5 Ways to Create Those Cozy Characters!

PART THREE OF OUR MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: HOW TO WRITE A COZY MYSTERY!

Did you grow up reading any of these?

• Trixie Belden
• Cherry Ames
• Sue Barton
• Nancy Drew
• Hardy Boys
• Agatha Christie

My Cherry Ames books (some from my older sisters!) in an attic cache here on the farm.

Your kids probably read some of these (and maybe your old copies of the above!)

• Nate the Great
• Cam Jansen
• Encyclopedia Brown
• Boxcar Children
• Babysitters Club
• Bunnicula (and Friends)

Look at these! Old favorites, well-read and dog-eared, the way a good book should be!

And then we morphed to adult books... We got educated. We realized that while Arthur Conan Doyle was pretty smart, literary minds were reading coming of age (sometimes downright depressing) book-club type books. (note that I am naming no names, no offense intended... but I do have a nasty habit of THROWING THOSE BOOKS across the room. My bad.)

Now that's all well and good, but the audience for cozy mysteries hasn't gone away. In fact, with the baby boomer generation pretty much heading toward or in retirement, there's a huge and growing audience for these sweet, funny mysteries. 

The brochure from GUIDEPOSTS.COM announcing our Mysteries of Martha's Vineyard series and I love the models they used for Priscilla (second from left) and the three cousins she discovers on the island!

We talked in June about Cozy Story Structure (that blog post HERE!) and then the delightfully smart (I had to get the word delightful in there, it drives Tina bonkers.) Nancy Mehl swung by and talked about Writing the Cozy Mystery HERE... so part three of our Magical Mystery Tour is all about characters.

Have fun with your characters! They don't have to be goofy... but it's good for the reader to have Sudden Sympathy with the main character for whatever reason. If it's a series, you want that main character to grow slowly over the life of the series. Maybe gain insight. But you have to start with book one, right?

• Is your main character a man or a woman?
• Single or divorced or widowed? (He/she can be married, but you tie up an important component of conflict and emotion then.)
• Age?
• Why are they where they are? (This is a big question. In "A Light in the Darkness", my new mystery from Guideposts "Mysteries of Martha's Vineyard", Priscilla is a widowed farm wife whose family had been estranged from her Massachusetts family for decades. Priscilla hasn't been to the island in fifty years. Now she's inherited a lighthouse after a long, cold, gray, lonely winter on the Kansas prairie. She's adrift... and what better place to hang your life boat than an ocean island?)
• Friends? Friends can provide LOTS OF FUN and FRICTION just like in any story, but it's magnified in a cozy. You can give them one-liners, one can be dry, one can be prissy, one can be engaging, one could be sacrificial... You can pick and choose, because if you develop this story into a series, you get to grow these characters along with your plots!
• Family?  (Think of the conflicts that can arise if your dad is Sherlock Holmes. Or Miss Jane Marple is your grandmother. Or Monk is your socially inappropriate brother.) Does your main character have family nearby? Or are they thrust out of their comfort zone on their own?
• Pets. Pets are big in cozies... heck, sometimes the pet is solving the crime, pointing out the obvious. Folks love to "see" things through the eyes of cat, dog, bird, etcetera. Don't be too wild... but let your imagination run wild!
• Neighbors. Neighbors can be a source of irritation or inspiration, all depending on your direction. Or both! Most folks have more than one neighbor, right? And if the neighbor is an incidental pain in the bum or a motherly type who bustles and reveals clues in all innocence... Wonderful!

Love this brochure, also included in the mailing! 

Think of the future-- Yours and theirs!!!-- when casting your cozy(ies). You want the characters to have room for growth and refinement, so it's okay to let them swing a little free in this first story. Don't think about this particular plot as you develop the characters. Rather, think of the town. The neighborhood. The precinct. The parish. The community surrounding the sleuth.

The plot in a cozy is a structure, similar to romance structure. That structure can be inserted into the situation and then you tweak the setting and have the characters respond IN CHARACTER... and voila, all of a sudden, you've got the makings of a series! GO YOU!

I said before that I never thought I'd write a mystery... and then I wrote one and fell in love. With the town, with the premise, with Priscilla, a woman my age who gets caught adrift when her life takes an abrupt and unexpected turn. 

Secondary Characters are C-L-U-T-C-H.
A cozy needs humor. Quirks. Emotion. Red herrings.... and these secondary characters are the best! You want your secondaries to create balance... and disrupt the smooth ride. Use a few repeating characters from book to book (if you're contemplating a series) but it's all right to bring in new quirky or solid characters. Agatha Christie made Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and the funny, sweet couple Tommy and Tuppence. 

Although isn't Hercule Poirot supposed to be dark-haired and dark-mustache???  Here's the trailer for this fall's new version of "Murder on the Orient Express"... which looks marvelous! Even with Poirot's hair!

A mystery needs suspects. Now these can be recurring characters who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or new characters with a reason to cause harm... Or a past that haunts them. It doesn't have to be major in a cozy. They might just be stinkin' mad about the circumstances or screening a loved one... Those personalities are what engage the reader, drawing them into the story. 

You can order the first book... written by yours truly!... RIGHT HERE! And when you order the book, add MMV30 into the "DISCOUNT CODE" box and get 30% off! 

Cozy mysteries are crazy popular... like Amish romance, there is a huge audience for lighter fare as documented by this article. 

Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers created an oath for mystery authors: Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence, or Act of God?

To be part of their mystery author's group, one was required to speak the oath! I (for my own part) enjoy a bit of Jiggery-Pokery now and again. :) Whatever that is! 

Genres vary. Sales go up and down. As a small business operator, it's good for authors to spread their wings. Teaching ourselves new techniques and embracing new opportunities is like a long-standing teacher changing grade levels. Ten years teaching third grade is great, but there's a wonderful growth curve when you're thrust into fifth-grade lesson plans... and that's the kind of shake-up we authors can use from time to time. Not to change what we do... but expand our baseline.

Hey, I've got a copy of "A Light in the Darkness" to give away today, book one of the Martha's Vineyard series... and I'd love to give it to you! Leave a comment inside and let's talk about what you're doing to make your dream come true this year... if a door closes, are you hunting for that promised open window?

Coffee and peach pie are on the countertop... because what is better mid-summer than homemade peach pie? And you can find my favorite peach pie recipe right here! 

Multi-published, award-winning inspirational author Ruth Logan Herne loves to chat with folks... and write sweet books. She is also this years "Chicken Coop Builder" and is soon to be listed on the docket of "Donkey Shed Builder". She takes these awards most seriously and will (no doubt) feature a woman who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty and scuffed up in an upcoming book... which might be part of her Shepherd's Crossing cowboy series, coming in 2018 from Love Inspired! Research takes on a whole different note at Ruthy's house! :)  Find her online at ruthloganherne.com or friend her on facebook at Ruth Logan Herne where she loves to talk... and meet readers!