by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I spend a lot of time reading blog posts and sharing them. I’ve noticed there are tons of posts on crafting better story openers. The posts usually talk about hooking readers quickly, drawing them into the action or the character. Agents and experienced writers share critiques of story beginnings and offer suggestions for making them shine.
This is also something that can be important in a cozy mystery, of course. No one wants a beginning that’s stifled by exposition or backstory dumps or introducing an excessive number of characters at once.
And the opener of the first book in a cozy series needs special attention. Readers need to be introduced to the sleuth and hopefully drawn in by the sleuth’s personality. The story world needs to be set up, as well as the series hook (crafts, cuisine, animals). Then there’s a crime to be introduced. There’s a lot to juggle in the first book of a cozy series.
But if you’re writing a cozy mystery series, I think it’s often preferable to start the story out a little differently. That’ s because you can start out with your idyllic, happy, safe…and, yes…cozy environment. You can start out with what’s routine: what a normal day in your story world looks like. This doesn’t have to go on for chapters–just a glimpse of happy normality and what’s lost when someone dies in the close-knit community. You wreck the idyll by introducing a murder and a subsequent investigation. Then, at the end of the story, you tidy it all up again and deliver that same sense of safety and reassurance. You can deliberately mirror the beginning and the ending to give an especially satisfying air to the story…that it’s all been wrapped up and order and justice have prevailed. Janice Hardy has a nice post on mirroring.
That’s not to say I haven’t started books out with a body practically on page one, because I definitely have. But I often like to start out with my octogenarian sleuth and her senior sidekick quietly working on puzzles together and sipping coffee–before the knock on the door that jumpstarts everything.
That’s my quick cozy writing tip of the day. :) If you read or write cozies, is the quiet beginning something you’ve noticed, too? Are there other genres that use this approach?
Cozy Mysteries: The Quiet Beginning: Share on X
Quiet beginnings can definitely be effective, Elizabeth. I think they can set the scene and give the reader a sense of a place. I’ve started a couple of my books that way. At the same time, they’re useful as contrasts to when the dead body is found, etc., and everything gets disrupted. That contrast can really work to keep the reader interested.
Good point about the contrast they provide!
That makes sense – establish the normal first.
For a cozy, the normal is the goal of the book, ha! Hope you have a good week, Alex.
Great tips on how to start a mystery. I’m thinking of trying to write one someday, so I really appreciate the advice.
Hope you do, Natalie! They’re a lot of fun to write. :)
This blog post came right when I needed it. I’m in the revision stage, and my catalyst always comes a scene or two “late” according to “best practices.”
Your post helped clarify that those early chapters have to establish the cozy setting before the impact of a murder can really resonate with the characters. Thanks!
First time poster/long-timer lurker and reader. Really appreciate all the help you give us newbie mystery writers.
Thanks so much for the kind words, Ryan–lurkers are welcome here! Glad to help and best wishes to you for your cozy!
I love a book that offers “cozy-life interrupted” start. In Lord of the Rings, I was so taken with the quaintness of the Shire that I didn’t want to story to move on.
I was, too! That’s so funny. It was my favorite part of Lord of the Rings, ha!