The non-fiction book is coming along well. I’ve finished the first round of editing and I’m steadily working through the second. After the second round of edits, I’ll work on the formatting. I’m excited about this book. It’s weird that I seem to have more confidence in my non-fiction work than in my fiction. Maybe it’s because the content is more factual. Or maybe it’s because I’m more academic. I like facts and being able to cite sources for information. With the world the way it is, having solid facts seems like a solid option.
The fiction work is still in the plotting stages. I’m struggling with it. Not just with the mystery plotting, which is a lot harder than I expected, but also because I can’t seem to get the premise to settle down. I’ll figure out a character arc, but then it competes too much with the plot. Or a scene I thought would work, turns out to not work at all. The most amusing turn of events was when I entertained the idea of having the entire mystery revolve around a motorcycle club.
The problem with being a creative person is that I can have too many ideas at once. I end up overthinking the outline until I suffocate the characters and get frustrated. Then I throw the whole thing out and start from scratch. Usually with a strong self-reprimand to not overthink it this time. I think part of the problem is that I can’t decide what type of mystery I want to write. I like dark and gritty, but would anyone read it? The big thing now is cozy mysteries. Often themed to a specific hobby, an amateur sleuth solves the mystery in a small town where the police are at a loss about how to solve the crime.
I’ve read a few of these and they’re sweet, simple reads. Sort of the rom-com of the mystery genre. The sleuth almost always has a pet, the murder happens off-screen, and the story doesn’t have a romantic subplot. Most don’t have a subplot at all. They aren’t complex mysteries or anything controversial. From a sales standpoint, it would be smart to write a cozy, but it’s not where my heart is. I like darker stories and themes.
Of course, the tone of the story is irrelevant if I can’t finish the outline. While you wait for me to figure this out, please check out my contemporary romance novel, Loving the Unlovable, on Amazon.