by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
When I came back from my France trip in July, several people asked me if I was planning to ‘take Myrtle on a trip to Paris.’ Although I think my octogenarian sleuth would likely love Paris and I’m not totally ruling it out, there are problems with taking Myrtle there…or anywhere that isn’t her small town that she usually lives in.
I have taken Myrtle on a little field trip…a cruise a few years ago. What I discovered, though, was that sometimes readers like the idea of a change. But when the change is made, sometimes they’re not as enthusiastic.
Here are ideas for shaking things up a little in a long-running cozy mystery series (and some likely pros and cons for doing so):
Taking Characters On A Trip
This can be fun to write and also to read. The pros are that you’re taking your characters to a different setting and seeing how they act in that different environment. They’ll meet new people along the way and will experience different and interesting places.
The big issue here is that you probably can’t move your whole story world. Although I did get some positive feedback from readers when I took Myrtle on vacation,
Trying a Manor House/Country House Approach
How do these work? The ingredients are pretty simple: a large, remote home; a house party; and a murder. Extra points if bad weather keeps the guests confined. The field of suspects is limited and tension runs high.
One of the potential problems with this approach is the same as the issue with taking the characters on a trip: are you going to move your entire cast of characters to the country house? If so, what’s the occasion (and just how big is that house?)
To read some examples of these stories, check out this post by Stephen Giles of Crime Reads and this one on Cross-Examining Crimes.
Introducing New, Recurring Characters
This is one way to inject something a little different into a long-running series. Maybe it’s a character who rubs your protagonist the wrong way and can add some conflict to the stories. Maybe it’s a love interest for your protagonist or another character. Whatever it is, they add a new element to the series.
A con of this approach is that you’re adding to your cast of characters…which may be fine, or may be a problem if you already had a large cast. Also, this is another character you’ll need to write for so it can add to a work load if it’s a recurring character you’re going t o keep up with.
Lesley A. Diehl has a good post on this, specific to cozy mysteries.
As a reader, what do you like to see as a new element in a long-running series? As a writer, do you look for ways to keep a series from feeling stale?
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Hi Elizabeth,
a very good point. Cozies live from the enclosed environment. Readers sign up for a world, so to speak. Changing that is difficult, so the best option is always, as you recommend, to introduce new elements into that world.
The alternative is to create a story that has a moving environment from the outset. My second series features a tour operator and the settings change for each trip. Like that, the reader knows what they are buying and I have more variation. On the other hand, creating variation in an existing world is a good challenge for a writer.
Great posts, keep them coming
I think that’s a fantastic way to keep things fresh from the very start of the series and establish reader expectations right off the bat. Great idea!
Sorry I’m late to commenting! This was an especially interesting post in the sense that the subject of location is on my radar as I make plans to write a cozy mystery series. My life recently presented me the opportunity to binge-watch a portion of Murder She Wrote. Numerous times I’ve read that this series is representative of what a cozy mystery is…in visual form. I was wondering about that, even as I marked up the TV time as work research…an easy task as I’ve always enjoyed the show. The vast majority of what I’ve watched did not take place in Cabot Cove. I was puzzled as I thought that one location was one of the main criteria for a cozy mystery…with perhaps the occasional vacation or side-trip as you mentioned. That being said, I’ve wondered what other criteria are up for interpretation? I guess we’d be back to your title…try it! I’ve often wondered if I could call my middle-grade mystery a cozy for kids? Wink wink…my ads would attract the attention of all those grandmothers who love cozies!
Sorry I’m late to responding! Something odd is happening with a beta version of WordPress’ new commenting feature.
I’m going off of memory here (and I watched Murder, She Wrote in high school, ha), but I believe most of the early shows were restricted to Cabot Cove before the realization that the murderers should have really killed off most of Cabot Cove’s population kicked in. Then the show started moving to other locations. There was a term, Cabot Cove syndrome, about the issue. :) My own towns of Dappled Hills and Bradley definitely have Cabot Cove syndrome, but I have (for the most part) not moved to other locations. I think readers can suspend their disbelief in this one instance.
And yes! I think you should *definitely* call your MG mystery a cozy! Pull in the older audience and have them buy it for their grandkids. I have readers all the time telling me they are doing multi-generational readings of my books because they’re clean (aside from the murders, ha!)