Building A Magic System
One of the hardest things about writing a fantasy is building a magic system. For the past few months, I’ve been laboring over the magic system in my WIP, trying to find a way to create magic that is logical, connected to my characters and plot, and emotionally resonant. By emotionally resonant, I mean magic that makes us, the readers, feel. There are few things better in literature than having beautiful magic described to you in a way that makes you feel like a bit of a magician yourself. Words themselves are magic. My favorite quote from The Night Circus is all about how storytelling is magic: “You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. This is your role, your gift.”
So how do you go about creating a magic system that serves your story and characters and yet isn’t derivative? It’s hard work, my friends. Harder, I think, than creating the society and intricate plot that comes part and parcel with writing a fantasy, whether it be high fantasy or paranormal. Below are a few helpful steps.
1. Read. A LOT.
Seriously. It’s the only way you won’t accidentally bite someone else’s system or write something totally predictable and boring. Fantasy readers are avid readers and they will catch you if you phone it in. Check out my fantasy reading list and my Goodreads page for suggestions. A really cool thing that’s been happening to me with my reading is that I’m seeing how all these books are in conversation with one another (I stole that concept from Holly Black). I’ve created a word document in which I jot down notes about each book’s magic system, looking at the basics (who has the magic? how does it work?). It’s helpful because it forces me to interact with the book as a writer, not just as a reader. I also find that I’m paying a lot more attention to the magic, taking note of what works and doesn’t work for me as a reader. Also: if you’re reading a lot of fantasy while writing one, you’ll find that it’s training your brain to think on that plane and your ideas will come thicker and faster. To reward yourself for all your hard work, watch some fun TV, like Merlin, to continue your research.
Side Note: Do the research, comerados. If you’re writing about fairies or other such creatures, know your mythology. A great, absolutely fabulous place for any fantasy writer to start is Katharine Briggs’ An Encyclopedia of Fairies. Also, read adult, YA, and middle grade fantasy. See the differences and the similarities.
2. Make A Travel Guide, Draw A Map
My VCFA advisor, Coe Booth, told me to write a travel guide to my magical world. I realized that in order to do so, I had to draw a map. I did both of those things and was amazed at how much of my plotting and character work was simultaneously coming out of that exercise. It forced me to decide how much of the known mythology about my creatures I was going to use and how much I was going to make up. It gave me an opportunity to look at cultural implications within my piece as well, since I’m writing outside my own culture’s mythology. In a lot of fantasy, the magic is connected to the land and it’s always connected to society. So you have to build all of this together, brick by mother-lovin’ brick. Getting this hard work done before you write too many chapters will save you a helluva lot of work down the road.
3. Answer Questions
In a fabulous lecture on magic systems, Holly Black said that in order to create a system, you need to ask yourself these questions:
-Who has the magic? (and WHY do they have it?)
-What does the magic do?
-How do you make it happen?
-How is the user affected?
-How is the world affected?
-How are magic users perceived?
These were the main ones, but she also said to think about a few others:
-What is the cost of magic (all magic comes at a price)
-Is this an open world, where everyone knows about magic, or a closed one, where only a select few know it exists?
-Is this magic Dark or Light? (Dark tends to be more sensual – not necessarily evil, associated with feeling – it’s more mysterious (think Beautiful Creatures), whereas Light Magic tends to have a lot of logic behind it (think Cinder).
-What are the limits of your magic? (Creating limits helps with tension and plotting; you have to, as she says “calibrate the magic” otherwise it will “capsize your story”)
-What is the potential model for your magic? (She really stresses that you shouldn’t try to reinvent the wheel, because readers will respond to your story and get into it better if you give them at least some concepts they are familiar with. She suggests an essay, “The Ecstasy of Influence” by Jonathan Latham, for further analysis on this).
-What do the rules of magic say about your world (and, by extension, your world view)?
She reminds us that fantasy is always metaphor and you have to think about how the characters in your book will use magic in service of the metaphors in your novel.
Another great resource is from the SFWA website. There are a TON of questions here, but well worth a look.
4. Do Sidewriting
I’d never heard of this specific term before a workshop I took with A.M. Jenkins this past January, but it basically just means writing that helps you get to the writing. Interviewing your character, writing out backstory scenes so you know what happened, free-writing in a character’s voice, writing a scene from the POV of every character in it so that you can see the whole thing…Basically, it’s what John Gardner calls “jazzing around” (another term I love). This helps me with plotting and character, but it also helps with the magic system because you might not know if some of your magical elements work until you screw around with them a little.
5. Talk It Out, Kidnap A Gamer
I don’t know if it’s even possible to create a magic system without running through it out loud and bouncing those ideas off someone else. Preferably, several someone elses. Holly Black suggests getting a gamer to try to break your magic system because they are the people who are going to find all the flaws. In addition to the gamer, try to find a writer or reader friend who knows fantasy, so they can point out cliches to you that you might not have realized. Then talk to a regular person because you’ll see what holes you might have in logic that a fantasy reader might forgive you for (or not – they can be your harshest critics!).
Final Thoughts
You have to always make sure the magic is deeply connected to your character. What does their magical ability say about them? More on all of this later, but just start thinking about that. You never want to get so caught up in magic systems and plotting and world building that you forget about what really matters – your protagonist and secondary characters. The most important thing is to listen to your characters. They’ll tell you when you’ve gone off track. Don’t be so married to a system that you stunt your story.
I’m going to be blogging about this topic a ton, since in my life right now, it’s all fantasy, all the time. This is just the jumping off point for your magic system. The more you get into your WIP, the more you’ll have to adjust the system you’ve created.
Happy building!
