Monday 28th September 2020

Part of the creative process that continues to amaze me is just how quick ideas can cascade.  How, upon going to climb a set of stairs, my brain can ask an innocent question about magic use in one of the worlds I’m working on, and then by the time I reach the top, I have quite a complex answer that feels like it would have taken weeks to think through.

I’ll be honest and say I’m a little jealous of the magic systems of Rothfuss and Sanderson.  They’ve put a lot of thought into those systems and they’re incredibly well thought out and structured.  Of course, that’s not the only way to do magic.   There’s certainly a place for the mystical magic where the limits, bounds and rules are a little uncertain.

A book I’m working* on has a magic system that is more like the latter.  The reader is given hints, but a lot of the magic is unknown.  However, just because the reader doesn’t know all the details, it doesn’t mean I can’t.

I’ve heard it say that magic should always have a cost, and I like that idea.  Even if the readers aren’t let into it, there’s a resource needed for this magic system.  There are rules.  They’re deliberately a bit wishy-washy in this project but, as the creator, I don’t like that I have something a lot more concrete underpinning this.

So on my walk up the stairs, I was thinking about the history of this magic system.  Where did it come from?  Why can’t everyone do it?  How can I stay away from the “chosen few” trope?  How do I link it into other things I want to do?

And walking up 13 steps, the answer came to me.  I’m not going to say too much as some bits of this magic system are kept from the reader for good reason.  And furthermore, the history of this magic system is unlikely to EVER appear in a book.  It’s a tool that aids me in writing the magic rather than a cool bit of worldbuilding.

The point isn’t what I created, it’s the fact that a problem that’s been plaguing the back of my mind for a long time, got answered, and answered comprehensively, walking up a single flight of stairs.

I’m not sure I’m a great believer in muses.  I like being prepared so I don’t have to rely on muses, but when inspiration does strike (as it often does) it surprises me how complete those ideas sometime come.

 

* I.E. totally not working on at the moment but I feel I should be

 

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