You seem to be adept at creating interesting magic systems for your worlds—what is your creative process for creating something of this sort? Any hints as to what the next one might involve?
I have tried to boil it down to three ‘rules’ or ‘laws’ I follow when writing magic systems.
1) The author’s ability to resolve conflicts in a satisfying way with magic is directly proportional to how the reader understands said magic. 2) Weaknesses are more interesting than powers. 3) If you change one thing, you change the world.
Basically, the first one says “Don’t pull things out of the air. If you want the magic to work, make it REAL and reliable. If you would rather have an air of mystery, which is fine, don’t explain the magic—but don’t make it do heavy lifting in the plot, either.”
The second one says that what the magic CAN’T do is where your story and your character conflict comes from. Allomancy is interesting in part because it relies on metals that can run out. Steelpushing is interesting because you can only Push directly away from yourself.
This forces the characters to work harder, and makes the story more interesting. The most interesting things about Superman or Batman are their flaws—the things they can’t do, the things that weaken them, their limitations.
3) Magic in a world should be interconnected with the politics, economy, science, religion, and everything else. The author must think through the ramifications of changing small things.
Next two magic systems you might see: 1) Disease magic. Bacteria have evolved to the point that they try to keep their hosts alive by granting them magical powers while you have the disease. So, you catch a cold, and can fly until you get over it.
2) I’ve got a a very cool ‘throwing spheres of light’ magic that I’m working on…which, when you break it down, was inspired by seeing how accurate baseball pitchers were and thinking about how that could be weaponized in a fantasy world.
3) That guy with his ice soap has me thinking about “freezing stuff in water” magic. Like, potions that do things only after they thaw…
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