How to Plan a Novel Series Made Easy with AI: Setting

Ready to plan a novel? You may have a character you can see or you may have exciting events racing through your mind, zipping characters in and out of danger.

Me? All of my story planning starts with setting.

Why? Because setting is more than an accidental backdrop in a story–it’s the story’s world even if that world is the inside of a small Victorian house, as it was in my historical novel, Run. Indeed, setting can inform every aspect of writing books, like it did in my series, Magic Forest Adventures, of beginner reader fairy tale retellings set in the Old West.

Settings can do 5 things:

Establish mood and atmosphere
Reveal character traits
Drive plot and conflict
Enhance themes and symbolism
Provide context and authenticity

So, let’s take a look at how I’m using AI to help me plan the setting details for a new series of cozy mysteries I’m planning.

I used the free version of ChatGPT for all of the prompt answers included in this article.

How Important is Setting in a Series?

While setting is important in a standalone novel, it’s vital in a series. Why? Because it can develop a cohesive world across a number of stories. Indeed, readers are often drawn to books in a series due to the sense of community and familiarity with a world that’s richly crafted.

Exploring a world and its characters through multiple books enables readers to bond emotionally. Familiarity enhances comprehension and provides motivation to continue reading the next book.

When I started out planning my latest novel, the first in a series of five planned (soon to be outlined) cozy mysteries, I knew it was the genre for me. Here are some of the Cozy Mystery location and venue elements identified in best sellers in the K-Lytics Cozy Fantasy E-Book Market Report.

More town & village settings (48%) than city (6%)
Island & beach settings (10%)
Other settings less than 2% include: mountains, forest, countryside, suburb, & wilderness.

So, my cozy mystery will be set in a small town. Why not the beach or countryside? I’ve lived in a small town for 45+ years, so that old adage to write what you know works perfectly for me. I won’t have any problem coming up with a realistic backdrop of characters.

The K-Lytics report also provided good insights on venue — or where much of the story is located within the town. The most popular were: house (16%) and shop (12%).

While I’ve been “planning” or thinking about writing a mystery series with an amateur or private investigator female sleuth for years, ideas just came and faded away. None stuck.

It wasn’t until I closed down my general travel blog and started guide2museums.com that everything came together. The setting would be a Cold War museum in a small town. And the museum would include a fully intact fallout shelter from the era.

How Do You Decide on the Elements of Setting?

I’ve written a lot of historical fiction. With it, establishing the elements of the specific setting within the time period I was writing about was just a matter of research. While yes, I had to build a world, it had already existed in time so I just had to find the details I wanted to include.

Not so much with a contemporary sleuth in a small fictional town. I needed to establish some basics about the town’s geographic location. Many agree there are three aspects of setting that make successful books stand out.

Specificity: fully imagined time period, location geography, descriptions of immediate surroundings, and sensory details to bring the setting to life. In other words, the town needs to be full of personality.
Novelty: so while my K-Lytics research identified elements of best sellers in the category, readers don’t want another book just like the other book. Ideally, I needed a setting that was familiar, yet unique, thus my Cold War museum in a small town fit the bill.
Familiarity: writing something that’s both novel and familiar at the same time can be a challenge! However, the idea is to create a small town that’s not like the small town in every other cozy mystery. By creating distinctive community meeting places, such as diners, coffee shops, or bookstores, a strong sense of place readers can identify with emerges.

And so this is where I turned to ChatGPT for help. If you’ve used it already, you know that AI tools like ChatGPT can feel like talking to someone in your writers’ group (I have an amazing one!).

I found the AI's ability to retrieve and analyze literary data like talking to an incredibly knowledgeable literature professor.

Choose Novel Geographic Location Using AI

My AI prompt: If you’re looking for high sales for a cozy mystery will Montana be a good setting or some other state or even Canada?

AI response: Montana could work as a cozy mystery setting, but if you’re aiming for high sales, you might want to consider other locations that fit more traditional cozy mystery reader preferences. Here’s why:

❌ Less Familiar to Main Cozy Mystery Audience – Most top-selling cozies are set in New England, the South, or small coastal towns.
❌ Lack of Cozy Hallmarks – Montana’s rugged, frontier feel might not match the warm, quirky, bookshop-or-bakery-filled small towns cozy readers love.

That set me back a bit. ChatGPT told me that better-performing cozy mystery series were set in a multitude of states and provinces I’ve visited but never spent a lot of time in. Amazing places with historic charm, strong sense of community, cozy vibes and natural beauty, but none I related to. And if I couldn’t relate to them, how would my readers?

Hmm…

The mysteries I wanted to write had to tie to a Cold War museum and a town I could realistically create, which was midwest and prairies.

After more chit-chat though, ChatGPT did agree that: Montana is a fantastic choice, especially with the Cold War bunker setting! The state’s history with nuclear missile sites, underground facilities, and secretive government projects gives you plenty of material to work with.

Real or Fictional Setting?

My AI prompt: Do best selling cozy mysteries use real locations or fictional towns?

AI response: Bestselling cozy mysteries overwhelmingly use fictional towns rather than real locations. Here’s why:

Why Fictional Towns Work Best

✅ Creative Freedom – You can shape the town’s history, landmarks, and community dynamics without being constrained by reality.
✅ Avoids Accuracy Issues – No need to worry about getting real geography, local laws, or businesses wrong.
✅ Stronger Cozy Vibes – You can design the perfect cozy setting with charming quirks (e.g., a town festival, a gossip-loving diner, or a mysterious landmark).
✅ Series Longevity – Readers fall in love with the town itself, making them return for future books.

That all made sense and I had pretty much already come to the same conclusion from reading and surveying cozy mysteries myself.

Naming the Fictional Town

But I still needed a “real” location in Montana for my fictional town. It had to be:

Somewhere I’d spent a lot of time around
Somewhere that had the potential of enough traffic to make a museum a viable option
Somewhere with links to Cold War history

My choice? Somewhere on I-94, close to the Yellowstone River. Since I-94 parallels the Yellowstone River for approximately 200 miles, I had a big area to choose from. However, I decided to keep to the river’s northern part, near the North Dakota border, as it was also important during the Cold War.

Next, name the town. That may sound easy, but it wasn’t. I’d thought I had the perfect name, chosen for sentimental reasons — Bunny Bluff.

My AI prompt: Is Bunny Bluff a good fictional name for a Montana town on the Yellowstone river?

AI response: Bunny Bluff is a cute and quirky name, but it might not fit Montana’s rugged, historic feel—especially for a town on the Yellowstone River. If you’re aiming for high sales, cozy mystery readers often expect names that reflect the setting’s personality.

Does “Bunny Bluff” Work?

✅ Quirky & Memorable – If you want humor and charm, it could work, especially if there’s a fun local legend (e.g., “The town was named after an explorer who saw exactly one rabbit before falling off a cliff.”).
❌ Doesn’t Feel Very Montanan – Most Montana towns have names tied to nature, Native American heritage, or old frontier history.

Shot down again.

Getting ideas took days of thinking and asking questions! ChatGPT gave me nature-inspired ideas, western names, historical and Cold War-themed names, quirky and playful names, even geography inspired names.

I asked all kinds of questions about the history of the geographic area, what people did there, even what grew there. I combined ideas and went to Amazon to see if there were already similar titles. Inevitably there were.

Cedar Butte eventually rose to the top of my list.

My AI prompt: What does the town name Cedar Butte evoke?

AI response: The name Cedar Butte evokes a rugged, natural landscape with a sense of solitude and history.

Natural Beauty & Ruggedness: The combination of cedar trees and a butte creates a vision of a town surrounded by striking natural beauty—perhaps a quiet, remote location near a scenic, tree-lined river or breathtaking cliffs.
Historical or Frontier Feel: Given Montana’s history, Cedar Butte could evoke a town that was once a frontier settlement, possibly tied to early mining or agriculture. The butte itself could be a landmark that has historical significance.
Isolation and Mystery: The name has an element of mystery and solitude, perfect for a cozy mystery setting. It could be a town with a long history, perhaps hidden secrets, or old ghost stories tied to the butte and its surroundings.

I veered off into all kinds of questions about vegetation and buttes. Ultimately, I decided the town and mystery I wanted to create just didn’t fit the literary elements of Cedar Butte.

My AI prompt: Idyllic cozy names related to a cluster of trees for towns in Montana?

AI response: Ahh, love this. Let’s find town names that feel idyllic and cozy, evoke Montana’s rugged beauty, and still tie into the idea of a cluster of trees. Montana has a lot of natural charm—pine-covered hills, aspen groves, river valleys—so let’s blend that atmosphere into these names.

So, I went through 20 different fictional names ChatGPT generated. None were still quite right. Eventually, I decided on “grove” for the second part of the name, as it gives a slightly mysterious small-town vibe. Since I love the rhythm of phrases using assonance, I considered Crocus for the first part. However, if that sounded too hoaky, maybe Lilac.

My AI prompt: Is Lilac Grove or Crocus Grove a better town name for a cozy mystery series?

AI response: Both Lilac Grove and Crocus Grove work beautifully for a cozy mystery—but they offer slightly different moods. Here’s a breakdown to help you choose the best fit for your setting:

🌸 Lilac Grove

Evokes:

Romance, nostalgia, and a lush, fragrant atmosphere
Lilacs are strongly associated with memory and longing, often blooming around cemeteries or historic homes
Suggests a slightly older, more established town with Victorian touches, maybe with a few local legends or long-held secrets

Tone:

More romantic or melancholic
Might suit a mystery that includes family secrets, generational drama, or emotional undercurrents

Works well if:

The Cold War bunker is part of a town with deep roots, where the past is always just under the surface
You want the name to feel softer and dreamier, with a bit of poetic weight

🟣 Crocus Grove

Evokes:

Resilience, rebirth, and the unexpected
Crocuses bloom in early spring—sometimes through snow—symbolizing hope, secrets emerging, and quiet strength
Feels a little more down-to-earth and fresh, ideal for a quirky but resilient small town

Tone:

More crisp and grounded
Works well with the surprise of discovering a Cold War bunker and the community effort to turn it into a museum

Works well if:

You want a slightly more modern or earthy feel
The story emphasizes discovery, transformation, or the quirky charm of small-town life

✅ Recommendation:

For a cozy mystery involving a newly discovered Cold War bunker being turned into a museum, Crocus Grove might edge out Lilac Grove because it subtly supports the theme of hidden things coming to light and a town adapting to reveal its past. It feels fresher, has symbolic ties to emergence and surprise, and carries a slightly unique flavor compared to the more traditional and romantic “Lilac.”

But if your mystery leans more toward gothic undertones or emotional depth, Lilac Grove could be perfect.

The analysis definitely made it clear which name would work better with the series I was planning — Crocus Grove. Whew! That was a lot of work made easier and more effective with ChatGPT!

If you'd like help writing effective Web content, consider my online class where I introduce you to lots of free AI tools! If your public library provides Gale online courses as part of its programming, you may be able to enroll for free. If not, try your community college or register online.

Acknowledgement

See the Open AI Terms of Service for information providing the legal reuse of content generated by ChatGPT. Note that Open Ai created and owns ChatGPT.