Welcome to the Cozy Crime Collective Blog. Every month one of us, cozy and light mystery writers, will post about our writing life. Hopefully it will give you some insights into our creative process as we share a bit more about ourselves. So, here goes.
My process is pretty simple. I find a quiet place with little distraction, and I start writing. I try and write from 1,000 to 1,500 words a day, Monday to Friday. I write what some people call from the seat of my pants. I’m what they call a ‘pantser’. That really means I don’t have an outline or pre-set plan for what I’m going to write. Instead, I try and connect with what I call the ‘creative flow’. When I do, the ideas and words just flow, and I write them down as they come.
Now, it’s not quite that simple. I do need a place to start from and since I’ve written 13 books so far, I have a crew of recurring characters already formed. That starting point is usually a story I have heard or an article in the news that spikes my interest. For example, I have heard people in the Grand Bank area talk about smuggling. A lot more in olden years, especially during prohibition days. But still today. Tax- and duty-free alcohol and cigarettes are still pretty attractive to criminals. That led me to thinking about modern day smuggling and into a whole range of stories, crimes and even murders that came out of those activities.
Once I have a beginning, the middle part isn’t easy, but it becomes clearer. I write my word count every day for about three months and at the end I have something that looks like a book. I do periodic revisions, every 10,000 words or so and a final, for me, edit right after I type “The End”. Then it goes to my fabulous team of beta readers who comb through it and point out my many errors and inconsistencies. After that, over to my excellent editor, Allister, who straightens out all the wrinkles and gives me a clean final copy. That goes off to the publisher who formats it and send it back. One more quick review by me and then a final proofread by the excellent Alex Z. and we have a book that is ready to meet you and the world.
Is it hard? Sometimes. But so is breathing, sometimes. I am very proud of my work and what I have created along with my team. As one of my favourite authors, Richard Wagamese has said when people congratulated him on his books. “I claim only the discipline, dedication, sacrifice and commitment as my own. All else belongs to Creator.”
Mike Martin is the author of the Award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series. His latest book, All That Glitters is an Amazon #1 Best-Selling Cozy Mystery.
Sgt. Windflower Mysteries 
Hi everyone!
I’m a bit of a pantser too, although I think I’m slowly becoming more of a planner… As Mike says, with a series, some level of planning is imperative, but on the other hand, if we already have extensive knowledge of our characters, setting, previous events, future possibilities from things we’ve mentioned in previous books, etc, then pantsing the story part a bit is easier.
Like Mike, I too take I inspiration from things that happen around me. Only last night, my husband and I happened upon a young man who’d crashed his car into a hedge (luckily unhurt). We flagged down a passing tractor, and pulled him free – as you do when you live in th countryside! He’ll be in a story soon, I’m sure. In the second book in my series, A Hover of Trout, out later this month, I acknowledge a fisherman called Seb, who I got chatting to on the riverbank one day. The main story of the book was already formed, but Seb gave me a lot of the little details and helped the story come together. I never saw him again!
Less like Mike, I don’t have a regular routine to write. I juggle teaching online with writing, and even when I plan to write, I find lesson planning often takes over and by the time I’ve gazed at my computer for hours, the last thing I want to do is stare at my screen any longer. I work well to deadlines and prompts though, and have submitted 8000 words in two competition entry short stories in the last few days. I also try to do NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) each November as the accountability of logging my words into a graph that others can look at really spurs me on. I think I’m just competitive, to be honest!
I also edit as I go – I write into word or Scrivener, then copy into the other, chapter by chapter, and edit each chapter as I copy it into the Word master document. I tend to write a full chapter in each setting, which dictates how long I write for rather than a set amount of time, and if I get stuck, that is where Scrivener really comes into its own – I can use its corkboard function to put placeholders, and skip on to a section that I know needs to happen in the story, then go back and join the dots. As I edit as I write, I generally end up with a reasonably clean copy by the time the book is complete, and the next lots of edits are more about tidying up typos and tweaking words and phrases than major plot changes. I also try to write ahead a little so the next book is in my head while I write the current one so I can have fun with sneaking in foreshadowing and clues and characters who may be introduced in one book can develop further in anither book… Or die, of course!
Looking forward to hearing other responses!
Love, Jinny x
Meanwhile, you can order A Diet of Death or pre order A Hover of Trout here: linktr.ee/JinnyAlexander
and follow me at http://www.facebook.com/JinnyAlexanderAuthor
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Wow. Great comment Jinny. Almost your own blog post, too!!
Mike Martin
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When it’s my turn, I expect you to do the same! Now, where are the other 8?????
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