Helping Authors Build Marvelous Magic Systems One Stage at a Time
Congratulations! You’ve generated oodles of ideas and optimized alignment, and you’re finally ready to start defining your magic system. Stage 3 is where your magic system should start taking on shape, becoming more awesome and more unique with every step. This stage is also massive, so we’re just going to take it one piece at a time.
That starts today as we take a closer look at the basics of magic system variables, what they are and how they affect your magic.
You might already know, but let’s review what limitations are and some of their many forms. From there we can discuss exactly why you need them and end the day in perfect, harmonious agreement regarding limitations and their importance.
Generating Deadly Ideas for Our Viral Magic System Part 1 of Building a Viral Magic System I’m so excited! This system has been kicking around in my head for over a year; I can’t believe I’m finally building it. This will be an awesome series, and I can already tell. Whenever I work with someone starting a new magic system, I always recommend beginning with Stage 0 to pinpoint where to
“But what if my magic isn’t ready for that? How can I know if it’s finished?”
Wow, voice in my head, you always have the best questions. Writing these posts is always so much easier with you to talk to. Today we are going to explore 7 ways to answer that exact question so you can know if you are ready to move on.
Before you can move on to defining your magic in Stage 3, you’ve got to do a basic alignment check on your magic system first. Today, we’re going to walk through a high-level alignment exercise to do exactly that, AND we’re going to do it in nine minutes.
You generated ideas in Stage 1; you checked the alignment in Stage 2; and you added definition in Stage 3. That means it’s time, at long last, to discus the fourth and final stage of the process:
Iteration
I don’t know exactly where you are relative to the creation of your magic. This could be your first time and this shared intimacy makes you blush, or mayhaps you’ve already popped out a dozen arcane mind-children and are ready for more. For simplicity, let’s assume you’re ready to start building a new system, be it your first or your twentieth. Either way, idea generation is always the first stage.
The 4 Stages of Building Marvelous Magic Building a marvelous magic system is just like any other part of writing fiction: When done correctly, it makes the world come alive, ignites the reader’s imagination, and is completely unique to you, the author. But crafted poorly or carelessly, it does more harm than good. This is true for most elements of a story, but magic is different in one important way.
