Writing a cozy mystery means embracing a completely different pacing rhythm than a thriller—and your plotting roadmap needs to reflect that. In this video, I break down how to adapt Jane’s Plotting Roadmap to various genres, including how to use the roadmap in cozy mysteries to build in those pivotal moments that keep readers turning pages.
Hello, Jane Cleland here. The question is, in your plotting roadmap, Jane’s plotting roadmap, we start in the middle of the inciting incident. But I’m writing a cozy mystery, and that requires that I share a fair amount of background. How do I reconcile that situation and still use your roadmap? Well, I need to object to the premise of your question. That’s my starting place answer. The roadmap doesn’t start anywhere in particular. It doesn’t start in the middle of the inciting incident. It doesn’t start with giving background. It is a skeleton that you flesh out. One of the things I say in my books when discussing Jane’s plotting roadmap is that you should think of it like a guide, not a straight jacket. But even beyond that, all it does is help you understand pacing.
That you’re going to have x number of plot twists, plot reversals, moments of heightened danger, and they should come roughly in the following periodic set so that you don’t have all the action in any one place. It maintains a steady pace, whatever that pace may be. I mean, look at Dan Brown’s books. Da Vinci Code moves at the fastest pace I’ve ever seen. There is a plot twist reversal or moment of heightened danger in just about every page. It’s astonishing. It zips you right along. Cozies, which are traditional mysteries, move at a much slower pace. When I was writing my Josie Prescott antiques mysteries, I aimed to integrate a TRD every 70 to 90 pages.
That’s a very different pace. Now, I wanna also question the word background. In writing a cozy mystery, I don’t encourage that you start with background. No, start with a sweet and decent world, an incident that showcases how people are unique, characters, someone might be eccentric. But they operate in a understood, reasoned, sensible, sweet and decent system. Then a murder occurs, chaos ensues, order is restored, and you end by showing another incident highlighting this sweet and decent world. Bookends in a cozy mystery. That’s very different than a thriller, which does usually begin in an inciting incident.
One of the things to keep in mind is where your story starts, because that start is not likely to be where the story starts. All sorts of incidents have happened leading up to the beginning of your story. It’s one of the hardest decisions you have to make. And I’ve talked about it before with the idea of narrative questions, and I’ll talk about it again, it’s complicated. I know you can do this, it requires thought and understanding, and that’s why you’re here, so congratulations to you for learning the craft, and I know you’re gonna be great at it. If this tip had value, would you like it? Would you share it? Would you subscribe to the channel? That opens up features that lets us make these videos even more useful for you.
Thank you.
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