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Objective:This exercise encourages authors to create a multi-sensory experience of their setting, making it come alive for readers by engaging all five senses.

Instructions:

Select Your Setting:Begin with a general idea of your setting, whether it’s a quaint village, a seaside town, or a unique establishment like a bookstore or café.

Create a Sensory Chart:Make a chart with five columns, one for each of the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Fill in the Chart:For each sense, list details specific to your setting. For example, for a small village, you might include the sight of colorful cottages, the sound of a local festival, the smell of fresh bread from the bakery, the taste of the signature dish at the local pub, and the touch of hand-woven textiles at the market.

Expand Each Detail:Take each sensory detail and write a short paragraph expanding on it. Describe a scene or a moment in your story where this detail comes to the forefront, making the setting feel real and vibrant.

Integrate the Details:Look for ways to weave these sensory details into your narrative, setting descriptions, and character interactions to enrich the atmosphere and depth of your setting.

Exercise 2: The Setting’s Biography

Objective:This exercise aims to develop the history and personality of the setting, treating it as if it were a character in your story. HUMOR ME.

Instructions:

Outline the Setting’s History:Start by jotting down key historical events that have shaped your setting. Consider founding stories, notable inhabitants, significant changes over time, and any legends or mysteries associated with it.

Describe the Setting’s Personality:Just as you would with a character, describe your setting’s personality. Is it warm and welcoming? Mysterious and secretive? Bustling and energetic? Consider how the setting’s “personality” affects the mood of your story and the lives of your characters.

Identify Key Landmarks:Choose a few landmarks or focal points in your setting (e.g., a historic inn, a mysterious forest, a charming art gallery) and write a brief backstory for each. Explain their significance to the community and how they contribute to the setting’s charm and mystery.

Develop the Social Dynamics:Describe the social fabric and community life in your setting. How do residents interact? What are the local traditions, festivals, or events? How do these social dynamics influence the mysteries in your story?

Reflect on Change:Consider how your setting has evolved over time and how it continues to change. Reflect on how these changes impact the setting’s character and the storylines it inspires.

By completing these exercises, aspiring authors can craft settings for their cozy mysteries that are not only charming and inviting but also richly detailed and believably woven into the fabric of their stories. These settings will become more than just backdrops; they’ll be integral components that enrich the narrative and captivate readers.

P.S. You can cannibalize these notes later on.

4. A Series of Unfortunate Events – Series

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A Series of Unfortunate Events – Series

The majority ofcozy mysteries—in fact, one of the major selling points of cozy mysteries—is that these books are largelyseriesbooks. So, before we go any further, we need to discuss the elements of writing a series.

The decision to write a series is ideally madebeforethe first book is even written. This is for reasons both creative and strategic.

Here are key reasons why this foresight can be beneficial:

Character Development:Remember our discussion of character arc? Planning for a series allows you to design characters with depth and complexity that can evolve over time. You can introduce backgrounds, traits, and multiple story and character arcs that unfold gradually, keeping readers engaged and eager to see how characters grow across books.

World-Building:With a series in mind, it makes sense to invest time in research and world-building to create a rich and detailed setting that serves as more than just a backdrop for the initial story. This world can expand and deepen with each book, becoming a character in its own right that readers grow to love and look forward to revisiting.

Plot Planning:Knowing you have multiple books allows you to plot not only the arc of each individual book but also an overarching narrative that spans the series. It reminds you to pace yourself and resist the temptation to throw everything you’ve got into the first book. And it gives you so many more tools, including foreshadowing, developing long-term mysteries, and weaving in subplots that can be explored in more detail in later books to entice and tantalize readers.

Reader Investment:See above. A series offers readers the chance to invest in your characters and the world you’ve created, building a loyal fan base. If readers know from the start that there’s more to come, they’re more likely to commit to the first book and anticipate subsequent entries.

Marketing and Sales Potential:From a practical perspective, series have strong marketing and sales potential. They offer multiple points of entry for new readers and provide ongoing opportunities for promotion. Each new book can rejuvenate interest in earlier ones, helping to sustain sales over time.

Creative Momentum:Writing a series can give you, as the author, a clear sense of direction and purpose. Knowing where your story is headed in the long term can fuel your creativity and motivation, making the writing process more focused and enjoyable.

Setting Up Intrigue:The initial book can plant seeds of intrigue that bloom in later volumes, setting up mysteries, character dilemmas, or world secrets that tantalize readers and keep them coming back for more.