Standing Out in a Crowded Genre

We are delighted to welcome Lois Winston as our guest on Writers Who Kill.

 

Standing Out in a Crowded Genre

by Lois Winston

 

Life is often about pivots. No matter how we think our life goes, it rarely goes as planned. Sometimes we need to pivot, and sometimes that pivot becomes life-altering. My career as a cozy mystery author was a major, life-altering pivot, thanks to a conversation my agent had with an editor. The editor was looking for a humorous crafts-themed amateur sleuth mystery series. Based on my day job as a crafts designer and Talk Gertie to Me, my award-winning humorous first novel, my agent suggested I try writing such a series.

 

Before I began what was to become my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, now at thirteen books and three novellas, I embarked on extensive research. I read dozens of crafting cozies to get a feel for the genre. I discovered most centered around a craft shop in a small town. The amateur sleuth was either the shop owner, an employee, a customer, or a close friend or relative of the owner. 

For years I had heard an author should never follow trends. If you want your book to stand out in a crowded genre, you need to put a unique spin on the conventions of that genre. So I began to brainstorm as to what I could do differently but still produce a series which readers of crafting mysteries might embrace. 

 

I decided to take my protagonist out of the shop and stick her in a different crafting profession. I made Anastasia the crafts editor at a women’s magazine. To my knowledge, no other author had ever featured a crafts editor as an amateur sleuth.

 

Then, I went a step further. Another observation I made in studying amateur sleuth and cozy mysteries, was that most of the protagonists were busybody snoops who channeled Nancy Drew or Jessica Fletcher, often believing they knew more than the professional investigators assigned to the crime. 

 

In real life this would never happen, but fiction—especially genre fiction—is all about the suspension of disbelief. Readers of amateur sleuth and cozy mysteries are happy to suspend disbelief for a good whodunit. However, once again, I wondered what I could do differently to make my series stand out, while still giving readers the satisfying read they expected.

 

What if I made Anastasia a reluctant amateur sleuth? 

 

My amateur sleuth would like nothing better than to turn back the clock to a time not so long ago when she led a typical middle-class life with a devoted husband, two great kids, and a job she loved. But that’s not going to happen. For one thing, I’m not writing time-travel mysteries. Also, writing an ongoing series means the protagonist needs a reason to keep sleuthing. In all books, no matter the genre, the main character needs goals, motivation, and conflict. What better conflict for an amateur sleuth than having her conflicted about sleuthing?

 

A successful book needs a story arc with a protagonist who is not the same person at the end of the book as she was at the beginning of the book. This is called character growth. But in an ongoing series, you can’t resolve all the protagonist’s goals, motivations, and conflicts at the end of the book. Doing so will end the series. You want to keep the reader coming back for more of your character’s adventures. But at the same time, you need your character to learn from her experiences, moving closer toward her goal with each book.

 

In Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my series, I set the stage for what will be Anastasia’s ongoing goals, motivations, and conflicts. The series opens with her discovering that her recently deceased husband led a double life, more devoted to Lady Luck than his family. When he drops dead at a roulette table in Las Vegas, Anastasia discovers he’s gambled away all their savings and left her with huge debt and a loan shark demanding she pay off her husband’s gambling debts—or else. In each book she tries to find new ways to earn extra money to whittle down that debt. But since this is an amateur sleuth mystery series, she also winds up dealing with unsavory characters on the wrong side of the law, not to mention constantly tripping over dead bodies.

However, no amateur sleuth operates in a vacuum. She needs friends and family in her life. Creating conflict within a protagonist’s personal life adds another layer of depth to a series. Not only does the amateur sleuth need to figure out whodunit in each book, but she also needs to deal with life’s normal problems. Adding fully developed secondary characters that readers will enjoy will keep them coming back for more. 

 

In my series, Anastasia deals with a nasty Communist mother-in-law. Lucille is the character readers love to hate. I receive the most fan mail about her. Some readers wish I’d kill her off. Others (many of whom have difficult mothers-in-law of their own!) hope I never do because she’s so much fun to hate. However, since I’m writing a humorous series, I went further. In addition to a Communist mother-in-law, Anastasia’s mother is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and both mother and mother-in-law are often forced to share a room in Anastasia’s home. Conflict. Conflict. Conflict. You can never have too much.

 

Whether you’re writing a crafting mystery series or any ongoing series in any genre, the same advice applies if you want your books to stand out:

 

1. Give a unique spin to your protagonist, her profession, and/or the setting of your series.

 

2. Set up an overall situation that will allow the protagonist to make progress toward reaching her goals and resolving her conflicts as the series progresses from book to book.

 

3. Develop secondary characters that add depth to your series and create additional problems for your protagonist. 

Sorry, Knot Sorry, the latest book in my Anastasia Pollack Mystery series, is currently on preorder. In it, Anastasia continues to be motivated toward reaching her goals and resolving her conflicts, but the dead bodies keep coming.

What is it about a series that keeps you reading? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook of one of the first nine Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.

 

Sorry, Knot Sorry

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 13

 

Magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack may finally be able to pay off the remaining debt she found herself saddled with when her duplicitous first husband dropped dead in a Las Vegas casino. But as Anastasia has discovered, nothing in her life is ever straightforward. Strings are always attached. Thanks to the success of an unauthorized true crime podcast, a television production company wants to option her life—warts and all—as a reluctant amateur sleuth. 

 

Is such exposure worth a clean financial slate? Anastasia isn’t sure, but at the same time, rumors are flying about layoffs at the office. Whether she wants national exposure or not, Anastasia may be forced to sign on the dotted line to keep from standing in the unemployment line. But the dead bodies keep coming, and they’re not in the script. Craft tips included.

 

Buy Links (preorder ebook now. Available June 4^th, along with paperback and hardcover editions)

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Bio:

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website where can also sign up for her newsletter and find links to her other social media: www.loiswinston.com