For those of you who want to make or develop a magic system but aren’t quite sure where to start, it’s a lot easier than it seems at first. Maybe it seems too confusing for you or maybe you don’t think you’re creative enough. Whatever your reasons are, developing a magic system doesn’t have to be hard or confusing and thanks to Ian, I’m here on this guest post today to try to break it down for you.

What you need to know before you start thinking about your magic system is what type of magic system you want. There are different types, much to your surprise. I’m not talking about different types in terms of how different the magic itself is. There are magic systems similar to Game of Thrones where it’s briefly in there but not overly present – just a whisper in the background. Then, there are magic systems like Lord of the Rings, where it’s in there but it’s mysterious and only a few grand people can do it and the audience/readers don’t really ever learn how to use it. Then there are magic systems like books/shows such as Shadowhunters, and even anime like Fairy Tail or Avatar, the Last Airbender, where it’s broken down and explained throughout the course of the show/book so that the audience can learn and understand how it works.

What you need to decide is which one fits the story you want to tell and which one you want to do the most. Once you have that figured out, then it’s time to be creative. If you aren’t very creative, don’t worry.

The greatest asset and tool I use is Pinterest. There are a lot of different pictures of fantasy art on there. What I do is when I see something, literally it could be a picture of anything – sometimes, it sparks an idea. What if…? That what if question is where it all starts. Whether your magic is explained or not, whether everyone in your world can use it or not, whether its common or not – those are all things you have to decide – it might be a good idea for you to decide how it works.

If you’re not creative, then that’s totally fine. The fun thing about magic is that it doesn’t always have to be explained. Whatever you want to do, just do it, make it mysterious and if the characters see it that way, then the audience will too.

But if you want to give it a go, then you have to think of a few things in order for your magic system to work. As yourself these questions:

How does my magic system works?

What powers it? All magic systems has to have some sort of power source. This, of course, can be anything from prisms to crystals, to energy, to pools and water, to the air itself, to particles, to some sort of creature or race, to rainbows. Anything.

Is it used by energy or another force or something else? If so, where does it exist or where does it come from? Does it come from a person’s body like physical energy does? Does it exist in the air and they breathe it in, like people do in Fairy Tail?

What can it do? Are there any limitations? If so, what are they? For example, in Fairy Tail, mages can only learn one type of magic – one person can learn fire magic but they can’t learn anything else. Or does can it do anything except make people fall in love and bring them back from the dead, like in Disney’s Aladdin?

Are there any types of spells that are forbidden? Why or why not? Is necromancy forbidden because it’s horrible? Is light magic forbidden because it’s too bright or too powerful? Are humans forbidden from learning it or maybe a certain race is?

Is there a price to using it, like in Once Upon A Time – all magic comes with a price – ?

Now, pictures on Pinterest belong to other people, so you can’t use them, obviously, but they can spark ideas. Maybe you see a picture of a girl walking in the snow with a silver sky and it sparks an idea for a magic where people have elemental magic like in Avatar, the Last Airbender, but the effects of it change the color of the sky. Use the pictures as inspiration, whatever they may be, and use them to spark ideas of different things that can literally be anything.

When developing your magic system, don’t hold yourself back. Let your imagination run wild. Make rules for yourself and stick to them, but remember that magic is magic for a reason so typically anything works – so long as it doesn’t break the rules you’ve set in place for magic in your story.

Most importantly, have fun!

About the author:

Joanna White earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for Entertainment at Full Sail University. The Valiant series is her first published work, which first started off being updated on a website called Wattpad. She lives in the country of Missouri with her husband, where she continues to work on her other upcoming books. Writing has been a passion since she was ten, when she wrote her first book. Ever since then, writing has become her life outside of her family, God, and being a nerd.

You can connect with Joanna through the following links:

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

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/joannamwhite

Author blog: joannawhite316.wordpress.com – Visit the about page to subscribe for free book recommendations, new short stories every week, writing tips, and for the chance for your book to be chosen as book of the month and promoted across all my social media.

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B071VMB5TY

Joanna’s new book is due soon, check it out!

A reckless young woman named Averella does what no woman has ever done.

She disguises herself as a man and purposefully gets herself arrested and thrown into Zagerah. Her brother Gabriel was taken, and with his disease, he will not survive on his own. She has no idea what to expect inside the prison; all she knows is that once men get taken, they never come back.

The Hunters will find her.

Genetically altered to be faster and stronger than humans, the Hunters use their powers to find and kill every prisoner who enters Zagerah. The only ones who can defeat them, are in fact, themselves.

Jared is a Hunter. It’s all he’s known, all he remembers. He kills ruthlessly and without regret, one prisoner after another. When a new prisoner Dalex shows up, everything begins to change. Jared goes undercover to make Dalex and the other prisoners believe he is one of them, a prisoner himself.

No one knows the truth.

He will trick them.

Toy with them.

Then, he will kill them.

Link to Pre-Order Hunter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NCM7XXF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Coming on April 30!

Stay updated with blog posts and more by following Ian Lahey on Facebook. Go to authorlahey.wordpress.com for more author interviews and stuff. I’m told I left a free e-book in there too, somewhere.

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The post Realistic Magic Systems appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

1: did the plot for “Shifter” come to you in one complete flash or was it built step by step?
Well, I had the basic concept of it created fairly quickly if I remember right – I wrote Shifter quite a few years ago, haha. I knew I wanted to have a world of shapeshifters at the brink of war, so instead of doing some cliché idea like a war quarrel between shapeshifting clans like people have done between vampires and werewolves which is overused, I thought, what if one clan wants to destroy humankind and the others disagree? Then I knew I wanted the main protagonist, Beroan, to be kind of a hero trying to stop it, especially after writing past male protagonists who were anti-heroes like Jared in Hunter, Book One of the Valiant Series and or Aidan from Assassin, a prequel to the Valiant Series (which I wrote before Shifter). So with that in mind, I knew I had to have Beroan try to rally the other clans to his cause, so it was about the journey they made and the battles along the way.

2: who are your favorite characters and why?
I’ve heard from people that in Shifter, Beroan is their favorite, which I totally understand, but I personally love Nsi. Beroan’s voice has an accent because his clan speaks a different language, so when he speaks Common – the book’s equivalent to English, I have to consider all his clan’s grammar rules and language and his POV’s usually take me a while to write something small. Nsi, on the other hand, is a bit informal, but she has a lot of myself thrown into her, especially when it comes to how afraid and paranoid she is. So she’s always fun, easy and quick to write. I could write several chapters of her in the same time that I could only write about a few pages of Beroan’s pov, if that. Which is why Nsi is my favorite to write. As for favorites overall in Shifter, I love Gran. I love her attitude, I love her personality and character, how tough, kind, and cool she is despite what’s happened. She’s awesome.

3: are there any autobiographical elements in the novel?
You mean like real life? As I mentioned before, Nsi has a lot of myself thrown into her. I’m a paranoid person and so is she – granted, I’m not afraid of dragons attacking but close enough – so that’s always true to me. I also paralleled Shifter with the story of Ruth from the Bible in that Nsi follows Beroan the same way that Ruth followed Naomi after a great loss in the family.

4: who would you be in the setting of the book?
Haha, Nsi. I’m so afraid and paranoid, I would be her, but I wouldn’t even be brave enough to head outside the town walls to fetch water like she does. I would literally just stay inside my hut, shivering and afraid of dragons the whole time. So if I was Nsi, the book would never happen because I never would have gone with Beroan in the first place!

5: what was the most emotional part for you as you were writing “Shifter”?
Oof, this one still hurts every time I think about it. I can’t tell spoilers, but it’s definitely because Shifter is a bit of a tragedy. That’s all I can say. Read the book and then think about the ending, especially the last few scenes and man, it still gets to me in the heart even after all these years.

Shifter synopsis: Beroan is a shapeshifter, part of the dragon clan. His clan’s Alpha, Sirath, wants to watch the world burn. For ten long years Sirath has attacked villages, killing thousands of humans and burning towns to the ground. Beroan has had enough, but his resistance will only end in suffering. Nsi is a human living in a small village with her grandmother and cousin. Her ignorance about the existence of shifters won’t protect her for long. Her family was killed in a dragon attack when she was younger, and now dragons have come again. Now she will stop at nothing until the dragon shifters are stopped, to save humans from suffering the same fate as her family. Together, Nsi and Beroan will risk everything to save humanity from Sirath. Darkness is spreading through the galaxy, Corrupting one world after another, and now it has come for theirs. Sirath already belongs to the Corruption of darkness. He will not stop until he burns down the world and leaves it covered in fire and ash.

You can discover more about Joanna’s book by following this Amazon link.
Joanna also has some cool Shifter-themed giveaways for you to win here.

Thank you for reading! Please check my other blog posts as well here on ilahey.com. I think I left a free ebook somewhere among them.

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The post Author Interview with Joanna White appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.