Settings & worlds · Tip 39 of 82 · 5 min read
Inventing Magic (With Rules!)
The best magic has limits and costs. Here's how to build spells that make your story more exciting.
Magic is brilliant fun to write about. But here's a secret: if magic can do anything, your story stops being exciting. Why worry about the dragon if your hero can just wave a wand and make it disappear?
Magic needs rules
Great magic systems have rules that your reader can understand. Rules make problems harder, and harder problems make better stories.
- Who can use the magic? Everyone, a chosen few, only children, only cats?
- How does it work? Spoken words, music, drawings, a special stone?
- What can't it do? Maybe it can't bring things back to life, or doesn't work on Tuesdays.
- What does it cost? Every spell might make you tired, cost you a memory, or turn one of your hairs silver.
Okay 😐
Nell waved her hand and the broken bridge fixed itself. They crossed the river.
Wow! 🤩
Nell could mend the bridge, but every spell she cast froze her fingers a little more, and her hands were already numb. She looked at the river, then at her friends, and took off her gloves.
In the second version, using magic is a choice with a price. Now we're worried about Nell, and we really want to know if it works.
Show the rules early
If magic is going to save the day at the end, let your reader see how it works near the beginning. Otherwise the ending feels like a cheat that came out of nowhere.
Every candle in the Whitlock house could be lit with a whisper, but only if you said the person's name who would sit by it. Ossie had never been allowed to light one by himself.