Thinking Outside the Box/Stinking Outside the Box

This past week, as 2016 came to an end and the new year began, I happened to meet a handsome black cat that looks very like a panther. But unlike a panther in the wild, this cat stays indoors, which means a lot of window time for him, and litter clean up time for his human. Except that the cat never ends up using the litter box. He has every good intention, which means he goes to the rectangular box, but once there, he turns himself around so that he does his business outside the box. Stinking outside the box, which does not sit well with his human.
So of course I got to thinking about how writers often talk about writing outside the box, thinking outside the box, if you will. It's a tricky thing, being outside the box. Sometimes it works, and other times, as with the cat, it back fires.
Take my Commissioner Oscar D'Costa mystery series. I thought I was writing inside the box by creating a male protagonist and setting the story in India (these days there are mysteries set in Italy, Ireland, France, to name a few) and then I thought I was thinking outside the box by highlighting a social problem in every novel, the first of which dealt with human trafficking. I had hoped the combination of inside/outside would be a winning one, and would garner interest. Not quite. I recently heard from a reader that my novel did not have enough women in it. Sigh. Never mind that the novel begins with a girl going missing, and is propelled by her sister looking for her.
I guess, like the panther cat, I need to think some more before I sit down and face the rectangular screen of my computer.