Jeffe's One Rule of Character Leveling-Up

This coming Friday, July 30, at 6pm Mountain Time, I'll be joining these great friends and powerhouse Fantasy Romance authors for an online panel! Tickets are free for this event sponsored by Love's Sweet Arrow bookstore in Chicago. Join me, Jennifer Estep, L. Penelope, and Lexi Ryan for a chat moderated by Jen Prokop. Ask us anything!

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Leveling-Up: Is it necessary for protagonists to continually gain power/ability/expertise as a series progresses?"

I had to mull over the basic premise of this question. Do I do this in my own books? I don't always have the same protagonists in successive books of a series, but when I do, do they continually level up?

I guess... yes. That's the pattern I've followed. 

My usual rule with writing in general and worldbuilding in particular is, when I discover I'm implementing an element or trope without consciously examining it, that indicates some programmed ideas I need to investigate. 

Thus the mulling. 

So, is it necessary for the protagonist to continually gain power/ability/expertise? No, it's not necessary. BUT, character growth is fundamental to my concept of storytelling and the progression of ability to control one's personal power is a key metaphor in books that are about magic. I suppose you could have the magical/paranormal abilities remain constant and have the character grow in other arenas. As human beings, however, our lives are largely about gaining and refining our skill sets. That aspect of humanity makes it an evergreen topic of interest for us. 

Now that I think about it, it might be fun to have a wizard at the top of their game get tired of it and try a new career, learning an entirely foreign skill set. 

The rule I do cling to is, if a fundamental of the world is set as a limitation of powers, then that can't be discarded in order to level up later. This is akin to making a disability magically vanish, or an incompatible species couple suddenly have a magic baby. Some limitations should be real and permanent, not exploded for plot sparkles. So sayeth I.

Winter Magic in Summer - THE LONG NIGHT OF THE CRYSTALLINE MOON

At the SFF Seven this week, we're recommending our frothiest books for a light summer read. Well, if you're one of those who likes to celebrate the midwinter holidays in the heat of summer, I've got one for you!

Just out today, I give you THE LONG NIGHT OF THE CRYSTALLINE MOON.

This is a prequel novella to my Heirs of Magic series, previously published in the UNDER A WINTER SKY anthology, and now available as a standalone. If you want a bit of wintery magic, this story will transport you to a fantasy world where the longest night is celebrated at Castle Ordnung. A circle of grown-up childhood friends gather to dance, drink, celebrate the rare sighting of the full Crystalline Moon - and perhaps attempt to rekindle a long-lost love affair. 

For a short time, you can snag this novella for only 0.99c from my website store. As the retailer links go live, you'll find them here - THE LONG NIGHT OF THE CRYSTALLINE MOON - and the price goes up. 

I'll take fantasy murder, please. With a side of pasta sauce.

(the closest I've been to a murder scene off-page: 

my attempt at jarring homemade pasta sauce without a funnel)

No matter what genre you read or write, there’s murder lurking there. Murder’s been around since Cain and Able, and ever since then people have been talking about it. 

But what do I consider the most intriguing fictitious murder method? Hmm…I guess it depends on the genre!

In my sci-fi thriller, The Mars Strain, there’s a world-wide pandemic that takes people out by the thousands. *cringe* I do love viruses, still can't take the lab outta the girl, but a little too close to home for you at the moment?

Fantasy! I also write fantasy and in them there’s: 

• brutal trolls with club-like arms (don’t get squished)
• undead creatures called Draugr (watch out for their teeth)
• swords (naturally my heroine’s carry fabled, named ones, but you’ve gotta be careful with the ones swinging at your head)
• assassins (shadows peel from their skins and you’re not even aware you’ve let them in)
• aaaand magic

Magic. That’s my answer and I’m sticking to it! 

In both of my fantasy books magic in inherent, if a character has fae blood in their ancestry then they have some amount of power. In The Dark Queen’s Daughter my MC’s power allows her to tap into the magic of the world and use it for brief moments. So she’s able to control the trees and crushes revenants back into dust and stabs a draugr, though they regenerate up to three times so different methods are required. 

Magical murder can range from gristly to the soul passing on a sigh. I appreciate that it’s fantastical in nature and therefore has a certain distance to it. Because when it comes down to it, I’d rather write about magic’s glitter and healing properties. Still, when I want to do good evil is right there with me, so murder will keep worming it’s way into my stories. In one form or another. 

Do you have a favorite book-murder, magical or not?

Derivative Fun in the WIP

My favorite thing about the current WIP is that I get to be a kid again.

Edie is a thinly veiled homage to my favorite MMORPG character ever. I can't say which game because frankly the game company believes they own my character and everything about her even if *I* did all the work creating and voicing her. So no screenshots of her, either. What is it about this situation that lets me be a kid?

I can pack Edie's speech, actions, and characterization full of Easter Eggs that harken back to the character and game of origin. I get that maybe three people on earth will recognize them when they read them. It amuses me while I write, so that's my excuse. There's a distinct chance that not a single one will survive editorial, anyway. Oh well. True, my game character had magic as the basis for her power and I frankly can't swing that in an SFR, but you know. Arthur C. Clarke, right? "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  So Edie has the tech to do what the things her progenitor did with magic.

All of this came about because the game company made repeated disparaging remarks about the race of character I had chosen to play. It's as if they learned nothing from Robin William's devastating suicide. The gist of their statement about this particular race of characters was something like 'this fictional race is too ridiculous to be taken seriously.' Sure. It looks like the game designers built the race in question to provide comedic relief in the game. But I think they're wrong. Dead wrong. I think most of us have come to understand that the funniest exteriors mask the most tragic and conflicted interiors.

So yeah. No pressure or anything, but I'm doing my best to pack all that stuff into a character who only has 90k words and a romance to get off the ground. My other favorite thing about it is that I don't have a hard deadline. So when something isn't working, I can afford the time to backtrack and figure out where I deviated from The One True Path.

Now. My very favorite thing on earth will be FINALLY finishing this thing. So I'm off to do that.