On Reading and Writing Cozy Literature

by Fiction Editor Sophia Baran

Cottage by Rico Marcelli

I have been reading more and more cozy literature in the last few months. 

These stories have become my indulgence in escapism, and an antidote for doomerism. My interest in this genre becomes strongest when I feel like life is taking a turbulent turn. When it feels like there’s bad news around every corner and life is feeling like a high-stakes drama, I actively seek something a little calmer and a little less consequential in my reading. It’s a way to reduce my anxiety.

There’s just something so calming and alluring about reading stories where a wizard moves to the countryside to create a magical homestead or an adorable romance that unfolds in a coffee shop. It’s about comfort, gentleness, and cultivating the feeling of safety in knowing there will be a happy ending.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my writing has been inspired by these stories with introspective character-driven narratives that focus on the themes of community, friendship, and lighthearted fun.

But the more I dive into the cozy genre, the more I’ve noticed that there is a careful balance to strike when writing a relatively low-stakes story. Namely, there’s a risk of ending up with a no-stakes story that leaves the reader bored.

If I’m reading a story where everything goes right, there’s a lack of tension to maintain my attention. There’s only so much I can read about the mechanics of agricultural magic that a wizard executed flawlessly before I’m left wondering why I should be caring about the wizard as a character, why I should care about their story. In a similar vein, coffee shop romances can have predictable plot beats, which is part of the appeal for the target audience. However, I also consider what makes this particular coffee shop romance unique, so it stands out from the rest.

Cozy literature is escapist literature. Therefore, when writing a cozy story, you have to contend with the question of what are the characters trying to escape from. What are you trying to escape from?

In the words of Bob Ross, a master sergeant in the United States Air Force who found his passion for painting happy little trees and clouds during his military service: “Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come.”

Take that wizard obsessed with growing their own magical garden in a small rural town, for instance. Why is the magic garden their goal? If they aren’t from the countryside, what’s driving them towards it? What is driving them away from their initial home? Are there any conflicts with the neighbors? Problems with implementing agricultural magic? What are the consequences that the wizard will have to face if they fail to create their magical homestead? What does the wizard have to lose?

The answers to those questions can provide the story with so much richness. Explore it.

And the coffee shop romance. Think about what makes the two romantic leads different from your generic copy-and-paste main leads. What sort of problems are they struggling with that could cause friction in their lives and their burgeoning relationships? Why is the other person so important to them? What forces, either internal or external, are pushing them apart or together? How do they open up to each other? And take a deep look at the setting, why does this particular story take place in a coffee shop? Does the coffee shop and the relationships formed within the establishment act as a refuge for the characters facing their own tumultuous world?

Cozy literature comes with a set of expectations. There is going to be a happy ending, it’s not going to be particularly intense, and the writing isn’t going to be dripping in graphic content. But although cozy books don’t cover serious topics in a way that emotionally destroys readers, that doesn’t mean cozy books can’t cover serious topics at all. It’s still important to have stakes and conflicts that compel the plot and characters and to emotionally touch audiences.

To quote Bob Ross once more: “Put light against light – you have nothing. Put dark against dark – you have nothing. It’s the contrast of light and dark that each give the other one meaning.”

For all the lightness that a cozy story can bring, there needs to be some sort of darkness, some sort of conflict, to truly let that light shine. 


Sophia Baran is the Fiction Editor of Barnstorm Journal. She received her B.A. in History from the University of Toronto and is currently an MFA Fiction Writing student at the University of New Hampshire.

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