I feel like I have said this N times already but sub-genre is a concept that comes slowly to me. Hence, I never quite grasped the concept of cozy mystery until recently and my first time experience didn’t amount to anything even close to liking. I felt the pacing was too slow and there was no element in particular that I liked.
It’s a bit hard to talk about a definitive work that changed this but perhaps it started with the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie. All right, so back in her days there was no such thing as a cozy mystery and I’m pretty sure it won’t be classified under cozy mystery now (I just checked Amazon to make sure and yep, I’m not wrong).
For contemporaries, I don’t remember particular author names but I did read a couple just last year or early this year. I can’t say what finally made me click with them other than they are good light reading. I mean, it used to be that all mysteries were ultimately light reading for me. But in recent years, I feel like that is less the case given my penchant for staying away from the epic fantasy subgenre (I’ve already blogged about it earlier in Competition between Reading and Writing Fantasy) and there is an overall shift towards making series more standalone nowadays that makes the distinction between serious and light reading material almost redundant. Of course, there is always a mental shift that now allows me to sample book 1 of a series and then discontinue with it at whim.
And that’s it as far as cozy mystery and me is concerned. I haven’t actually put it on my favourite or comfy list or whatever but I’m not averse to picking up books from this sub-genre as I encounter them. As it will be always be with me, it’s entirely up to the backcover blurb or summary on my library’s catalogue.
Those who have been following my blog would probably know that I firmly belong to the planner school in terms of a writer. This is to say that I outline each scene rather than write them on-the-go. But how does my process look like after that, you might wonder. This is what this post is all about.
First up, I have to say that my process is not standard across all scenes. I would dearly like to find a template that I can apply to every scene just because I find comfort in routines. But sadly in practice I can never do that. The easiest scenes are pretty much as I’ve outlined. I can easily convert my traditional outlines into a scene with minimal effort. The task itself is like snapping my fingers, just like that. Through personal experience, I feel like I am already past such scenes. My personal grasp on the WIP seems to be strongest in Act 1 and then it progressively slips.
The next level is where I use what I call pre-writing extensively. There will be large sections where I’m asking myself a bunch of questions about the scene and answering them all in one go. Across consecutive days, I might even go over the same scene several times all in this ‘behind the scenes’. There was this scene where I spent about two weeks on it and I had written 3000+ in total but when I took out all the pre-writing it was a scene of about 500 words.
For the most difficult scenes, mostly I’m playing doctor to see what’s holding me up. Ever since the last couple of decimal drafts, I’ve started to work with a set dot point on all the scenes that I feel I can’t quite get into. In the first go, they only include 2 dot points:
What’s the main events in this scene? Since I’m a event-centric person I usually have little difficulty with this and so I naturally use this as my starting point.
What do I need to do to advance this scene: This is just a place for me to brainstorm what do I think the issues
After this, I usually leave this scene for the next round of iteration (to be honest, I stopped even incrementing along my decimal drafts. I’m still on draft 0.83 and I think I was on it last year. What I’m basically doing is going through my rough draft time and again picking out which scenes I still need to work on and then I will give each scene a week or two at most or sometimes just days and then move on at whim.
Then in the second iteration over the same scene, I might extend the dot point list on the scene with extra dot points including:
What is its narrative purpose?
What are the main character goals?
What is at stake for the character?
What are the Conflict/Impediment to Goal?
What is the Outcome?
What is the Reaction?
What is the Dilemma?
What is the Decision?
What are the opening and closing emotions in this scene
For those not familiar with it, this is from the GCORDD framework from K.M. Weiland’s Outlining your Novel: Map your Way to Success supplemented with other stuff. This framework basically breaks down each scene into Goal, Conflict, Outcome, Reaction, Dilemma and Decision (not each scene has to have all elements but it’s just the most comprehensive framework of breaking down a scene into elements).
At one point, I also had a different set of template from Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting where he conceptualies each scene as an interplay between the character and external parties (another person or the environment) in the sense of the external thing thwarting the character’s expectation and the character’s subsequent reaction to such thwarting and it was this framework that finally clicked with me and made me ‘get’ the concept of beats. So for a while I was summarising a scene as a series of dot points like the following:
Character x expects….
But this happens….
So character x does…
Character x expects…
As you can see, I can keep cycling between the three elements until the end of the scene.
Now, the problem with this framework is that my mind has to be at a pretty micro level with the character and I am not always able to get in there. So lately, I’ve been using the GCORDD framework.
And that’s my share on writing scenes today. Feel free to ping me via comments if anything about my methods interests you.
So some time this year, my passion for jigsaw puzzles has been revived. These are the three redone puzzles that I had completed:
I have a fourth one laid out on the coffee table that I have been neglecting for a week now. And this is the last one I will do before I leave for Europe in May (I didn’t take it very well but there is really nothing to see since I haven’t even got the borders done yet):
It’s a complete mystery to me why this is filed under fantasy on my local library catalogue and this is the ebook catalogue nonetheless. The book cover also doesn’t speak fantasy either. Technically this is not a mystery like I usually read but a thriller about a job by a mercenary group and yes, the title speaks it all but the book itself has nothing to do with the Hollywood movie except it features blood diamonds.
For the book itself, I find it okay as in a solid read but I can’t say much more about it.
Cry Me a River by Nancy Holder
I somehow thought this would be more supernatural mystery but not really. It just reads as a straight mystery with religious vibes. It’s okay though, just not sure that it’s really my cup of tea. It does have the central case that keeps me reading till the end but I feel like the other stuff in there is a bit too cluttered for my taste.
The Body in the Bookcase by Katherine Hall Page
It’s okay for a cozy mystery- pace is pretty snappy and there are a couple places of good high tension in this book.
A Deadly Chapter by Essie Lang
The fact that the protagonist is co-owner of a book store at a castle appeals to me. The writing is solid but not quite memorable.
Down to the Sea by Sue Lawrence
It is a parallel storyline mystery and I did think the earlier storyline was more engaging but the two storylines converge nicely and we had a quite nice bit of high tension right towards the end that counters the relatively cozy pace all throughout the novel. I feel like the cozy mystery sub-genre is perhaps growing on me- I know I used to like more plot-driven or past-faced mysteries.
Last Look by Mariah Stewart
The premise is rather intriguing: an old murder case has been blown open when the body of a girl who was supposed to have died in the 1980s turned up as a murdered prostitute. The main character is the daughter of the FBI agent who investigated the original case. So far, in the string of mysteries I’ve read this year, I feel like this is the first one where I feel like following the protagonist.
Tide of Death by Pauline Rowson
This is the story of a murder case but also a police officer who was framed and has a personal vendetta on the ringleader of an exclusive sexual club. I find the book quite engaging throughout. This is another potential series that I might want to follow.
Fantasy
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
This is the first Russian fantasy I have read and it does bring a touch of freshness to this well-loved genre of mine. I find the plot engaging and the protagonist is driven enough for one to be engaged with her story (personally I can’t say I really like her but I don’t dislike her either). Overall, a well written novel.
Currently on the borderline on whether I read the next book of the series.
Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman
I had just started this today so nothing much to tell yet.
Historical Fiction
The Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell
So I went back to this series featuring Uhtred rather than continuing with the Russian fantasy series. There was some brief disorientation with characters but I conquered it rather easily. I still like this fourth book of the series and see myself continuing it until I think the seventh book (I did snoop into the blurb of most of the series, I think this was the second natural stopping point).
The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell
What I like about this series is that the core struggle for Uhred has stayed the same but new twists keep being introduced such that you never get tired of reading the same thing over and over again. I’ve enjoyed the fifth book of this series and will continue with the next book.
Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell
This book seems a bit of a turning point for Uhtred even though the core struggle reminds the same. As I’ve said before, I intend to go on to the next book and there I will assess whether I want to continue reading the later books. This book itself is solid work by the author, a continuation of this series.
The Pagan Lord byBernard Cornwell
This is the novel where Uhtred has come the closest to his personal goal. I thought this is a natural stopping point for this round but it seems I am wrong. Overall, I do like this continuation. Onto the next book.
Not sure if I had mentioned it before but I will be gone to Europe on my annual overseas trip with Mum in early May and back in June. We are visiting Italy, Switzerland and France all in one-go to save on airplane fares since we are never taking budget flights.
Below is the skeleton of our trip itinerary:
Day 0: Flight from Melbourne
Day 1: Vatican City and small portion of Rome and trying to compensate for sleep deprivation/jet lag
Day 2: Rome
Day 3: Florence
Day 4: Pisa & Siena day trip from Florence
Day 5: Day trip to Cinque Terre from Florence (didn’t realise the travel time involved and I would advise against it because it’s basically 5 hours return trip by train, then again I don’t think many of you would take the “fixed hotel for at least 2 days and take day trips” strategy when traveling that Mum and I use)
Day 6: Venice and half-day trip out to Burano
Day 7: Day tour for walk around Venice, Basilica San Marco, Doges Palace & Gondola ride
Day 8: Zurich (long train ride so only half a day available to tour Zurich)
Day 9: day trip to Lucerne from Zurich
Day 10: Thun
Day 11: day trip to Spiez from Thun
Day 12: Interlaken and Brienz
Day 13: day trip to Lauterbrunnen and Murren from Interlaken
Day 14: day trip to Wengen from Interlaken
Day 15: Lausanne
Day 16: day trip to Gruyeres from Lausanne
Day 17: Annecy
Day 18: day trip to Menthon-Saint-Bernard and Tallories from Annecy
Day 19: Lyon
Day 20: day trip to Vienne from Lyon
Day 21: Paris partial walk-around and day trip to Versailles
Day 22: day trip to Giverchy (Monet mansion and gardens) and Vernon from Paris
Day 23: day trip to Amboise and Chateau Chenoceaux from Paris
Day 24: Paris walk-around and night flight back to Melbourne
Now, as for this blog, it likely won’t be affected. I will have all the post scheduled before I go and you won’t notice my absence at all. I also have a short trip to Asia (HK and Shanghai) planned in October and I’m not sure whether I will call for my birthday leave from blogging yet.
Also, stay tuned to my posts in June about my actual experiences for the European trip outlined here.
I have been making some attempts at ‘cracking’ the omniscient voice in that I wanted to try to dip my hands into writing in that voice even though I won’t be using that particular for a long time (the truth is that my WIP has quite a long way to go still but I do know that it doesn’t go with the omniscient voice). If you followed my blog, you would know that they included the following:
Analysis of two books that I thought were written in omniscient but were not: Under the Heaven and the Bluest Eyes. They are narrated through a voice that sounds quite omniscient though and I think that’s where the confusion lies. Among them, I had actually typed up the whole Under the Heaven in G Docs and annotated each chapter. It took me a while (it served as partial procrastination because I tagged it as one of my writing&related tasks) and I got zero out of it in terms of omniscient but it was not a wasted exercise at all because it taught me where tension can come through a scene subtly. And being Chinese, I do have a personal fondness and a natural inclination towards subtlety.
Writing up an old game that my gaming group played (Adventure aboard the Chen Xing) and had brought to conclusion: I don’t think I had done as much work on it as I ought to. Instead, laziness pretty much set in and it seems like all I changed around were mainly the pronouns. Except for the first chapter where I added a bit of colour of my own. I remember showing it to my gaming group and receiving likes on that aspect
Translating a Chinese novel written in omniscient into English: like my gaming novella I probably should have put more effort into it. As is, my focus is each session is on the translation rather than the omniscient voice. I did go back to some of the earlier chapters to smooth out language but it’s still not quite the foray into omniscient voice that it could have been
The way forward, I’m still continuing with the last dot point. And I won’t be able to cross-post this exercise on the blog because it doesn’t seem right even if I accredit the original author and I’m not going to reach out all the way to mainland China to ask for permission.
This is a piece prompted by a song that I’ve searched out to listen to the day before yesterday on Saturday. It’s a Mandarin song and my rough translation of the song title is “Betrayed Youth” even though a more correct one would be “the Youth we Turned our Backs on”, which seems too much of a mouthful.
Anyway, for the purpose of context, here’s my manual translation of the chorus:
Would you forgive me? My arrogant youth
Running blind
dancing in the dark
The boat you jeer at will dock
Would you forgive me? My youth that lacks for my companionship
The greatest pity is that you use the last distance
To witness my restless departure
Full of apology
….
Would you forgive me? My arrogant youth
Running blind
dancing in the dark
The boat you jeer at will dock
Would you forgive me? My youth that lacks for my companionship
The greatest pity is that you use the tactful distance
To safeguard my anxious departure
With no return date ever
Would you mock me? My childish youth
Arguing with wooden swords
Falling because of dignity
For the things that I cannot back down on
I never let go of even if I had to gnash my teeth
Would you forgive me? My youth that I have turned my back on
How much have I compromised
among the packed crowd
Until I have not gotten anything
Would you forgive me?
Would you forgive me?
My passed away youth
So actually before this song I had been reflecting a bit on my youth and I’ve come to the conclusion that mine isn’t the typical youth, at least not the youth as portrayed in popular culture- full of adrenaline and passion, characterised by youthful follies, a ruthlessness in pursuing dreams and a high degree of self-centredness. Mine, like my life overall, has always been a calm and ‘lukewarm’ existence. Maybe it’s my personality or my own unique take on life, but I didn’t really go through a youth rebellion phase when I was actually a youth and instead had a rather late onset of it coming on in my 30s.
Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever regretted any of my youth. While I think this song might be more poignant for those who have, I feel like it is really about making peace with your past which I think everyone can relate to.
This is now my second round at my male protagonist (the first round was abandoned somewhere in Act 2 when I felt like I haven’t really gotten back into him so I started from scratch) but the truth is I’m so much into my procrastination mood (I’m a bit tired with the reiteration approach that I’m taking with this novel too, I guess. I think I’ve got up to the stage where I felt like I had re-read the bits I’ve written up at least 10 times and feeling a bit sick of reading them again and again) that I’m not sure that I had gotten back into the story any better this time around but at least I went past where I decided to call a stop and go back to the start the first around. So I’m not sure whether that counts as a positive but let’s call it that for now.
Again, I will finish this iteration and see how far that takes. Then I think it’s time for an assessment on the WIP. I’ve trying to cut down on such analytical periods because I’m feeling like they are a method of procrastination on my side. On the other hand, I am a bit lost on this novel right now and for someone with an analytical mind like me, I have often come to some clarity after such analysis. So we will wait and see.
Moonlake's Fiction Space 