by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

I remember the day my agent told me I had established my brand. As long as my stories stayed true to that, I could write in any genre. I took her at her word and wrote a historical series, the award-winning Georgia Magnolias series.

I didn’t start out trying to write something new.

I wrote another contemporary WF while I noodled another historical. Then, I wanted to write a short story for my December 2023 newsletter recipients—something just for them.

What happened next I never expected.

My inbox flooded with emails.

I often get a few emails from my newsletters—I only send 3-4 a year. But that short story, The Mrs. Claus Blessing,brought a slew of email, ranging from 1) “when is the novel coming?” to 2) “we want more of these characters.”

What do ya know? I decided to follow their prompting. If I stay true to my brand and voice, I could turn it into a cozy mystery involving a theft instead of a murder. How much fun! I had the elements I needed: an ensemble cast of strong Southern women working through the trouble together.

I did my character interviews, found photos of my characters, and wrote my main character’s backstory. I began to write. Since I’m setting it in my home town of Sugar Hill, I decided to add some real people to the story as secondary characters. I sought permission and they each were delighted to be included.

Time for some technical checking.

As I completed Chapter 8, I had some technical questions, so I passed it by our mayor. He was very happy with it and found I had handled any technical aspects correctly. Pleased with his endorsement, I forged ahead—since this was something my readers asked for.

I worked on a basic outline which hit a dozen-or-so main plot points. However, the more novels I write, the more SOTP (Seat Of The Pants) I become. I had to keep going back to the outline to see what happens next. It didn’t matter that my chapters had great cliffhanger endings. Something wasn’t right.

My characters had stopped talking to me.

As I pondered what bothered me, I realized something was missing. Romance. The funny thing is, I never started out writing romance. I write women’s fiction. While WF sometimes contains romance, it doesn’t have to. My first book, Chapel Springs Revival, has married romance in it, but not single.

Okay. Maybe I can add a romance. For whom? I’d have to add another POV. And that’s when it hit me. For this story, I needed another POV. Since my main character is a widow, I didn’t want to have her find a new romance. Too predictable. But one of the ensemble could. I chose another character.

This is the only problem with being SOTP. I have to go back, and by now I was over 20K words into the story. There was no getting around it. I had to weave in the new POV. I was tentatively excited.

Since I already had her character interview and backstory finished, I dove in. I opened the first chapter and introduced her POV there. It felt right. I moved to chapter 2. With each chapter, the story began to blossom.

I’d found my missing link.

That is a tough job, but it can be done. It took me an entire day to work those 8-9 chapters. I still need to go back and expand them, but the basics are down, ready for a second draft. Now, I’m really excited about the story. No longer a cozy mystery, it’s true WF with a mystery within. I’ve written those before. Home to Chapel Springs contains a mystery. In High Cotton also has one.

Back on familiar ground.

Can you hear my huge sigh of relief? I was back on familiar ground and knew where I was headed. Will I hit any more bumps in the road? I’m sure I will, but I’m home.

My advice to others?

Get your brand down. Yes, I can “change genres” but for me, I found I need to retain what drives my stories. Friends helping friends (or family helping family) and that is women’s fiction. It’s where I started and will stick to. I think my agent’s advice would be better tweaked for me to mean era instead of genre. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.