Author and editor Michelle L. Levigne has come back for a return engagement. Michelle writes in many genres and has recently added cozy mysteries to her long list. Glad to have you back, Michelle, telling us how invisible details can be the most important ones!
In the movie, Ready Player One, the hero, Wade, plays a very early video game. He knows enough about James Halliday, who created his virtual reality world, to know the goal isn’t to win the game, but to “wander around in the dark” and find a tiny, invisible dot.
At some time in my process of writing cozies, I need to trip over those invisible dots or puzzle pieces. Well, they don’t stay invisible, of course, but I didn’t see them, didn’t know they were necessary, when I started writing the book. If I don’t find them, tiny gaps threaten the cohesion of the story. The invisible pieces slap me with those incredible “Oh, yeah!” moments between finishing the first draft and revising. During the “back burner” time, when I’m not actively thinking about the story, something I see or hear or am thinking about suddenly flips a switch and “Ah hah!”
For example, in my upcoming Book & Mug mystery, Skeletons in the Cellar (April 2025, Mt. Zion Ridge Press), I realized I needed to introduce the dead body, in this case a history student named Lyndsy, as a living person. What better way than to have her walk into Book & Mug and ask Kai about the tunnels the cousins found during their renovation of the building? This is important to the story and ultimately the motivation of the killer. Lyndsy is investigating stories about Underground Railroad safe houses with tunnels leading to Cadburn Creek.
Those invisible dots, those tiny details don’t seem so important on their own, but their absence could lead to logic holes big enough to fly the Enterprise through. (For instance, where did the watch come from in the movie Somewhere in Time? Old Elise gives it to college student Richard, and adult Richard leaves it with young Elise when he goes back in time. The book has a logical explanation, but not the movie! But I digress…)
When I sit down to write a cozy, I create a calendar. Sometimes it’s a pretty bare calendar. But you have to start somewhere, right?
First I put in the dates, and line it up with the previous book in the series, so I can have stories overlap by a few days. I like this for a sense of continuity. (My editor hates this – she’s afraid I’ll give away too much and readers won’t read the previous story. I hope I tantalize readers to read the other books, y’know?) Then I pick the day when the big inciting incident occurs. In the case of Skeletons, finding a skeleton in the cellar of a house.
Then I need to figure out the events leading up to that important plot moment. In this case, what brings my main POV character into the cellar and what reveals a fake wall?
By then, my brain is dealing with other story events that need to happen to give clues as to who put the body there. I plot out the progression of clues, and incidents where the different POV characters run into the various possible guilty parties and notice little details that they eventually share with each other. At some crucial point in the story, these details connect like a handful of magnets and lead to a satisfying ending, carefully poised between “I did not see that coming” and “Of course, the killer could only be him!”
Funny thing: in Skeletons I knew the guilty party, but as I created more characters and events/clues, I suspected my original villain was being framed. Maybe…
That calendar is important, because during the resting time between first draft and first revisions, when those invisible dots show up, I need to know what sequence of events have to be rearranged or removed, and where to insert those new details. Carefully balanced between being invisible and jumping up and down, shrieking, “Notice me! I’m important!”
Obvious is never good. The goal is for readers to slap their foreheads and groan, “Of course! How did I miss that? It was right there.” Or maybe it was invisible until readers needed to remember it was there …
Writing a cozy can be just as entertaining for the writer as we hope it is for our readers, so they keep coming back for more, and we can say like James Halliday, “Thanks for playing my game.”
To read other guest blogs by Michelle, click here.
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BRIGHTEN YOUR CORNER
When the Tweed cousins, Melba and Cilla, set out to open their candle shop, Brighten Your Corner, obstacles pop out of the woodwork. And from out of the walls and under the floor. Starting with an overbearing cousin who wants to take over, insisting the shop was her idea, a nasty former tenant with shady business associates, who insists the shop they now lease still belongs to him, and a family mystery tangled with rumors of a treasure hunt.
The cousins at Book & Mug consider the Tweeds family. Eden, Kai and Troy, with the help of Saundra and Rufus are determined to help them through the threats and contradictions and increasingly odd and frightening incidents that just don’t make sense. The situation gets serious enough that even the help of mysterious, cynical Nick West, with his powerful connections, is more than welcome.
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On the road to publication, Michelle fell into fandom in college and has 40+ stories in various SF and fantasy universes. She has a bunch of useless degrees in theater, English, film/communication, and writing. Even worse, she has over 100 books and novellas with multiple small presses, in science fiction and fantasy, YA, suspense, women’s fiction, and sub-genres of romance.
Her training includes the Institute for Children’s Literature; proofreading at an advertising agency; and working at a community newspaper. She is a tea snob and freelance edits for a living (MichelleLevigne@gmail.com for info/rates), but only enough to give her time to write. Want to learn about upcoming books, book launch parties, inside information, and cover reveals? Go to Michelle’s website or blog to sign up. You can also find her at www.YeOldeDragonBooks.com, www.MtZionRidgePress.com, Facebook, and Instagram.
