishing Scotland and Fellows: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
In Montréal, Concern About Teen Reading Amid New Statistics: @lukaesque @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Getting Self-Pub Books into Libraries and Other Tactics: @NewShelvesBooks @WritersDigest

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

The Log-Line: Pitch Your Story in One Sentence: @KristenLambTX

Publishing / Process / Contracts

Evaluating Offers and Contracts: @SusanSpann @WriterUnboxed

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Real Life Diagnostics: Does This Work as an Opening? Or Is it Boring? By Maria D’Marco @Janice_Hardy
How to Mess Up Your Lead Character’s Ordinary Day: @jamesscottbell
First Page Critique: by Clare Langley-Hawthorne @killzoneauthors
How to Nail the First Three Pages: @LisaCron

Writing Craft / Characters / Arc

5 Stops on Your Protagonist’s Inner Journey: @DorianCirrone

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Character Development: Occupation Thesaurus Entry: General Contractor: @beccapuglisi
How To Build A Rocking Character Profile: @ReedsyHQ @TheIWSG

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

How to Write Grieving Characters: by Whitney Carter

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Six Characters Siloed Into a Separate Story: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants
3 Tips for Improving Show, Don’t Tell: @KMWeiland

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Writing Lessons from Movies: The Godfather: @VictoriaGHowell
3 Things Learned from Anne of Green Gables: @byStevenRamirez

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Dialogue Isn’t Everything (How to Keep Your Characters Busy): @FinishedPages @womenonwriting
What You Need to Know About Internalization: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Pacing

Pacing in Writing: 10 Ways to Keep Readers Hooked: @ReedsyHQ

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Naming

How to Come up with Great Titles: @SeptCFawkes

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Using the Snowflake Method to Write a Novel: @ReedsyHQ
8 Questions to Help Plot Your Story: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

8 Tips for Writing Characters with OCD: @_HannahHeath
How To Make The Most Of Your Research Trip: by Paige Duke @standoutbooks

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Tricky and Confusing Words: @AndreaMerrell
Commonly Misused Words: @AlyConnerBrown @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

5 Benefits of Tough Feedback: @jcwalton24 @DIYMFA

Writing Craft / Scenes

Deciding Whether or Not to Keep a Scene: @burke_writer @killzoneauthors

Writing Craft / Series / Series Bible

Writing a Series? Keep a Notebook: @NanReinhardt @RomanceUniv

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Transitions in Seasons and How it Relates to Writing: @ShelleyWidhalm

Writing Craft / Word Crafting

Word Choice and Writing Style: by Julianne Johnson
How to Cherish Language: @KMWeiland

Writing Tools / Resources

10 Chromebook Shortkeys for Writers: @WordDreams
I’ve finished my manuscript! What now? 16 ultimate resources to make good decisions about your book: @Roz_Morris

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Published on December 01, 2018 21:02

November 25, 2018

Developing a Cozy Series: Hook

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

It’s been a long time since I developed a new cozy mystery series. Long enough so that I tried to remember exactly how I’d gone about it the last couple of times. I ended up not being able to reconstruct my process from the other times, so I started out with a blank slate. For posterity’s sake, in case I need to reference this in the future, myself, I thought I’d share what I’ve done (so far) this time. Today I’m covering the series hook (also known as a theme) and then on Friday I’ll talk about my considerations setting up sleuth, sidekick, and other basics.

For the cozy mystery, the hook is pretty important. It’s actually important enough for me to have considered it the very first time. Did I want animal themed books? Craft themed? Occupation themed? The first thing I did was to visit a fantastic cozy mystery resource: https://www.cozy-mystery.com . There is a page on the site that lists cozies by theme. There I reviewed all of the different options that others had used. It may be different for you, but I felt very little need to be ultra-different from everyone else. I wasn’t looking for a really unusual hook, mostly because I wanted something that I could feel very comfortable writing.

If you are interested in something fun and different, there are a slew of different examples on the page to get your brain thinking. There are cruise ship mysteries, sleuths as dancers, golfing cozies, and candle-making cozies. By far, the most popular hook categories (to the extent that they have their own BISAC categories at retailers) are craft and hobby cozies, culinary-themed cozies, and cozies featuring cats and dogs.

First, I made a list of all the possibilities that I found the most appealing to me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from writing cozy series is that they can continue on for years and years. Readers are incredibly loyal to cozy characters. It’s important to choose a hook that appeals not just to the reader but to you, too. You’re going to be spending a lot of time in that story world.

Next, I jotted down pros and cons of all of the potential hooks. For instance, I thought a bed and breakfast series would be fun from the aspect of having different characters coming through and from the aspect that the setting could be very appealing. The cons though? Wouldn’t the police be shutting down the B&B if it ended up being a hotspot for murder? And shouldn’t the owner be spending most of her time at the location? How would I make it work?

The next considerations were tied together. How much research would this concept take and how much time did I have? This may be part of the appeal of writing culinary or pet-themed cozies…it really doesn’t take much research. I knew if I picked something like genealogy or flower shops that I would be doing more research than if I’d picked something I knew more about. I’ve put in likely 100 hours or more of research on quilting for the Southern Quilting Mysteries since I’m not crafty: those are hours going to quilt shows and shops, talking with quilters, reading websites, learning more about quilt guild activities, and watching quilters work on YouTube. The time I spent was very rewarding to me and it was important that I got it right. But I know that writing three series simultaneously means that I don’t really have the time to spend in a lot of research.

Keeping all of this in mind, I chose to go with a library theme and have my sleuth work as a librarian. I grew up in a library and my family was always either on the board or involved with Friends of the Library, or both. I still did a lot of set-up research, but not nearly as much as was needed for my quilting series (or, actually, for my Memphis Barbeque series, either). And…readers like books and libraries. :)

This post is intended mainly for cozy writers because of the special emphasis the genre puts on hook, but many of these considerations are important for writers of other genres, as well.

For further reading, see writer Janice Hardy’s post “5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Character’s Career.”

If you’re a cozy writer, how have you picked your hook? For other genres, how important is your protagonist’s occupation or hobby?

And quick note that I’m taking a long weekend this weekend and another short blog break since I’ll have limited access to Wifi. Twitterific will run this Sunday (but no posts this Friday or Monday). I’ll be back with a post on cozy series development on Friday, December 7th. Thanks!

Developing a Cozy Series: The Series Hook:
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Photo credit: Onasill ~ Bill Badzo on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA

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Published on November 25, 2018 21:02

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

New Stuff

Thanks to Dan Blank for our conversation on fitting in writing, writing as a parent, and my publication journey.

Business / Miscellaneous

What Does a Publisher Do? @SpunkOnAStick @DancingLemurPre
How to Tell Good Editing from Bad Editing: @pbsmith12

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

5 Tips for Rocking Your Next Open Mic Reading: @Sara_HeartStory @diymfa
At Singapore’s StoryDrive Asia, Content: Selling It and Protecting It: @Porter_Anderson @katong @MJHealy
Salon du Livre in Montreal: Common Goals Across a Linguistic Divide: @HannahSJohnson @pubperspectives
IPA Prix Voltaire: 2019 Nominations Open, Recognizing Valor in Publishing and Free Press: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
In Québec, a Literary Prize Is Suspended Over Objections to Amazon Sponsorship: @hanahsjohnson @pubperspectives
Lebanon’s Dar Onboz: An Arabic Publisher at a Francophone Book Fair: @oliviasnaije @daronboz @pubperspectives
An Agent on Writers’ Conferences: @RachelleGardner

Conferences and Events / NaNoWriMo

What Makes a Successful NaNoWriMo? by Jill Shirley @NaNoWriMo
The 3 Ds of Your Mid-NaNo Slump: @KelsieEngen

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

How to Get Story Ideas From Unexpected Headlines: @weems503 @write_practice
Establishing Your Artistic Genealogy: @austinkleon
3 Writing Techniques Adapted from the Visual Arts: @TessCallahan @WritersDigest
8 Tips to Recall Dreams: @SueColetta1
48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids: @writing_tips

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

Your Favorite Children’s Book Heroes: Where Are They Now? @erinkbart @ElectricLit
Horror novels are having a renaissance. Here’s what to read. by Bill Sheehan @washingtonpost
The Godmother of Flash Fiction: by Bradley Babendir @parisreview
How to Have an Opinion: The Criticism of Martin Seymour-Smith: @eadavison_ @The_Millions
A Spine-Tingling Reading List of Haunted House Novels: @ClaireFuller2 @ElectricLit

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Write *Something* Every Day: by Josh Langston
Write Tomorrow: @PatHatt24 @TheIWSG
Thanks to @DanBlank for our conversation on fitting in writing, writing with kids, and my publishing journey:
The 9-Minute Novelist: How to Write a Novel in Just Minutes a Day: @jeffreysomers @WritersDigest

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

How To Find The Muse When It’s Nowhere In Sight: @Frank_McKinley
Writer’s Block: What to Do When You Get Stuck: by Rachel Meyer @mythicscribes

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

4 Tips for Pushing to the End of Your Book: by Rose Andrews @mythicscribes

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

4 Foolproof Methods to Become a Prolific and Successful Writer: @SarahCyWrites

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

10 Questions Answered by Writers on their Writing Life: by Darren Devitt
Writing and the Creative Life: “Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking”: @GoIntoTheStory @PsychToday
One Writer’s Challenges With Anxiety: @LisaLisax31
Bucket List for Writers: by Keith Cronin @WriterUnboxed
3 Myths About Meditation: @PEKavanaugh @JamiGold
Should You Trust Your Gut as a Writer? @cathyyardley @WriterUnboxed
It’s Never Too Late to Write a Novel: by Joanie Solinger Walker @ZoeMMcCarthy
What Shirley Jackson has to say about writing: @mjseidlinger @melvillehouse

Genres / Fan Fiction

The Benefits of Fan Fiction: @JoEberhardt
The Surprising Things I Learned Writing Fan Fiction: by Brian DeLeonard @mythicscribes

Genres / Historical

Switching From Literary To Historical Fiction: @MilreeL @WomenWriters
Six Key Elements of Historical Narrative: @PJTAuthor

Genres / Mystery

Dutiful Characters as Elements in Crime Fiction: @mkinberg
Does Your DNA Contain Your Image? @DPLyleMD

Genres / Picture Books

Seven Tips for Writing a Children’s Picture Book: by David O’Connell @CurtisBrown

Genres / Screenwriting

Screenwriting Help: Movie Script Scene-By-Scene Breakdowns: @GoIntoTheStory

Promo / Blogging

71 Terrific Templates For Blog Post Title Ideas: @Writers_Write

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Optimizing Your Online Bios For Discovery (Podcast): @cksyme
How to Write Better Marketing Copy for Your Books: @JaneFriedman

Promo / Miscellaneous

5 Book Marketing Myths To Explode Now: @SmartAuthors @BadRedheadMedia
20 Tips for Writers & Radio Interviews: @PeggySueWells @EdieMelson

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Book Production: How to Work with Map Artists: by J.L. Gilliland @IndieAuthorALLI

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Jerusalem’s Zev Birger Editorial Fellowship Names 2019 Participants: @Porter_Anderson
US Beta for ‘Wattpad Next’; Cengage Subscriptions for Missouri: @Porter_Anderson @wattpad

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

Real Life Diagnostics: Is This Query Working? @Janice_Hardy
Query Letter Format: @Kid_Lit

The Case for Pseudonyms: @SophieMasson1 @WriterUnboxed

Publishing / Process / Services to Avoid

How Can You Tell Legitimate Publishers from the Bad Guys? @annerallen

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Mastering the Four Modes of Fiction: @jamesscottbell
Can You Start With a Disaster? @SnowflakeGuy

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

Make the Reader Feel Emotion: @Wordstrumpet

Writing Craft / Dialogue

6 Dialogue Tips That Will Make Your Characters More Real: @LauraDiSilverio @CareerAuthors
Top 5 Dialogue Mistakes Writers Make: @Bang2write
Realistic Dialogue: Writing Conversations Involving Setting: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Diversity

Can diverse children’s books tackle prejudice? @Katy_Kates @cnni

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

Non-Verbal Communication and Backstory: by Jeanne Kisacky @WriterUnboxed

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Writing Women With Sharp Edges: by S.L. Huang @tordotcom
Boost All 7 Traits of Great Writing: @annkroeker
9 Stupid Writing Rules That Aren’t Worth Following: @_HannahHeath
Surprise vs. Suspense and How to Pair Them in Your Writing: @janekcleland @WritersDigest
Playwriting Tips, Tricks, Prompts, Inspiration: @jpgoldfinger
How to tackle a difficult second novel: @TraceyJEmerson @scottishbktrust
Writing Your Story as a Spiritual Discipline: @marciamoston @EdieMelson

Writing Craft / Pacing

How to Control Your Story’s Pace: @writingthrulife

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Outlining

Back to School: Why Great Papers, Essays, and Blogs Need Outlines: @caitreynolds @KristenLambTX
Outline Your Novel the Incredibly Easy Way: @LMacNaughton
Using paper to plan a novel: @jasonbougger

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

To Plot, or Not to Plot: @davidfarland

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

A Reading List on the Complexities and Nuance of Mental Illness: @SF_Montgomery @ElectricLit
Researching Novels in an Age of Information Overload: @BethCastrodale @LiveWriteThrive
Simplifying Writer Research: @diannmills

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Concept

Developing a Story Idea: @AJHumpage
How 1 Writer Brainstorms: @jamesagard

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

A Quick and Dirty Comma Guide: by T.L. Bodine
Abbreviations: Tips on Using Them the Right Way: @KathyEdens1 @ProWritingAid

Writing Craft / Revision

On Revision as a Form of Reimagining: @NataliaSylv @WriterUnboxed
The “Why Do I Need This?” Check: by Dawn Field @BookBaby

Writing Craft / Scenes

Three Ways to Edit Scenes: @Lindasclare

Writing Craft / Scenes / Conflict

Six Sources of Conflict for Your World: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Series

How to Grow A Series from a Standalone Book: @Kactus77 @IndieAuthorALLI

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

How to Turn Your Writing World Around: Setting and Detail: @EJRunyon @WritersDigest

Writing Craft / World-Building

How to Use Fictional Languages in Your Story: @AshMitrano

Writing Tools / Apps

Book Writing Software to Help You Create, Organize, and Edit: @JerryBJenkins

Writing Tools / Miscellaneous

Ten PC Shortkeys: @WordDreams

Writing Tools / Resources

Using Kindle Create to Create your Manuscript: @Nicholas_Rossis

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Published on November 25, 2018 04:52

November 18, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m taking this week off for Thanksgiving and will be back next Sunday with another Twitterific. :) Happy Thanksgiving!

Business / Miscellaneous

5 Reasons Authors Fall for Vanity Presses: @JohnDoppler @IndieAuthorALLI
What to Consider Next if You’ve Had Your Backlist Rights Reverted to You:
The Best Way to Support Writers: @DanBlank
Publisher Richard Charkin: Author Pay: Why Do Authors Feel Hard Done By? @pubperspectives
5 Steps to Craft Your Creative Narrative: @thedailymba @DIYMFA

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

Hot Tips for Conferences from an Agent: @RachelleGardner
5 Things to Know About School Visits: @Scott_Thought
Frankfurter Buchmesse To Sponsor FutureBook of the Year Award: @Porter_Anderson @Book_Fair
US Author Serhii Plokhy Wins the UK’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction: @Porter_Anderson
India’s DSC Prize for South Asian Literature Releases Shortlist: @Porter_Anderson @kamilashamsie @pubperspectives
Maya Jasanoff Wins the $75,000 Cundill History Prize 2018: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Conferences and Events / NaNoWriMo

Confessions of a Slow Writer: Why it’s okay to fail NaNoWriMo: @annerallen
What Kind of NaNoWriMo Writer Are You? @NaNoWriMo
5 Reasons a Writer Enjoys NaNoWriMo: @TheRealKTDaxon
How to Use “The Immersive Approach” to Make Big Progress on a Project: @nylesclaire @emiliewapnick
The NaNo Halfway Mark: Action Plans: @thewritingpal
How to Overcome Common Writing Obstacles and Win NaNo Every Year: by T.S. Valmond @NaNoWriMo

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

9 Pieces of Bad Advice New Writers Should Ignore: @annerallen

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

The Undercover Soundtrack: Author @authorMayes on the Inspiration of Music: @Roz_Morris
Writing and the Creative Life: Think Psychologically: @GoIntoTheStory

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

How to Find Time to Read During Your Busy Days: @KarenBanes
Crime Fiction From the Post-Armistice-Day Era: @mkinberg
10 Books Perfect for Fans of Castle Rock: @Keith_Rice1 @unboundworlds
Banish the Book Snobbery: @LisaLisax31

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

10 tips to help you start writing even though you’re busy: by Anna Davis @CurtisBrown
Double down on your writing: @DanBlank

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Is It Real? 25 Famous Writers on Writer’s Block: @knownemily @lithub
Out of the Postponement Loop: Writing from the Bubbles of an Idea: @RosanneBane
How to Break Through a Fiction Writing Block: @WritingForward

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

10 Tips for Productive Writing Sessions: @writingthrulife

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

“Going Public With My Failures”: @shirleyannemcm
Writers, What Your Walk Says About You: @colleen_m_story
10 things every new writer experiences: @TheLeighShulman
Overcoming Creativity Wounds: @grantfaulkner @JaneFriedman
Create Your Perfect Writing Space: @Janice_Hardy
7 Free or Cheap Writing Residencies to Apply For in 2019: by Frances Yackel @ElectricLit
Does Bad Romance Lead to Great Art? @Delistraty @parisreview
Writing With a Group: Collaboration: @jan_ohara @MichalskiLiz @WriterUnboxed
4 Steps To Avoid Writer Burnout: @LisaHallWilson
8 Ways to Get Into A Healthy Author Mindset: @_HannahHeath
Being Silenced and Breaking Free: @MemoirGuru @WomenWriters
Why Good Writers Can Be Bad Conversationalists: by Arthur Krystal @nytimes
Writing Process: Thoughts on Writing in Order: @PatrickRwrites

Genres / Fantasy

Always Read the Epigraph: A Lesson for Fantasy Readers: by Philip Styrt @tordotcom

Genres / Historical

Accuracy Vs Authenticity: 5 Tips For Writing Immersive Historical Fiction: @thecreativepenn

Genres / Mystery

Crime Writing: Your Eye Drops Can Kill You: @DPLyleMD
Why Alcoholism and Crime Fiction Are Still Entwined: @ReedFColeman @CrimeReads
Essential Crime Podcasts: @slidingbookcase @CrimeReads
The Therapist’s Couch and the Thriller: by Elisabeth Norebäck @CrimeReads

Genres / Non-Fiction

Accountability: Business Book Beta Readers: by Bec Evans @beprolifiko

Genres / Science Fiction

Five Characters of Mixed Magical / Science Fictional Heritage: @jamesdnicoll @tordotcom

Genres / Screenwriting

Screenwriting: Top 5 Scene Description Mistakes Writers Make: @Bang2write
Screenwriting: The Care and Feeding of Your Professional Network: @dougeboch

Promo / Ads

Author Advertising: Stacking Ads to Maximize Promotional Dollars: @johnhartness

Promo / Blogging

Organizing blog tours for releases: @Ellen__Jacobson
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Best Post Ever: @vzutshi @WritetoDone

Promo / Connecting with Readers

Meet the Super Fan … the Secret Sauce Authors Want: @JudithBriles
Why Library Discovery is the Best Discovery: @GraceBurrowes @KoboWritingLife
Why Reader Demographics are Critical for Book Discovery: @Bookgal

Promo / Images

Images: Free to Use and Reuse Sets from US Library of Congress: @librarycongress h/t @JaneFriedman

Promo / Video

Adding a Video to Your Book’s Amazon Sales Page: @ecellenb @IndiesUnlimited

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Why Every Indie Author Should Publish Audiobooks: @HelenSedwick @OrnaRoss @IndieAuthorALLI
Writing for the Health Markets: by John Riddle @hopeclark
Sensitivity Readers: @AmrenOrtega @OpAwesome6

Publishing / News / Amazon

Amazon launches Audible in India: @TNPS10
Amazon Reportedly Opts for Two HQ2 Sites and Names 10 Top Books of 2018: @Porter_Anderson
Amazon and the Also Bought Apocalypse: @DavidGaughran

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Freedom To Publish: Iranian Publisher on ‘Bringing Suppressed Writings’ to Persian Readers: @Porter_Anderson @Aparsapour
Russia Textbook Piracy Is In the News: 160,000 Copies Reported Seized: @Porter_Anderson
Association of American Publishers Join Chorus of Criticism Of Europe’s Plan S: @Porter_Anderson @mattbarblan
Peirene Press’ Meike Ziervogel: ‘We Have a Social Responsibility’: @oliviasnaije @MeikeZiervogel @PeirenePress
China’s Children’s Book Market: Big Numbers and Local Talent: @HannahSJohnson @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Indie basics: Publishing is a business: @itshelendarling @DIYMFA

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

How to Effectively Sell Your Book to an Agent: What to Do, What to Avoid: @tessaemilyhall

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

How to Handle Rejection: 4 Things NOT to Do and 3 Things to Do After You’re Rejected by a Publisher: @Jffelkins

Publishing / Process / Formatting

10 Ebook Conversion Tools for Docs to EPUB & MOBI: @carlaking @BookWorksNYC

Publishing / Process / Legalities

Lyrics In Books: Your Questions Answered: by Scott McCormick @BookBaby

Publishing / Process / Services to Avoid

Be Smart and Careful About Hybrid Publishing Services: @pubcoach

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Jump into your story with both guns blazing: @CalebPirtle

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Character’s Career: @Janice_Hardy
How to Develop a Character: 7 Simple Steps: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Can a Protagonist evolve into an Antagonist? @GoIntoTheStory
Writing a Proactive Protagonist: @Kid_Lit

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

How to Bore an Editor to Death: @davidfarland
9 Steps to Fix a Broken Story: @JamiGold
Dealing with Dumb Ideas–Placeholders, Building Blocks, and Portrayals: @SeptCFawkes

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Who Said That? Dialogue and Your Writing: Adverbs: @Weifarer

Writing Craft / Diversity

Can diverse children’s books tackle prejudice? @Katy_Kates @cnni

Writing Craft / Endings

5 Tips to Build Finishing Energy for Writing Your Book: @lornafaith

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

How to Write a Character That Shows Sacrifice: @diannmills @EdieMelson
8 Absurdities We Force on Female Characters: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants
4 Smart Ways to Make Your Boring Filler Scenes Exciting: @RidethePen

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Outlining

How to outline a book without killing the fun of writing it: @Roz_Morris

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Lose The Plot: @WomenWriters
Plotting a Novel When You Haven’t Figured Out the Details Yet: @Janice_Hardy @RomanceUniv
70+ Plot Twist Ideas and Examples To Blow Your Readers Away: @ReedsyHQ
How to Plot a Novel From Scratch (Video): by Chris Fox

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

What Authors Need To Know When Writing About Law: @FredBobJohn @standoutbooks

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Beats

Predator Beat Sheet: @DonRoff @savethecat

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Concept

Top 10 Links To Make Sure Your Idea Kicks Ass: @EmmaStoryteller @Bang2write

Writing Craft / Revision

4 Ways to Successfully Self-Edit Your Manuscript: @NinaAmir
8 things to remember when editing your novel: @LisaODonnell72 @cbcreative
4 Easy Edits That Make Your Story Flow Better: @Julie_Glover

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How to Recover from Harsh Writing Critiques: @BeingTheWriter @womenonwriting

Writing Craft / Scenes

How to Launch a Scene: @AnneHawley @StoryGrid

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

An Experiment in Writing Description: @EldredBird
Tips for Writing the Small Town Setting:

Writing Craft / Word Crafting

Readers, Characters and Word Choices – Keeping Them All in Mind: @authorterryo

Writing Craft / World-Building

Five Worldbuilding Errors That Should Be Banished from SF Forever: @jamesdnicoll @tordotcom

Writing Tools / Apps

5 Author Productivity Tools: @DaveChesson @DIYMFA
How to Review Old Drafts With Scrivener Snapshots: @kristen_kieffer

Writing Tools / Resources

20 Podcasts for Authors on Writing, Publishing, and Book Marketing: @DianaUrban

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Published on November 18, 2018 02:20

November 16, 2018

Writing the Small Town Setting

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

As a mystery writer, I’m especially fond of small town settings. I have written larger cities (notably the Memphis Barbeque series), but to make it work, I basically created a small setting within a larger one (life surrounding a family-owned restaurant).

I think small town settings have a lot to offer writers of other genres, too. That’s because it offers ample opportunity for conflict…and we all know that conflict drives stories.

You may have a more idealistic view of small towns. That dichotomy is what makes it so interesting.

Here are the elements that I usually draw on in painting life in a small town:

Residents are friendly…and not. One interesting aspect of small town life is that the residents can be friendly. You might not feel like a stranger when you first arrive in town because people are curious and that curiosity can translate into chattiness (especially in the American South). But later, you may find that residents usually want to protect their way of life and are very resistant to change. They can be especially hostile when they feel their way of life is threatened or if a newcomer claims to know how to make things better (and more like the place they moved away from). This can lend a very insular feeling to a location.

Going along with the friendliness motif, small towns can be cliquey. This may be because families tend to stick together (and cousins may be located all over town). It can be a cliquey aspect surrounding the various churches that residents attend. And of course, it’s also cliquey because residents share so much backstory that they can’t really help but fall into the same patterns with the same people.

There is a lot of backstory in small towns. Expanding on backstory–it’s everything in a small town. You might be considered a newcomer, even if you lived your entire life in the town, if your parents or grandparents moved to the town. There are so many people with personal histories deeply entrenched in town history that it’s hard to distinguish the person from the town. Maybe the resident comes from a long line of teachers and principals in the town. Maybe the resident’s great-grandfather helped found one of the local churches or started the town newspaper.

Your history is your identity. It can be hard to escape it. As a kid growing up, everyone knows about your family background and first impressions may be based more on who your family is than who you appear to be.

Town info hubs. There are places where folks meet up…and possibly gossip about each other, too. These can include salons and barber shops, favorite restaurants/diners, and churches.

Gossip. Privacy can be key because otherwise the whole town knows. This leads to that most exciting element in a mystery…secrets.

Grudges (including generational grudges). When people have known each other for a long time, and when their families have known each other for a long time, pettiness and grudges can occur.

Support. This is a pro of small-town living. If you experience hardship or loss, the town pitches in. You’re not suffering on your own, the town is suffering it right along with you. And in good times, the same applies–you’re not celebrating on your own. There are also many rituals involved in both weddings and funerals…expectations that the residents may have on how both are handled.

Do you write small-town settings? Have you ever lived in a small town? What types of small town elements have you included in your writing?

Tips for Writing a Small Town Setting:
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Published on November 16, 2018 02:46

November 11, 2018

So You’ve Gotten Your Rights Back

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve published a couple of posts about getting your character rights back from publishers. This enables writers to continue publishing new books in a series. In my case, I’d been allowed to continue my series, but I hadn’t been able to republish my backlist (the publishers still wanted to hold those rights).

My backlist is still being held by Penguin for one of my series (and another Penguin series doesn’t have a hope of released rights), but for another publisher I finally have the digital rights back to the first book in the Myrtle Clover series (as of July). I’d received print rights back some time back to the book.

If this all sounds rather complicated…yes, it can be. I regularly receive emails from traditionally published writers who either aren’t sure about how to go about asking for rights or who aren’t totally sure what to do after they get their rights back.

If you’re trying to get your rights back, see these posts of mine for a little direction:

Thoughts on Getting Rights Back

Self-Publishing a Series that Started in Trad. Pub

If you’re a writer who isn’t totally sure what to do once you’ve gotten yours back, here are some ideas (I’m working on most of these, myself).

Character Rights:

If you’ve gotten your character rights back (but not the rights to republish the first books in your series), there are a few things you can do.

First off, you can continue writing your series. This is not (at least, it wasn’t for me) very time-consuming since we’ve already built the story world and have well-developed characters.

Usually you’ll need to figure out a delicate balance between continuing the branding from the beginning of the series and not using the same elements that your publisher’s cover designer used. This may mean changing the font (but possibly using the same color scheme), etc. It’s a little tricky, but it helps if you find a professional cover designer who can figure out how best to navigate it.

If your books function as standalones, it’s possible to create box sets/bundles with the books that you write. I’ve done it and readers didn’t complain about not getting the first book in the series.

With the books you write yourself, you can really expand your audience. When you expand your reach, I’ve found that readers go back and read the first books in your series, too. Try moving into audio, the library market, foreign markets, and translated books.

Digital and Print Rights to Books the Publisher Previously Held:

Here is where things really start opening up.

First off, you can set your book one as a loss leader (at a lower price than the rest of your books) or a newsletter magnet (a giveaway for readers who sign up for your author newsletter to hear of new releases).

Now you can create box sets where all of the books in the series are included.

Maybe your books weren’t available in print. Maybe they weren’t available in hardcover. Maybe they weren’t available digitally. Or in large print. Now you have an opportunity to correct that by making the book available in all formats.

If you’re trying to reach a younger audience, you can upload the first book in the series to a platform like Wattpad (I’ve developed a much younger readership this way). It’s best to upload a chapter each week and put a note at the bottom of each chapter stating where to buy the rest of the series.

And the same advice as above applies: you can expand your reach because you hold all the rights. Want to reach the library market? Audio book lovers? English language readers in other countries (UK, Australia, Canada)? Readers in non-English-speaking markets through translation?

If all of this seems like a lot of work in addition to your writing (and reading this post over, it definitely does), then remember to tackle it in small increments. Research a format or a distributor for 10 minutes each day for a week. Then set up a profile at the retailer or distributor the following day. Then upload a book or two. Just take it one task at a time.

Have you had rights reverted to you? How are you exploiting them?

What to Do After a Rights Reversion:
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Published on November 11, 2018 21:02