How to Establish a Great Magic System, Part Five

Oh my heck, you guys, I am so far behind on my list of things to do! I feel like I've abandoned you a little bit here on the blog. Because I have.

But the end of April found me planning an Eagle court of honor for my son, and then finishing up all the prep to teach at a major Utah writer's conference, at which I was also the Faculty Coordinator. It was busy to say the least. And then May hit, and for teachers, this is a very busy month.

So I'm sorry! But I am back today with Part Five of how to establish a great magic system.

Today's question is: How Are Magic Acts Performed?

• chants, spells, songs = SPOKEN
• wands, hand movements = PHYSICALLY
• MENTALLY
• combination of the above

We see examples of all of these in Harry Potter. Harry and his friends first learn the words they need to cast spells. These have to be spoken clearly or you could end up in the wrong alley.

Some spells have specific wand movements – a physical skill that must be performed correctly. But later on, we see that spells can be cast without words, suggesting that as a magic user progresses, they can simply use a wand and their mental capability to cast spells and perform magic. Some of these are done all together, some separately, but they can all achieve magic.

So what do the characters in your book need to do in order to perform their magic? Does it require another person, a specific tool, a list of memorized lyrics, etc. to get the spell accomplished?

I did use Google to aid me in my research. I found three places that provided me with the most insight and useful information: Brandon Sanderson's Laws of Magic (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), WikiHow (don't laugh, it had good stuff!), and The Four Part Land (he has six parts, but they're all linked at the top of this one).

So I read (ahem, maybe I skimmed a little. Some of the posts are long!) up on magic systems. I thought about what *I* liked in a magic system. I thought about the fantasy novels I'd read (because I don't read high-high fantasy like Sanderson or many of the authors/titles they talk about in these posts). I thought about Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the TV show Merlin, movies like The Prestige, and other -- in my opinion -- accessible references. (Basically I'm saying I was too lazy to take the time to read those high fantasy novels. I reflected on what I was familiar with. And that's a tip I always give when I'm teaching: Use what you know to draw conclusions and create learning for what you don't.)

How to Establish a Great Magic System, Part Four

Okay, onto Part Four today! We're flying through these! I hope that you've found them somewhat useful as you consider writing a fantasy or science fiction novel. (See Part One, Part Two, and/or Part Three.)

Onward and upward to Question 4: How Is Magic Viewed?

• By society
• By other magic users
• By the MC
• Not only magic, but how are magic users viewed? By the public? Each other?

This is where you establish how the magic is viewed in society. Is it generally accepted? Unaccepted? Laws against using magic, or being a magician? How does the MC view magic and magic users? If s/he is a magic user, how do they feel about their society’s limitations or opinions on magic? How is the magic viewed among magic users? Is that different from society?

How are magic users viewed? Feared? Respected? Abhorred? All this should be established as you’re building your magic system. A lot of this can go toward limiting your magic users and your main character as well. So don’t skip over this step.


I did use Google to aid me in my research. I found three places that provided me with the most insight and useful information: Brandon Sanderson's Laws of Magic (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), WikiHow (don't laugh, it had good stuff!), and The Four Part Land (he has six parts, but they're all linked at the top of this one).

So I read (ahem, maybe I skimmed a little. Some of the posts are long!) up on magic systems. I thought about what *I* liked in a magic system. I thought about the fantasy novels I'd read (because I don't read high-high fantasy like Sanderson or many of the authors/titles they talk about in these posts). I thought about Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the TV show Merlin, movies like The Prestige, and other -- in my opinion -- accessible references. (Basically I'm saying I was too lazy to take the time to read those high fantasy novels. I reflected on what I was familiar with. And that's a tip I always give when I'm teaching: Use what you know to draw conclusions and create learning for what you don't.)

When You Need Backstory And When You Don't

Okay, so this is another area that I normally struggle with. See, I've created a new world in POSSESSION (and thus SURRENDER), and well, readers typically want to know how our world became theirs.

You may not have a world backstory, but certainly you have character backstory, setting backstory, etc.

Here's a little secret: I don't care about world backstory.

There. I said it.

When I'm reading I don't care how our world became the one in the story. I just don't. I suppose some might call me shallow. I don't know.

But as an author, I don't normally gravitate toward including a wad of backstory for my world. This is something I'm working on, not only in my future writing (fix it before you have to fix it, right?), but in drafts I've already completed.

So, how do you know when you need backstory and when you don't? It's simple, really. If it's essential to your plot, you need it.

I make a Venn diagram in my head. (Yeah, I write down some notes, but diagrams? That's going a little bit too far for me. *wink*)

One circle is labeled "ESSENTIAL" another is labeled "NICE TO KNOW" and another is labeled "MAYBE IF I HAVE ENOUGH WORDS".

And let's face it, I never have enough words. So what ends up happening is I take stock of everything that the reader MUST know and what it would be NICE if they knew, and I insert them into the MS.

In my forthcoming novel SURRENDER, I tell the reader about the educational system by examining a defunct friendship, and use the school years to chronologically advance (or de-advance, I suppose) the relationship. I sneak in the world's backstory through another person.

The beginning of POSSESSION reads as follows:

"Good girls don't walk with boys. Even if they're good boys--and Zenn is the best. He strolled next to me, all military with his hands clasped behind his back, wearing the black uniform of a Forces recruit. The green stripes on his shirtsleeves flashed with silver tech lights, probably recording everything. Probably? Who am I kidding? Those damn strips were definitely recording everything."

I established several things by using Zenn:
1. Good girls don't walk with boys.
2. Zenn is in the Forces, and they wear uniforms.
3. There is some level of technology in his actual clothing, what with the flashing stripes.
4. Those stripes record stuff. Definitely all kinds of stuff.

Things you might want to reconsider:
1. Using dialog to deliver backstory. Typically, the two (or more) characters talking already know the backstory, so it's lame to have them discussing it as if they don't.

2. Having the MC simply give a long monologue about the world they live in. Trust me, I have to get a lot of information about the world into my books. Find ways to put it in where the MC isn't just expounding on their world for no reason. Use a relationship, a person, or an attitude to establish a reason for inserting the backstory.

Got any world backstory tips for me? I'd love to add to my arsenal!

Adding More World To Your Novel

Okay, so on Monday I talked about strengthening and using relationships in writing. It's something I'm learning and working on while I edit my second novel, Surrender.

The next phase that I've been considering and stretching and growing in is thus: world building.

See, I'm not what you'd call a super-deep person. When I read a book, I don't really care about the society or the world or how it came to be or anything like that. So as a writer, I don't really think to include those things.

I write the kind of books I like to read, and they're light on the world building. Heck, most of the time, they're light on the actual setting! I just find that I like a very fast, emotional read, and setting is neither fast nor emotional to me.

Well.

Apparently, I need to amp up the setting and world building in Surrender. This has been difficult for me on many levels, but I think I've managed to learn a thing or two along the way.

So today, I give you a few tips I've learned about adding more world to your novel.

Tip #1: One sentence is sometimes enough. This sounds simple, and it is! I seriously thought I'd need to drone on and on (and on!) in order to give the background of my society. But it turns out that a well-placed, well-crafted sentence is sometimes enough.

This pleases me greatly, because then I don't have to slow down my action in order to convey information.

Tip #2: Edit on paper first. I'm a huge fan of editing on paper, because for me, it's like note-taking. I'm not really writing new scenes or anything like that. I'm simply reading my MS, taking in all the notes my editor has written in the margin, and finding places for that one sentence explanation.

I mark these places on the hard copy of my book. I write all over my MS, and this allows me to really see what's going on in my book. I'm very visual/tactile in that way.

While I'm editing on paper, I also keep notes in a journal. I'll jot down on which pages items about the world are already mentioned, and on which pages I'm planning to add more explanation and what that explanation is about. This helps me keep the sequence of revealed information in the right order.

Tip #3: Spread the building out. When I first got my edit letter, I sort of had a tiny panic attack at all the additional explanations that were needed. I seriously thought they all needed to be addressed in the first chapter. But they don't.

As I read my novel and found the spots that would house further explanation well, I realized that not everything has to be explained in chapter one. Or two. Or even ten. (I feel rather silly about this now, but yeah. Edit letters are scary. Awesome, but scary.)

Tip #4: It is, in reality, okay to establish the setting. I'm sure you're going, "Duh, Elana!" but for me, setting is a huge weakness of mine. As I said, I just don't care what a house looks like. I can't imagine why anyone would care, and so setting is not something I consider too heavily. But as I've been editing, I can see the value in establishing the setting in my futuristic society. Some people probably want to see it better than I've written it.

But I'll tell you, this is one I'm repeating to myself all the time. "It's okay to establish setting. It's okay to establish setting."

So editing in more setting and world building is...going. Are these things you gravitate toward doing naturally? How do you weave in setting and world building without slowing the action?

Playing God

Dude, today we're discussing world building in science fiction and fantasy -- and POSSESSION.

But not here. Over on Jemi Fraser's blog. She's hosting me today while I dish about how I came up with the story world for POSSESSION.

I'll also be giving some tips to those of you who are contemplating playing the role of the ultimate Creator. Go check it out!

Back on the Blog Chain

This topic has me beat. I can't think properly. I can't come up with anything intelligent to say. H.L. Dyer started this chain, so if you'd like to start at the beginning and get caught up, go there first. Abi posted just before me, and Terri is up next.

How do you as an author choose or create your story-world and give that setting authenticity?

Yup, that's the question. I think some of those words are English. Seriously, when I read that I was like, "Oh, freak. I'm so not cut out for this. This requires thinking." Luckily, I've been doing a lot of that lately. So here goes.

The real reason I struggled with this so much is because I write speculative fiction, mostly urban fantasy, but I have pounded out a dystopian science fiction novel as well.

For me, I don't call it a story-world. It's called world building, so let's just get the term straight, 'kay? Once I figured out that Heather was really asking about world building, I was like, "Ohhhh, got it. Story-world = world building. I do that. I know how to do that." And then I was gold.

Or so it would seem. I might have been able to pontificate about building a believable magic system, but Archetype did that so brilliantly I'd only embarrass myself if I tried to say anything more. Back to the drawing board.

I don't research. Well, I'll retract that. I research when I have to. I'm certainly not Michelle who lives and breathes just to research. Check out her post for a fantastic example of researching to world build. So strike two for me.

I've been to writing conferences where fabulous fantasy authors give great advice on world building. Someone once said that you need to take a setting and introduce a problem that the setting contributes to or that makes the setting part of the plot instead of just a place the story happens.

So I thought a lot about that.

In my book, Shadows, one of my main characters isn't alive. He's not dead, either. And he doesn’t live on earth. He exists between life and death, in a whole new realm called the realm of Lost Souls. I had to build his entire world, giving it characteristics that he despises to make his desire to return to earth believable. So it's dark there all the time. Even when the sun is up, it's gray. He can touch things, but they're weightless and he can't feel them. No texture, no temperature, no pressure. He can't smell anything. No taste, not that he needs to eat, but still, could you give up the Big Mac? I think not. He can see and hear, that's it. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that would suck. I basically took the five senses and robbed him of three of them. Sure, he has magic, but he can't hold hands and feel it. Can't smell bacon sizzling in the pan. Can't enjoy the said Big Mac. Major suckage, right? Right.

I did this so I could build a world where no one would want to live, to create sympathy for the character, so the reader would know and understand why he just couldn't exist in that dreary realm for one more minute. And so that when he meets the one person who can save him, who shines in bright colors, who he can touch and feel, he'll know what he's missing. So will you. You'll want him to be able to leave the realm of Lost Souls and return to earth, even though he'll have to die—eventually.

See, he'd give up immortality to be able to feel, smell, taste. Wouldn't you? Maybe, maybe not. But the world has to be real enough to evoke that kind of emotion. Thus, the world building has to be done stick by stick, level by level, to make sure you know exactly what it's like to live there. Then you'll understand why he has to leave, why earth is so much better, what drives him to do specific things in the novel.

That all stems from the world building—the setting. It's part of the story, not just where the story happens.