by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve touched on this topic before, although before I was sort of working it through in my mind. What I’m calling ‘series tropes,’ which is what writer Camille LaGuire termed ‘rituals,’ are those little recurring bits that turn up book after book in a series (this post is specific to cozies, but I know other genres use these elements, too).
Examples:
In M.C. Beaton’s Hamish MacBeth series, it’s Hamish’s hapless love affairs, laziness, and crazy pets. For Hercule Poirot, it’s his vanity and OCD behavior. With Miss Marple, we expect her to compare everything and everyone to situations and people in St. Mary Mead, her village.
In my books, the tropes include Myrtle’s insomnia and post-midnight treks, Miles’s hypochondria, Puddin’s ‘thrown’ back, silly book club books, the way Myrtle’s soap opera helps her figure out the killer, and Myrtle’s horrible cooking.
How to Use Them:
Humor: You can use them straight out for humorous effect that resonates with regular readers. You can also twist the tropes and provide variations on the themes to make them even funnier (while putting the characters in situations that make them uncomfortable).
Sense of continuity: I think it provides a certain full-circle feeling for regular series readers. They expect certain things are going to happen. It fulfills reader expectations. It’s almost like seeing a familiar landmark.
As a method to check in with recurring characters: This is important for those of us who have regulars in our series. Readers like to ‘catch up’ with characters who are like old friends and our tropes can provide opportunities for them to do so.
Tracking them:
This is the easy part. List all of your recurring storylines into a master list by series. I have a staggering 18 in the Myrtle series alone. I keep them in a Word doc that I review before each book.
Why should we include these rituals? Mostly because readers enjoy them. I struggled with it as a writer, thinking that maybe I was relying on these tropes as crutches. But when I left them out, readers wrote me. Now I go off my list, think of fun, new ways to use or twist them, and don’t worry about including them. They’re clearly beneficial to my books.
For my other articles on writing cozy mysteries, see this link.
Do you have any recurring tropes in your series? Do you keep track of them?
Series Tropes and Rituals in the Cozy Mystery: Click To TweetPhoto on Visualhunt
Elizabeth, I did not know about “series tropes”. I always considered “tropes” to be a fictional character’s eccentricities, if that is the right word, and Wodehouse gives the readers a fair share of those. Tropes are a pleasant distraction, I agree, though sometimes I fail to notice them in the course of reading a book.
I’m not surprised that you haven’t heard about them…I haven’t seen much about them, either. And it might be that Camille’s terminology is better: they’re a lot like ‘rituals’ that take place in every book. Sometimes they’re almost an inside joke between the reader and the writer. You’re right about Wodehouse, who had lots of examples. I don’t think I thought much about them myself until a reader contacted me because she was unhappy that I’d forgotten to include one, ha!
Not much in the way of tropes for my series except that Byron wanted his privacy in each one. (And of course, never got it.)
I think that could be a fun trope to play around with!
What an interesting post, Elizabeth. Those tropes and rituals can really help a reader connect with a series. And, in my opinion, they can also help with character development, too. They’re there in several series, too. I’m thinking, for instance, of Louise Penny’s Three Pines series, and the ongoing banter between poet Ruth Zardo and B&B owners Gabri and Olivier. Readers expect things like that, and I think they feel a part of the series when those things are there.
Excellent point! The banter really makes Penny’s series, doesn’t it?
Series tropes are one of the reasons why I enjoy reading cozy mysteries. It’s what makes them so much fun :-)
I think they’re fun, too. :) They’re fun to write, as well.
Hi Elizabeth – it keeps us connected to the series … like Colombo’s mac that Peter Falk wears … we relate to his character through the scruffy persona. So I can quite see where you’re coming from … love the idea of using cooking failures/successes in your books – cheers Hilary
Good point that the tropes are character building, as well!
Yes, and sadly a lot of those cooking failure inspirations come from my own kitchen. :)
Interesting post, Elizabeth! I felt the same way you did at first, that employing a recurring device would be a crutch, but I later came to see it more as an inside joke, e.g., in the Harry Potter series, the Professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts course always ends up leaving by the end of the year (usually for a REALLY bad reason) and they have to get another one!
I know I have a few, but it would be a good idea to really do an accounting of all of them, as I’m writing book #7 right now…it starts to get away from me a bit!
Great example! I’d forgotten about that one–the perfect inside joke, for sure!
I was amazed how many I had; I filled up an entire page for one series.
I read Robert B. Parker’s Spenser mysteries not so much for the mystery but for the banter, the dialogue, and the reunion with fascinating characters to see what mischief they’d been up since the last novel. I reread certain favorite novels from that series just for the camaraderie. I am re-reading the Longmire series for the same reason. I try to put those elements in my own several series, hoping I can make a cyber family for those who might have none of their own in reality. As always, a great post.
Another excellent example! I love Spenser’s books, too, and that’s exactly the reason why. I like your way of putting it: a ‘cyber family.’
Didn’t realize that they had these troupes in mysteries. But they make the main characters stand out. I’m drawn into the characters as much as the mystery when I read mysteries.
So am I! Thanks for coming by, Natalie!
Excellent recommendations. I’ve made notes!
Thanks, Grace!