Authors Electric

I was recently having a conversation with a writing friend and I mentioned I'd like to try something new. The response I received was "write about something you know." So I asked myself, "what do I know?" After a while I realised I may know a little about cozy crime, I've watch enough of them, including: Jonathan Creek Rosemary and Thyme Agatha Raisin Miss Marple Poirot Father Brown I know typically the lead is supposed to be an amateur sleuth but I think it's fair to say the following are also fairly 'cosy.'   Midsomer Murders Death in Paradise Granchester Murdoch Mysteries  Lewis And I think with most of the above I may have watched every episode. I've also found myself reading a fair few cosy mysteries including the Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries by Debbie Young  and a couple of the original Midsummer Murders stories written by Caroline Graham. I also just started to read my first Agatha Raisin book.      ...

I'm also awfully fond of bluebells As a novelist, I like to think I make everything up.  While the standard disclaimer appears on my copyright pages declaring each book a work of fiction, little details creep in from real life.  Snippets and snapshots are dredged up from the ragbag of my memory. Sometimes this is for no apparent reason, such as the recycling bins that appeared in three separate stories in my flash fiction collection, Quick Change . I didn't even notice the repetition until one of my beta readers asked why they kept cropping up. For fear of seeming obsessive, I replaced one bin with a bonfire, which made for a much better story.  Other times I manage to wrestle the reasons from my subconscious after I've finished writing the story, such as the forget-me-not motif that runs throughout my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series.  The first book in the series In the first novel, Best Murder in Show , Hector, the local bookseller, r...

English author Debbie Young Most authors at some point in their writing lives will come across the advice that there are ONLY SEVEN BASIC PLOTS - or maybe nine, or thirty-six, or various other numbers, depending on whom you consult.  If you're the glass-half-empty type, it's easy to think: "Oh no, how can I ever hope to be original? Someone will have got there before me!" Whereas glass-half-full types like me may think: "Well, Shakespeare just took existing stories and upcycled them into his plays - if it's good enough for Shakespeare, who am I to complain?" Those who can't even see the glass are probably best advised to throw down their pen and take up golf instead. The BEST thing to do is, of course, to take your choice of basic plot and wrap around it your choice your characters, themes, setting, etc etc to produce a final story that only you could write .  How Shall I Write It? Let Me Count the Ways  (Photo by MJS on Unspla...