Developing a Cozy Series: Hook

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig 

It’s been a long time since I developed a new cozy mystery series.  Long enough so that I tried to remember exactly how I’d gone about it the last couple of times.  I ended up not being able to reconstruct my process from the other times, so I started out with a blank slate.  For posterity’s sake, in case I need to reference this in the future, myself, I thought I’d share what I’ve done (so far) this time.  Today I’m covering the series hook (also known as a theme) and then on next Friday (after a short blog break) I’ll talk about my considerations setting up sleuth, sidekick, and other basics.

For the cozy mystery, the hook is pretty important.  It’s actually important enough for me to have considered it the very first thing.  Did I want animal themed books? Craft themed? Occupation themed?  The first thing I did was to visit a fantastic cozy mystery resource:   https://www.cozy-mystery.com  . There is a page on the site that lists cozies by theme. There I reviewed all of the different options that others had used.  It may be different for you, but I felt very little need to be ultra-different from everyone else. I wasn’t looking for a really unusual hook, mostly because I wanted something that I could feel very comfortable writing.

If you are interested in something fun and different, there are a slew of different examples on the page to get your brain thinking. There are cruise ship mysteries, sleuths as dancers, golfing cozies, and candle-making cozies. By far, the most popular hook categories (to the extent that they have their own BISAC categories at retailers) are craft and hobby cozies, culinary-themed cozies, and cozies featuring cats and dogs.

First, I made a list of all the possibilities that I found the most appealing to me.   If there’s one thing I’ve learned from writing cozy series is that they can continue on for years and years.  Readers are incredibly loyal to cozy characters.   It’s important to choose a hook that appeals not just to the reader but to you, too.  You’re going to be spending a lot of time in that story world.

Next, I jotted down pros and cons of all of the potential hooks.  For instance, I thought a bed and breakfast series would be fun from the aspect of having different characters coming through and from the aspect that the setting could be very appealing.  The cons though? Wouldn’t the police be shutting down the B&B if it ended up being a hotspot for murder? And shouldn’t the owner be spending most of her time at the location? How would I make it work?

The next considerations were tied together.  How much research would this concept take and how much time did I have?  This may be part of the appeal of writing culinary or pet-themed cozies…it really doesn’t take much research. I knew if I picked something like genealogy or flower shops that I would be doing more research than if I’d picked something I knew more about.  I’ve put in likely 100 hours or more of research on quilting for the Southern Quilting Mysteries since I’m not crafty: those are hours going to quilt shows and shops, talking with quilters, reading websites, learning more about quilt guild activities, and watching quilters work on YouTube.  The time I spent was very rewarding to me and it was important that I got it right.  But I know that writing three series simultaneously means that I don’t really have the time to spend in a lot of research.

Keeping all of this in mind, I chose to go with a library theme and have my sleuth work as a librarian. I grew up in a library and my family was always either on the board or involved with Friends of the Library, or both.  I still did a lot of set-up research, but not nearly as much as was needed for my quilting series (or, actually, for my Memphis Barbeque series, either).  And…readers like books and libraries.  :)

This post is intended mainly for cozy writers because of the special emphasis the genre puts on hook, but many of these considerations are important for writers of other genres, as well.

For further reading,  see writer Janice Hardy’s post  “5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Character’s Career.”

If you’re a cozy writer, how have you picked your hook?  For other genres, how important is your protagonist’s occupation or hobby?

And quick note that I’m taking a long weekend this weekend and another short blog break since I’ll have limited access to Wifi.  Twitterific will run this Sunday (but no posts this Friday or Monday).  I’ll be back with a post on cozy series development on Friday, December 7th. Thanks!

Photo credit: Onasill ~ Bill Badzo on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA