When Characters Outgrow Their Roles

By

Christine Amsden

We are delighted to welcome Christine Amsden to MB4, in the eve of the release of her new novel, Madison’s Song. Congratulations Christine! Today, Christine shares with us a little about her inspiration for her new novel and how the characters that we know so well sometimes surprise the writer.

Some characters arrive on a blaze of inspiration. They bowl you over, shout their secrets into your mind, and won't shut up until you've written their story. Such was the case with Cassie Scot, the ungifted daughter of powerful sorcerers who became the heroine in her eponymous series.

Other characters sneak up on you, perhaps whispering their secrets, perhaps trying to grab your attention when it's spent somewhere else. Such was the case with Madison Carter, Cassie's shy, plump friend who outgrew her role in the Cassie Scot series.

I first met Madison as I built a world around Cassie. I'd already given Cassie a large family, a romantic interest, and even a bad guy to fight, but she still didn't feel complete. Of course! She needs friends. Normal friends, I decided, not part of the supernatural world she doesn't quite fit into. Friends who could express doubts about magic. Friends who ended up getting drawn into her world.

If Cassie is, in some ways, the person I would most like to be, then Madison started out as the person I felt I truly was. Maybe this connection made it inevitable that she would grow into something more than a background figure, there to play the role I'd set for her. I don't know. I only know that over the course of four books she turned from sidekick to real person. Ultimately, I couldn't finish her story from Cassie's point of view. Madison deserved a story of her own.

Madison Carter went through hell during the Cassie Scot series. She was outed as a songbird – someone whose voice can influence emotions in others. Worse, she was outed as a very low-powered sorceress, with no training or skills to protect her from those who would take advantage of her. That's what happens to her in the prologue to Madison's Song, which I wrote shortly before writing Mind Games (Cassie Scot #3). That's when it happens, as a matter of fact. An evil sorcerer, having heard about her gift, and believing her unprotected, attempts to steal her soul in order to trap her songbird gift.

Whew.

One of the biggest challenges I faced when spinning off Madison's story was that it began in such a dark, horrifying way. The Cassie Scot series begins in a lighthearted manner, and though it has its ups and downs, the lighthearted tone remains true to the end.

But Madison isn't Cassie. And Scott, the romantic hero, is not Evan.

Madison nearly loses her soul in the prologue to Madison's Song. Scott saves her, but at a terrible cost. And that's not the only bad thing that's happened to her in the past. In the final two volumes of the Cassie Scot series, Madison is betrayed by her father, her fiance, and her mentor. Already prone to feeling shy, this combination of hurts sends her into a real panic, with fear of werewolves at the heart of it all. Yet I had plans to set her up with a werewolf who loves her.

This was not going to be a lighthearted story, not if I wanted to stay true to the character I'd spent four books building.

I'm a character girl. I've always said so because I see great characters as being more important than anything else in telling a good story. Madison put this mantra to the test as she took me in directions I wasn't sure I wanted to go.

When characters outgrow their roles, when they take on lives of their own, all an author can do is channel them onto the page and hope for the best. They may not have come to life in a blaze of inspiration, but they are alive. Perhaps even more fully realized than the ones who just show up.

And they'll be the ones writing the story. 

****

 About Madison's Song

Amazon Link

Her voice is enchanting; his soul is black...

Madison Carter has been terrified of Scott Lee since the night he saved her from an evil sorcerer – then melted into a man-eating monster before her eyes. The werewolf is a slave to the moon, but Madison's nightmares are not.

Despite her fears, when Madison's brother, Clinton, is bitten by a werewolf, she knows there is only one man who can help. A man who frightens her all the more because even in her nightmares, he also thrills her.

Together for the first time since that terrible night, Scott and Madison drive to Clinton's home only to discover that he's vanished. Frantic now, Madison must overcome her fears and uncover hidden strengths if she hopes to save him. And she's not the only one fighting inner demons. Scott's are literal, and they have him convinced that he will never deserve the woman he loves.

About Christine Amsden

 

 

Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, a condition that effects the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams. In addition to writing, Christine teaches workshops on writing at Savvy Authors. She also does some freelance editing work. Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. They have two beautiful children.

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More about the Challenges of Writing a Series

Part Two of my Interview with Christine Amsden

By

Dora Machado

 

 

There you have it, folks, four books and a good looking series. Last week we talked to Christine Amsden about the most important elements of a successful series. Today Christine talks about the tools in her magical arsenal, her audience and her favorite characters.

Hello Christine, and welcome back. In Secrets and Lies you make liberal use of a wide variety of magical tools and concepts to enhance the storyline. We read about seers, vampires, werewolves, blood magic, mind magic, illusionists, energy nodes, love spells, lust potions, healing potions, rituals, mind melds, magic power trafficking, you name it. Where did you get your magical arsenal and why does it work so well within the series context?

I borrowed most of my magical tools from what I think of as the “common western mythology,” but I put my own spin on it. The spin goes back to, “Power corrupts.” I may have used a few magical creatures in the series, but I've always felt that humans are as capable of evil as any demon you could throw at me. That's why a lot of this series involves humans rather than creatures. Ultimately, all the magical tools you described support the idea that it's not the magic itself, but the wielder who makes the difference.

My favorite character in the series is Evan, the powerful sorcerer who has a hold on Cassie's heart but whose magic is both a draw and a cause of grief for independent-minded Cassie. How did you manage to couple an exploration of magic into an exploration of love?

I love Evan too! As for exploring magic and love, for Cassie at least, it was hard to separate the two ideas. But love is more than a feeling – it's something you do. It's a verb. Eventually, Cassie is going to have to separate magic/independence from love, which will be the real challenge.

Speaking of love, is Cassie Scot a young adult series or is it intended for a different audience?

I consider it a new adult series. This is a relatively new sub-genre that bridges young adult and adult. It roughly involves characters ages 18 to 23, and the big difference between new adult and young adult is the stage of life. Cassie is out of school, dealing with career, serious relationships (possibly heading towards marriage), and she's renegotiating her relationship with her parents now that she is an adult. It's a time of change and flux where people really come into their own and learn who they are, which was why I chose the age. I wasn't really trying to pigeonhole the story into a category.

I do recommend this series for 18+, although I think mature high school students would enjoy it too. Parental guidance is suggested as there is some mild sexual content (honestly, I've seen steamier in young adult series, and I read steamier as a teen, but I don't want to presume on behalf of parents).

There were several interesting plot twists in Secrets and Lies and then you added that one big one at the end, which was great. I'm not going to spoil it for future readers, but did you plan the twists for the entire series in advance or do you conceive the plot twists as you go?

Some are planned, but most of the big ones surprised me. The “one big one at the end” came to me when I was halfway through my first draft of Secrets and Lies, actually. It may surprise readers to hear that, especially when it ends up laying the foundation for the rest of the series, but I had an “OHHH!” moment and I knew, I just knew, that it fit. Everything suddenly made sense.

Mind Games, the third book of the series, was just released this year. How will Cassie be different in this book? How about Evan? And without giving away any spoilers, how will Mind Games up the stakes?

Cassie is about to face the challenge of her life – a mind mage who is very interested in courting her. I say in the book blurb that she finds him … irresistible. There is a world of subtext in the ellipsis. Mind Games was my biggest challenge as a writer, too, because I wrote an entire novel from the first-person viewpoint of someone who is being mind controlled (it really is supposed to be obvious to the reader), but who doesn't … well, sometimes she thinks … but then Matthew is very good. But overcoming this challenge will teach her things about herself and take her in a whole new direction. Between that and learning a painful secret, Cassie is actually going to make some brash decisions in the third volume of the series. She's going to make some mistakes, but that's a big part of growing.

Evan, meanwhile, starts off regretting a decision he made at the end of Secrets and Lies. He's scared. We don't get a lot of his point of view (he only gets prologues and epilogues) but his life has been turned upside down too, and he still loves Cassie, despite everything. Behind the scenes, he's going to have to learn how to turn that love from childish desire (“I want”) to a mature commitment. He doesn't quite finish that journey in Mind Games.

You've mentioned before that this is a four-book series. The last book of the series, Stolen Dreams has just been released. Huge Congrats! What do you hope to accomplish now that is all said and done? What would you like your readers to say when they read the last line of the Cassie Scot series?

Yes, I'm sure, and yes, Stolen Dreams (Cassie Scot #4) is out. I do plan to spin off two secondary characters – Madison and Kaitlin. Madison's Song is almost done (I'm working with an editor right to polish it up) and Kaitlin's Tale is in early rough draft form. Cassie's story is finished in the four books I mentioned, but readers will learn more about the world and, of course, about Cassie's two best friends, if they check out the spin-offs.

But at the end of Stolen Dreams I expect readers to feel like Cassie Scot has completed her emotional and psychological journey. That come what may, she is secure with who she is and what she can do (magic or no magic). Without giving the ending away, there is a certain symmetry that should help bring real closure to the series conclusion.

Is this really it? It it? Done done? You know, there are so many vivid characters in the series that I've considered spinning off others. Elena, Cassie's nine-year-old sister (who can speak to the dead), has intrigued me from the start. And I even have an idea floating around for one last adventure for Cassie herself – although I don't really want to open that can of worms. If I did, it would be an additional adventure, separate from the four-book arc I planned and implemented to completion.

But honestly, it's time for me to move on and write something else. As much as I love Cassie (and I really do), I don't want to be one of those authors who only has one thing. When Kaitlin's Tale is over (and I have to finish that one because there are a couple of world-building loose-ends that need tying up), I'm going to start something completely new.

Thank you so much for this interview, Christine. We wish you lots of success with the series.

****

Christine Amsden has been writing science fiction and fantasy for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, a condition that affects the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams. Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. They have two beautiful children, Drake and Celeste.

Contact Christine at http://christineamsden.com/wordpress/

*****

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories. When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for Murder By Four, an award winning blog for readers and writers and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and three very opinionated cats.

E-mail:Dora@doramachado.com

Website: www.doramachado.com

Blog: http://www.doramachado.com/blog/

Newsletter: http://doramachado.com/newsletter.php

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The Challenges of Writing a Series

Part One of my Interview with Christine Amsden

By

Dora Machado

  

Have you ever considered writing a series? I have. Oh, wait. I did! LOL. I just finished reading Secrets and Lies and Mind Games by Christine Amsden, books two and three of the Cassie Scot: Paranormal Detective series. I was impressed by Christine's ability to draw from the strengths of her first book to build a compelling series. In her interview today, Christine talks about the challenges of building a successful series.

Hi Christine and welcome to MB4.

Hi! Thanks for having me here.

Cassie Scot is the non-magically gifted daughter of a family of powerful sorcerers. In a magical world, she has to rely on her smarts to make a living, and most importantly, to survive. What is it about Cassie that makes her such a compelling character? How did you come up with her character? What parts of Cassie do you like most? What parts of her vex you?

I think Cassie works because she's genuine. I put a lot of myself in her, to be honest. Oh, she's not me, but she's definitely got my voice. I came up with her in a burst of inspiration one day – I knew my next story needed to be about an awesome character. Characters draw me into my favorite stories, after all. But what could I do to make a character unique? Cool magical powers have been done to death, and even if I could come up with a new one, that just didn't have the right oomph. Then it hit me – she's got NO magic. In a world of magic (which I then had to create – Cassie came first), my character doesn't have any.

I love Cassie because she's so relatable. I myself often feel like I'm out of my depth in a world of special abilities – I'm legally blind. The comparison struck me early on, but it's not why I wrote her. I wrote her because any one of us can be a hero in some small way and Cassie is the embodiment of that.

Cassie is also young and impetuous. She does not make all the right choices all the time. I suppose if anything vexes me about her, that's it, although I submit that she's 21 and we all make mistakes at 21. (Of course, now that I'm 36, I'm done making mistakes! :) )

When and how did you come to the conclusion that Cassie deserved more than a book, an entire series?

Pretty early, actually. As soon as the idea hit me I started brainstorming, and within a week I had several books’ worth of material. It wasn't just mysteries (although I came up with a few more possibilities than I ended up writing), but Cassie's character arc. It was that arc, I felt, which needed a series. Most of the first book takes place in less than a week – enough time to have an impact, given the traumatic events that take place, but not enough time to really grow into the woman she needs to be. She wasn't going to have a sudden awakening in a week and think, “Oh, well, I solved this paranormal mystery so now I'm okay then!” She has to earn her happily ever after.

How is writing a series more challenging than writing a book and vice versa?

With a series, you have more facts to keep track of, and depending upon the publication schedule, you may be stuck with decisions you made earlier in the series that you later regret. (I got around this with Cassie Scot because I had all four books at least drafted before the first one was published – I was able to go back and make sure it all worked. But I'm working on two spin-offs now that have me shackled to earlier decisions.)

But the series makes character development easier. It's hard to earn real character change over the course of a single adventure.

In your opinion, what are the elements that make a series successful?

Character. Character. Character.

My favorite series have characters who rise to new challenges, and learn or grow from each encounter. Series that go on “too long” (an entirely subjective metric) usually do so because something has stagnated – often the character. For example, I stopped reading Sookie Stackhouse early on because Sookie never really evolved, IMO. She faced new challenges in each book, but she remained essentially the same. On the other hand, Harry Dresden is on book, what? Fourteen? Fifteen? I don't mind, I'm ready for the next one!

Awesome. Thank you so much for talking to us today, Christine. MB4 readers: Much more about series writing and Christine's journey next week. Until then, enjoy your summer and have a wonderful week. D.

  

****

Christine Amsden has been writing science fiction and fantasy for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, a condition that affects the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams. Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. They have two beautiful children, Drake and Celeste.

Contact Christine at http://christineamsden.com/wordpress/

  

 

*****

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories. When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for Murder By Four, an award winning blog for readers and writers and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

E-mail:Dora@doramachado.com

Website: www.doramachado.com

Blog: http://www.doramachado.com/blog/

Newsletter: http://doramachado.com/newsletter.php

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoraMachado101

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoraMachado

First Person: A Matter of Perspective by Christine Amsden

Hi, folks! 

I'm pleased to share a great article on Point of View with you today from the award-winning author, Christine Amsden. Welcome back to MB4, Christine!

Aaron Lazar

www.lazarbooks.com

 

Mind Games (Cassie Scot Book 3)

Beware your heart and soul…

Evan broke Cassie’s heart two months ago, and she still doesn’t know why. She throws herself into family, friends and her new job at the sheriff’s department, but nothing helps. The only thing that finally allows her heal and move on is the love of a new man, mind mage Matthew Blair. Cassie finds him…irresistible.

Matthew may also be the only one who can help keep the non-magical residents of Eagle Rock from going crazy over the murder of a beloved pastor’s wife. It looks like a sorcerer is to blame, but while Cassie tries to figure out who, others take matters into their own hands. With tensions running so hot, a single spark might set Eagle Rock ablaze.

Guest Blog by Christine Amsden

First Person: A Matter of Perspective

Whether a writer is a panster or an outliner, there is one question she must answer before getting started: First or third? For some the answer is simply a matter of personal preference, but even if that's the case it's important to think through the implications.

First person is a compelling viewpoint for many authors because it is easy to imagine ourselves as “I” and to tell a story that way. It's sort of what we do, isn't it? Play an elaborate game of make believe? But unless you're a dedicated hobbyist, you're not just telling this story for your own amusement. You're writing to an audience, and your audience may have a different perspective.

As a reader, I usually prefer third person – and I don't say this lightly because my Cassie Scot series is told in the first person (I'll get into why in a bit). I enjoy third person because in my readerly games of make believe, it is a little easier for me to pretend to be “he” or “she” than “I.”  It also has the clear advantage of allowing me inside the heads of more than one character, deepening the story by bringing in multiple perspectives.

The third person limited omniscient is a great point of view which eliminates the distance between readers and characters. It puts us straight into their heads in a way that makes it a more intimate reading experience than first person. First person used to be the “close” point of view, but that's when it was competing with an omniscient version of third person. Nowadays, we have better options. Modern limited omniscient third person gets as intimate with the character as first person, but it eliminates distance in time. A first person narrator has, presumably, already lived through the events of the story and is telling them from the future. A third person narrator is right there in the moment.

But don't take this to mean that first person doesn't have a place. Of course it does! There is power in the first person narrator, but it has to be harnessed well and used wisely. As a reader immersing myself in a first person novel, it's more like a close personal friend is telling me their story in intimate detail. To get into it I have to like not only the story, but the person telling it and the way it's being told. Or to put it another way: Your narrator had better have character.

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say this: If you can substitute “he” or “she” for “I” in a first person story and it's still basically the same, you've chosen the wrong point of view. If this is the case then you've thrown away all the advantage of first person while embracing all the disadvantages.

A first person narrator isn't just a narrator. He or she is a character telling a story. Their character will influence how they tell the story – including voice, style, and presentation method. First person narrators can get away with asides to the audience, or drop dark hints about what is to come (since they have already lived through it). A first person narrator can be unreliable – he can even lie to himself and believe it. He can also withhold information from the audience.

You can get away with breaking more rules in the first person than you can in the third. Ironically, this makes it harder to write. It's easier to effectively break rules once you know them and understand what they're for.

The power of a first person narrator is freedom of style.

I chose first person for Cassie, after a lot of agonizing deliberation, because she needed to tell her own story. It helped that the story (by which I mean the prominent series arc; the individual books are mysteries) is entirely about Cassie coming into herself as an adult. But you can tell a great story in the third person, even if it belongs to only one character. A first person story needs more.  It needs a character who desperately wants to tell her own story. Cassie's got attitude, and she's talking right to you. “My parents think the longer the name the more powerful the sorcerer, so they named me Cassandra Morgan Ursula Margaret Scot. You can call me Cassie.”

I said earlier that as a reader, I usually prefer third person. I put the “usually” in there for a reason – I usually prefer third person because I run across too many first person stories that don't harness the power of first person. That don't have the right style or perspective, or that differ from a third person story only in the pronoun choice. The whole truth is that when first person is done well, it's my absolute favorite to read. But of course “done well” is also a matter of perspective.

 

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Author Bio:

Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, a condition that effects the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams.

In addition to writing, Christine teaches workshops on writing at Savvy Authors. She also does some freelance editing work.

Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. They have two beautiful children.

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