Full transcript
0:00Hello, welcome to a another genre
0:02breakdown. In this one, we are talking
0:04about paranormal cozy mystery. So, these
0:07videos, let me know in the comments if
0:08you like these videos, if you wanted me
0:10to keep making them, cuz they don't tend
0:12to perform as well as the others, but I
0:14really feel like they're important to
0:15the right people. So, let me know if
0:17this is working for you, but
0:19what this is is essentially a full
0:22breakdown between a AI analysis and my
0:25own human analysis of a handful of best
0:29sellers in a very, very specific genre.
0:31I get very specific. I select five to
0:33six of the best sellers who are clearly
0:35knocking it out of the park in that
0:37genre, and then we do literally a
0:39chapter-by-chapter analysis of each one,
0:41and then just sort of see what the
0:42trends are. So, that's what we're
0:44talking about today for paranormal cozy
0:46mystery, and subscribe if you want to
0:47see more. First, we've got our major
0:50tropes, okay? So, these are the tropes
0:53that you will see most often in this
0:54analysis.
0:56Doesn't mean that you have to use them
0:57per se, but you would you would be very
1:00encouraged to use them. The first is, of
1:03course, the amateur sleuth. The
1:04protagonist is rarely a cop. Instead,
1:06they are a baker, a librarian, or a shop
1:08owner who takes on the investigation
1:09because of personal stakes or because
1:10the police are incompetent. You also
1:12have small-town secrets. The setting is
1:14a character in itself, and these are
1:18some of these tropes are universally
1:19true of all cozy mysteries, not just
1:21paranormal. But here we get one that is
1:23more of a paranormal thing, the helpful
1:25ghost. A spectral presence, often the
1:26murder victim themselves, stays behind
1:29to help the protagonist solve the crime
1:30or just to annoy them into solving it. I
1:32won't say that one's a universal one,
1:34but it's certainly very common. Then we
1:35have the ordinary person with unexpected
1:37paranormal abilities. The main character
1:39discovers or reluctantly accepts that
1:41they have magic, such as seeing ghosts
1:43or sensing danger, which becomes the key
1:45to cracking the case. You also have
1:46found family. This one's pretty big in
1:48cozy mystery in general. Biological
1:50family is great, but this genre thrives
1:52on the group of unrelated misfits
1:53forming a tight supportive bond to
1:55navigate life and solve murders
1:56together.
1:57Uh, we have red herrings and misleading
1:59clues, typical of really any mystery
2:01really. The mystery needs to keep the
2:02reader guessing, so you must include
2:04some false leads and suspicious
2:06characters that distract from the real
2:07killer. And then there's the murder,
2:09usually of an unlikely person. The
2:10victim is often someone the town won't
2:12miss too much, which keeps the tone
2:13light and focuses the story on the
2:15puzzle rather than the tragedy of loss.
2:17I will say even though murder's here and
2:19murder's definitely most common even in
2:21cozy mysteries, you don't have to do
2:23murder um, because that's
2:27off this video's totally going to get
2:28demonetized for some of these things I'm
2:30saying. Uh, but um, if you want to go
2:33even cozier, you can do something that's
2:36uh, not a murder, but most typically
2:39have one. This And then we have the slow
2:41burn romance subplot. So this will be a
2:43slow burn in this one. It's often like a
2:46will they won't they kind of thing in
2:47which can carry on to future books. Then
2:49we get the common tropes. These are not
2:51as common as the major tropes, but can
2:54definitely be thrown in as needed to uh,
2:57flesh out your book and make it
2:58interesting. So we have first the
2:59inherited fixer-upper. Uh, this is
3:01usually haunted. You see this a lot in
3:03paranormal cozy mysteries. There's the
3:05wrongly accused where the stakes are
3:07raised when a friend or family member of
3:08the protagonist is falsely blamed for
3:10the murder forcing the hero to act.
3:12There's often an animal sidekick,
3:13although the this is so common, it's
3:16kind of it's own subgenre. So I actually
3:19made another guide about paranormal cozy
3:22mysteries with animals because it's kind
3:24of it's own thing. Like you'll even see
3:26it marketed as such. Uh, then we have
3:28enemies to potential lovers with that
3:30slow burn romance. We have the reluctant
3:32hero, my personal favorite trope of all
3:34time. The protagonist often just wants a
3:36normal life and actively resist their
3:38magical calling or the need to solve the
3:39mystery until they have no choice. Then
3:41we have the masquerade. There's a secret
3:43magical society existing right under the
3:45noses of mundane humans requiring the
3:47characters to constantly hide their true
3:48nature. Definitely a very common trope.
3:51Also very common in other genres like
3:53urban fantasy. We have an eccentric
3:55magical family. This just This just
3:57makes me think of the show Sabrina,
3:59right? Very eccentric magical family.
4:01Chekhov's gun. This one shows up in
4:04pretty much every analysis that I do.
4:05Return to hometown after a failed career
4:08or a breakup in the big city, the
4:09protagonist returns to the place they
4:10grew up to lick their wounds and start
4:11over. Might be a good origin story for
4:13your character. They have a spidey sense
4:15or a gift, which kind of goes with what
4:18we saw earlier here about the
4:21the ordinary person with unexplained
4:22paranormal abilities. We have the
4:24enchanted business as a nexus point. The
4:26action centers around a specific
4:28location like a bakery or bookstore,
4:29which serves as the gathering place for
4:31clues and characters. And we have
4:33witches and magical practitioners,
4:35psychic mediums and those with the
4:36sight.
4:38Yeah, very common to have those as part
4:40of your supporting cast. Women
4:41supporting women and collective
4:43sleuthing. The narrative frequently
4:44highlights strong female friendships and
4:46how women folk work together to solve
4:48problems that men overlook. And hidden
4:50magical heritage that the protagonist
4:51isn't just learning magic, they are
4:53discovering a secret family lineage that
4:54explains why they are so different. And
4:56that goes along with the family cursed
4:57or generational magic. All right, so
4:59those are the major ones. I do have more
5:01information about each one of these in
5:03this guide. And by the way, if you do
5:05want to get your hands on this, this is
5:06actually published as a like a small
5:08book on Amazon. You can get it for five
5:10bucks. Or you can get it at no extra
5:12charge by joining my membership. And
5:15when you do that, you also get pretty
5:16much all of the guides laid out so that
5:18you could use them in prompting if you
5:19wanted to rather than just a book to
5:21read. The books are valuable too, just
5:24as
5:25as a way to teach the human about this
5:27genre. That's kind of actually why I
5:29started making these in the first place.
5:31But you can you can get all of that at
5:32no extra charge by joining Story Hacker,
5:34which you can find the link to down
5:35below. We also have a new tool called
5:37Story Hacker OS, which actively has
5:40these integrated into it, which is one
5:41of the best things about it. All right,
5:43so let's move on to my favorite part of
5:45this whole thing, which is the plot
5:47template. Now, of course, you don't have
5:49to slavishly rely on a plot template
5:52like this, but I find it's a very good
5:54place to start when you're kind of just
5:56planning your novel and everything,
5:58especially for beginners who really
5:59don't fully understand the plot yet and
6:02the and the genre yet. Obviously, the
6:04best way to become familiar with the
6:06genre is to become well-read in that
6:07genre, but as you were doing that, it's
6:09useful to have guides like this that
6:11kind of like spell it all out and then
6:13you start to see all of these tropes and
6:15these
6:16structured points and everything show up
6:18everywhere. So, let's go through these.
6:20There are 29 chapters in this template,
6:24which is the average.
6:26I have the the AI I'm using takes the
6:28average number of chapters of all of the
6:30books that I analyze and that becomes
6:33our target. So, chapter one is arriving
6:36in a quirky setting. The protagonist
6:38arrives in a small eccentric town or
6:40inherited property following significant
6:42life life setback such as job loss,
6:44betrayal, breakup, or the death of a of
6:46a relative. They reflect on the contrast
6:48between their memories of the place in
6:49its current state, feeling a mix of
6:50nostalgia, dread, and reluctant hope. A
6:52brief encounter with a friendly local or
6:54supportive ally provides grounding, but
6:56the protagonist is soon left alone to
6:57confront the unsettling atmosphere of
6:59their new environment. The chapter
7:00establishes the protagonist's voice,
7:02their desire for peace or fresh start,
7:04and hints at a strange undercurrent that
7:05suggests that this place is not entirely
7:07ordinary. A subtle supernatural
7:09occurrence, easily dismissed as
7:10exhaustion or imagination, foreshadows
7:12the larger mystery to come. This is what
7:15I call
7:17the unusual day, where something like
7:19it's kind of we're still kind of in a
7:21normal routine for this person, but like
7:23maybe they're having a bad day or
7:25something is a little off. Then we get
7:26the eccentric welcome, and don't worry,
7:29I'm not going to read through everything
7:30exactly as it's here. The protagonist
7:32meets their quirky relative, ally, or
7:34landlord, who who proves to be loving
7:36but utterly chaotic and unconcerned with
7:38the protagonist's emotion. Then we You
7:40the inciting incident, the body in the
7:41garden. While attempting a mundane task
7:43like running an errand, walking the
7:45animal companion, or exploring the
7:46property, the protagonist stumbles upon
7:47a corpse in an unexpected place. And
7:49this kicks off the rest of the book. Uh
7:51that leads to the skeptical detective.
7:52Local law enforcement arrives at the
7:54scene led by an attractive but stern
7:56detective or sheriff who immediately
7:57treats the protagonist with skepticism.
7:59So this is usually where we get our
8:00romance subplot is with the detective.
8:03It doesn't have to be, but it's
8:04extremely common in cozy mysteries. Um
8:07chapter five is gossip and the
8:09gathering. So the protagonist attends a
8:10public local gathering, uh at a cafe, a
8:12town meeting, a memorial, or a community
8:14festival where they are introduced to
8:16the gossipy heart of the community.
8:18Through eavesdropping and awkward small
8:19talk, they meet several potential
8:21suspects, each with eccentric quirks and
8:23visible motives connected to the
8:25villain. So we kind of like get to know
8:27the cast of characters here. And chapter
8:29six is a whisper from beyond. In a quiet
8:32isolated moment, so this is now where uh
8:34going into the paranormal territory. The
8:36protagonist experiences their first
8:38undeniable supernatural encounter. A
8:39ghost, a spirit guide, or magical entity
8:41makes direct contact, refusing to be
8:43rationalized away. Chapter seven,
8:46trapped in the investigation. So a major
8:48event locks the protagonist into the
8:49mystery. So they are fully committed to
8:51this thing. So from there, they go into
8:54their first interview where the
8:55protagonist, accompanied by their quirky
8:57ally and possibly the animal companion,
8:58conducts their first formal-feeling
9:00interview with a person who knew the
9:01victim well, such as a business partner,
9:03ex-spouse, or estranged relative. Uh we
9:06might have a scene where the animal
9:08companion saves the day, particularly
9:10useful if there are animals in your cozy
9:12mystery. Uh we have magical mishap where
9:14the protagonist attempts to use their
9:15developing supernatural ability for the
9:17first time intentionally, but it doesn't
9:19go as planned. And somewhere along the
9:22line, we cross paths with the detective.
9:24So this is where the protagonist and the
9:25love interest detective encounter each
9:27other while independently pursuing the
9:28same lead, forcing an uneasy
9:30collaboration or pointed conversation.
9:31Because usually the detective is not
9:33happy at first. This is why this can
9:34start as an enemies-to-lovers thing. Not
9:36too big of an enemies cuz this is still
9:38cozy after all. Um but definitely at
9:41odds with each other. And then we get a
9:43hostile sub suspect. The protagonist
9:45confronts a more dangerous or socially
9:47powerful suspect at their place of
9:48business or home, where the suspect uses
9:50wealth, status, or intimidation to
9:53belittle the protagonist questioning.
9:54Chapter 13 is a cozy interlude uh and
9:57you'll get these in cozies. You don't
9:58see them as much in other books, uh but
10:01you'll occasionally get just like nice
10:03slice of life scenes that act as a
10:05breather to engage in a quintessentially
10:08cozy activity. Baking, gardening,
10:09decorating the inherited property, or
10:11attending a small social event, stuff
10:13like that. Yeah, makes sense. Uh we got
10:14to keep this cozy after all. But then
10:16there's the midpoint shock, right? This
10:18is a major event that upends the
10:20investigation. A second body is found,
10:22the killer makes a direct threat against
10:23the protagonist, or shocking
10:24supernatural revelation completely
10:26reframes the original crime. Usually the
10:28midpoint is also a It is not the first
10:30one, but it is a It is a point of no
10:33return for the protagonist where they
10:34have to make some kind of decision to
10:36see this through,
10:37uh which leads to chapter 15, regrouping
10:39with the allies. So they're shaken by
10:40the midpoint event, and they gather
10:42together to see what they can do. And
10:44this is also where the protagonist
10:46starts to embrace their magic. So the
10:48protagonist consults a magical mentor or
10:50specialized expert, a witch, an oracle,
10:51a librarian, or of esoteric knowledge to
10:54deepen their understanding of their
10:55abilities. Uh from there we get the
10:57stakeout and the secret. The protagonist
10:59and an ally conduct conduct an
11:01unauthorized stakeout, search, or spy
11:04mission targeting a suspect's home,
11:05office, or vehicle. Um pretty
11:07straightforward there. And then the town
11:09turns. Okay, so this is where things
11:11start to get a little darker, uh at
11:12least dark for a cozy. The protagonist
11:14faces social blowback from the
11:15community, who, egged on by the
11:17antagonist or local gossip, now view
11:19them with suspicion or open hostility.
11:21They are confronted at a business,
11:23snubbed at a gathering, or suspected to
11:25rumors that damage their
11:28uh reputation or and budding
11:29relationships. The eccentric ally
11:31rallies to their defense in their own
11:32chaotic way while the love interest
11:34detective is caught in an uncomfortable
11:36position between professional duty and
11:37personal loyalty. Usually they know that
11:39it's not quite what it seems, but that's
11:42how it goes. This leads to a direct
11:43threat from the antagonist
11:46like some vandalism, sabotage, or a
11:48magical curse, some kind of accident,
11:50and a false solution presents itself. So
11:52writing high on adrenaline and a flawed
11:54reading of the clues, the protagonist
11:56confidently presents a theory naming a
11:58specific suspect as the killer. But of
12:00course that does not prove to be
12:01accurate and that leads to the all is
12:03lost
12:05moment where the protagonist hits their
12:06lowest point. They may be officially
12:08named a suspect losing their housing or
12:09financial security, see an ally arrested
12:11or harmed, or suffer magical backlash
12:13that disables their powers. So some kind
12:15of like big consequence to having that
12:18false solution in the previous chapter.
12:20And this leads to the quiet epiphany. So
12:22in the depths of despair, a mundane
12:24action like pouring tea, petting the
12:25animal companion, overhearing a song, or
12:27rereading old notes triggers a sudden
12:29blinding realization. Desperate clues
12:32from across the investigation snap
12:34together revealing the true killer
12:35through means, motive, and opportunity
12:37that had been hiding in plain sight. So
12:38this is now bringing us into act three.
12:40Chapter 23 is rallying the team. That's
12:43pretty self-explanatory. The the
12:45protagonist gets together with everybody
12:46that we've met along the way, the whole
12:48found family. And then there's some kind
12:49of infiltration. The protagonist and
12:51their allies infiltrate the killer's
12:52domain, which could be their home,
12:53business, or magical hidden magical
12:55location seeking final irrefutable
12:57proof. That leads to the villain's
12:59confession. Cornered alone with the
13:00killer, the protagonist is held at
13:01gunpoint, magical threat, or some other
13:03lethal danger as the protagonist
13:04monologues their motive, methods, and
13:06justification. And of course that
13:07monologue never ends well for the
13:09villain and that leads to a climatic
13:11battle. You'll see this a little bit
13:13more in paranormal cozy mysteries
13:15because there's magic involved, so some
13:16kind of magical battle. And that leads
13:19to the reckoning. Law enforcement
13:20officially takes over the scene with the
13:22love interest detective handling the
13:23arrest and the protagonist receiving an
13:25apology, acknowledgement, or grudging
13:26respect for their work. We get the
13:28romance and reconciliation between the
13:31protagonist and the love interest and a
13:33new status quo and the whisper. So, the
13:36protagonist hosts or attends a warm cozy
13:38gathering with their found family team
13:39in the inherited or restored property
13:41surrounded by laughter, food, and a
13:43contented animal companion. They reflect
13:45on how much has changed accepting their
13:46magical gifts, their relationships, and
13:48their new role as a permanent fixture of
13:50this strange town. Then there may be a
13:52hint that there is something else going
13:54on. Now, cozy mysteries tend to be very
13:57serialized. Each one stands on its own,
13:59but there can be a slight through line
14:02through all of them that kind of hint at
14:04what's going coming next. And that is
14:06the plot template here. Now, let's talk
14:08briefly about some of the other things.
14:10There are a variety of character
14:11archetypes that show up. Of course, the
14:13amateur sleuth is our main protagonist
14:15and the most common one. There's usually
14:18a skeptical authority figure that makes
14:20up the love interest, usually
14:22detective or police person. There is a
14:25meddlesome mentor or an eccentric
14:27matriarch, someone who's like kind of a
14:30pain to work with, but is ultimately a
14:33good figure. And then there's the snarky
14:34familiar or animal companion.
14:37And there's the shadow antagonist. So,
14:40and of course, the shadow antagonist is
14:42called the shadow because we don't know
14:43who they are at first, but there's some
14:46information about them right there.
14:48Also, in terms of world building, some
14:49of the things that you're going to need
14:50to be looking at are like the hidden
14:52world versus the open secret. Like what
14:54is hidden and what isn't. There needs to
14:56be some kind of whimsical tone and
14:58atmosphere. And of course, this takes
15:00place in a small town, almost always.
15:02So, that's something that you need to
15:04kind of build out. And with cozies, I
15:06like to actually map out exactly like
15:08pretty much every building in the small
15:10town. So, I know like where's the
15:12bakery, where's the protagonist live,
15:13where's the antagonist live, where's the
15:14red herrings and all of those people,
15:16where do they live?
15:17That sort of thing. There's a legacy
15:19property or headquarters and usually
15:21some kind of community hub like a cafe
15:24or yeah, someplace like that. As far as
15:26the magic system, the protagonist
15:28usually has some kind of unique gift
15:30that gives them an edge in their
15:32investigations. There's usually some
15:34kind of domestic and ritual magic.
15:36Usually these are fairly subtle. There's
15:38some kind of magical resonance. Things
15:40like ghosts are common. And as far as
15:42groups go, there's there's the found
15:45family of course. There's often some
15:47kind of magical species or hierarchy. Um
15:50this can vary from book to book and some
15:52kind of competing authority. As far as
15:54the history and lore goes, there's some
15:56kind of ancestral legacy that usually
15:58impacts the protagonist and there's of
16:01course lots of secrets in this small
16:04town. And then we also have the familiar
16:07which is often a part of this as well.
16:09So I have other things here including
16:11like some thoughts on the different
16:13themes found most commonly in these
16:15books. A few thoughts on the type of
16:17prose that you'll see in these books and
16:19even a outline of or a breakdown of the
16:23book descriptions for these books so you
16:25could actually come up with a decent
16:27book description for your book if you
16:29were using this
16:31because every genre has slightly
16:33different conventions for book
16:34descriptions as well. And that kind of
16:36does it. So let me know if this has been
16:37useful for you. If you watched this far,
16:39you might be good a good fit for the
16:41story hacker community so check that out
16:42down below and I will see you in the
16:44next video.