I’ve shared before that after a two-year stop-and-start with my cozy mystery book, I finally put the pedal to the metal this summer and finished the first draft. It doesn’t matter how many Agatha Christie books you’ve read, or dense texts about how to write a mystery, it’s daunting to jump into another entirely different genre of writing.

I had grand goals to write about fun writing exercises to play with bypassing the conscious mind, as is our intention in Bewilderness Writing. It’s one of my favorite subjects. I read up, made an outline, and sat down to write. And, then, I just couldn’t do it.

When I first considered writing a mystery novel, I followed my time-worn inclinations to learn and research everything in print or online. Of course, that was an impossible task and one fantastic basis for procrastination. When I returned to the novel almost two years later, I approached it entirely differently.

A brief insight into my latest writing journey embracing the unexpected path to writing a cozy mystery novel.

I think ethics are worth considering whenever we write about someone other than ourselves, whether it is memoir, poem, or blogpost. This topic of “ethics in memoir” invites a wide range of opinions, so you must discern what works best for you.

As writers we naturally mine the depth of our own lives, both internal and external, for subject matter. Writing through your life experiences, trauma, or buried memories is often tough.

In order to write what I think of as a good poem, the poet has to “switch our lens” on how we see the world. I like the subject to be specific, as well as ordinary, and these women poets use the craft of poetry (feeling, story, language, line) to do just that.

Welcome inside my very own curiosity cabinet filled with the artifacts of me, all with the intention to explain who I am.