Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 10
When Fantasy Fails Sometimes I read a story that is well written and it leaves me empty. It’s like feasting on cotton candy—there is an illusion that there is something to it, that you’ve consumed a huge volume of food, but ultimately . . . well, cotton candy is just sugar with a few dyes […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 9
Dueling Magic Systems In our very first lesson (find it here), I pointed out that readers of fantasy crave tales with a strong sense of wonder. That’s why many editors seek stories that have a high level of magic. In short, magic happens frequently. But you might notice that if you only have one magic […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 8
The Heart of Your Tale Nearly all stories in science fiction and fantasy deal with new systems of power—whether it be Frodo’s magic ring or Asimov’s robotics, ultimately you’re creating a new system for acquiring and maintaining power, and when you do this, as Orson Scott Card put it, you are forced at some level […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 7
Organic Magic Some magic systems just don’t make any sense. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be fun, it just means that the audience will frequently be reminded at how silly it all is. When this happens, it reminds the audience that this is “just a story,” and can effectively remove the reader from the […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 6
Get Real One essential part of making better magic systems is giving real imagery to the reader without telling them what to see. Very often I will read stories where the author describes a magic spell like this: “As soon as he entered the room, Kyla felt the powerful magic. She reached out with her […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 5
Spellcasting Catastrophes When you create a magic system, you want it to be clean and concise, right? You want it to be simple and foolproof. That’s human nature. It’s also 100 percent wrong! Making better magic systems requires more rules. Many new authors forget to establish rules about how magic spells are cast. In developing […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 4
The Wellspring of Magic When you create a magic system, you have to consider the source of your magic. Very often, the source of the magic and the price of the magic are bound together, but not necessarily. Making better magic systems requires sources. In looking at magic systems around the globe, you will start […]
Making Magic Systems Better, Lesson 3
The High Price of Magic Everything in life carries a price. It’s a law so universally understood that we feel it in our bones. Yet when we deal with fiction, some writers forget to consider the high price of magic and magic systems. The renowned author Nancy Kress has pointed out that a defining moment […]
Making Magic Systems Better, Lesson 2
View previous lesson In the last lesson, I pointed out that most magic systems tend to be rather stale, that they don’t create a sense of wonder. We typically only encounter a strong sense of wonder when we come upon something new. In fact, wonder comes when we find ourselves in a strange situation and […]
Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 1
The most popular books and movies of all time all have one thing in common: They transport audiences better than other books and movies in their genre. Usually, as in films like Avatar or books like Lord of the Rings or Dune, the tale transports you into another time and place. But the tale also transports its audience emotionally. In short, whatever emotion […]
