The art of fair play: setting up and paying off magic systems

A mini magic system masterclass

Magic is often a key feature of any fantasy story; it’s part and parcel to the worldbuilding process. But after sinking hours into developing a cool magic system for your story, it can fall apart at the execution. You know what you’re going for, you know how cool it is, but it doesn’t always come through on the page. So whether you’re still in the plotting and development phase, or you have a draft that you can’t quite get into shape, I have a few tips that can help. This article will focus specifically on soft magic systems, but these considerations apply to hard magic systems as well.

To recap, a soft magic system is, generally, a magic system without clearly defined rules. I was first introduced to the soft/hard magic spectrum in Brandon Sanderson’s 2020 Creative Writing course, which, if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend (it’s free on YouTube). But a hard magic system, then, would be the opposite: a magic system that has concrete and well-defined rules. You can consider for contrast soft magic systems like we see in Ninth House, or The Night Circus, or Lord of the Rings, versus Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn or Stormlight Archive series.

The trickiest part of soft magic systems is that it’s easy for them to feel like a cheat. When the rules are ill defined, it can seem like the magic swoops in and saves the day because there are no laws of cause and effect to bind it. But the benefits of a soft magic system can far outweigh the potential pitfalls. A soft magic system is inherently mysterious, and it can add a sense of curiosity and wonder to your story. There’s a flexibility to it that has the power to keep your characters, and your reader, guessing.

So, the question, of course, is how do we minimize the pitfalls and maximize the benefits?

Well, I would start by anchoring yourself continually in this: Remember that the interesting part of your story is watching your protagonist solve problems. So the cool stuff that the magic can do, while interesting, is less interesting than watching your protagonist either overcome the obstacles or leverage the opportunities it presents. If you approach writing your story from that perspective, you’ll more easily catch yourself if you’re leaning on what your magic system can do, or letting the magic bail your protagonist out.

With that in mind, let’s consider magic systems from two different perspectives: development and execution.

Development

If you don’t have a fully fleshed out plot, or haven’t written your story yet, I recommend starting by loosely developing your magic system, just enough to give you the basic information you’ll need to build your plot. It’s likely that it will undergo some changes once you start plotting and writing, so you don’t necessarily have to come up with it all at once — that’s a common problem I see with writers who are worldbuilding: they expect themselves to have the equivalent of a published book’s-worth of worldbuilding completed before they start. Although, if the entire magic system comes to you in a frenzied vision all at once, well, by all means, listen to the Muse! But barring that, I would ask questions like:

• What is the central conflict of your story? Even without knowing the plot, you likely have some idea about what the story will be about. Is it a chosen or skilled protagonist facing a tyrant, like Mistborn? Is it a magic school? (Like Harry Potter, The Magicians, or Deadly Education) Does it center on some kind of competition between rivals, like The Night Circus? Or are you working with a more character-driven story that will focus on life and relationships, like The Golem and the Jinni? These questions will help you identify what you need the magic to do in the story, as well as the kind of stakes that might be attached to magic and using the magic.

• What is the tone of your story? Is it unsettling and dark, like Ninth House? Is it an action adventure story like Mistborn? Think about how the magic can fit tonally within your story, so that it adds to the overall environment and feel of the story. This will help you create a more cohesive whole, so that all of the parts of the story feel like they fit together.

• Are there other unique features of your physical or social setting that may be impacted by the magic? Whether that is the social hierarchy, the physical environment, the economy, you can think about other major aspects of your worldbuilding and tie the magic into those as well, again, to create that cohesive whole.

  
  

If you already know a bit more about your plot, then you can anchor yourself in more defined plot points of your story to help you develop the magic. This will allow you to develop your magic in ways that are relevant to the story and keep you focused so that you aren’t asking questions that won’t need to be answered. (If you’re having fun, go nuts! But the main thing here is not to get stuck feeling beholden to answer questions that readers won’t have occasion to ask) Focus on asking, “How is the magic going to provide obstacles to your protagonist and other characters?” While you will want to think about how the magic will provide opportunities as well, I would focus first on the obstacles that your characters have to overcome. We want to work against anything that feels like Deus ex Machina, and I find most often that writers have many more instances of the magic saving the day than causing trouble for the characters.

Even better, once you frame your magic system (whether hard or soft, actually) in the above terms, you can capitalize on both elements: how cool the magic is and your protagonist’s ingenuity in utilizing or overcoming it. You’re using the best parts of both, and in that, delivering a more satisfying experience to your reader.

(Phew! Pause here if you need a nap after all of that)

Execution

Once you’ve built into your plot obstacles for your protagonist to overcome, you can use those to set up any major payoffs in your magic system later in the story. In many stories, the magic saves the day in the final, climactic scene. There’s nothing inherently wrong about that, but it can be unsatisfying. So what’s the trick to making it work?

Think of every encounter with the magic like a clue in a mystery. Mysteries follow a distinct pattern: the investigator looks for clues, each clue leads to the next, and, if done correctly, at the end, they all add up to a criminal. Ideally, you’re surprised, but you can look back at the clues and say, “It was there all along.” Each encounter with the magic can provide a clue to your reader, and your characters, as to how the magic works. Then, in your climactic payoff (or any other moment you’re looking to surprise your reader), you can pull from the clues you’ve seeded all along, and deliver a reveal about the magic that is both surprising and satisfying.

Because I just can’t help myself, here are a few more tricks I use to help my crime clients build mysteries that you can use for your magic system:

• If your magic system is mysterious or unpredictable, presumably other characters have collected information about it. What can they tell your protagonist?

• Is anyone lying or hiding information about the magic?

• Are there aspects of the magic that your protagonist thinks they understand, but are wrong about? (Like a red herring)

  
  

Whether your protagonist is in a world where the magic doesn’t have well defined rules, or they have a power they don’t understand, the trick to a satisfying ending is, at least in part, in the obstacles they face along the way. Show the hindrances and difficulties posed by the magic, and then show your protagonist coming to understand the magic better as they solve those problems. Then, have them bring to bear everything they’ve learned in the climactic scene, and now, you have all three elements firing: setting up the magic to pay off, showing how cool the magic is, and showing your protagonist being the one solving the problem.

This will also hold you to any general rules of cause and effect that your magic has. Even if your magic is unpredictable and mysterious, you don’t want contradictions unless there’s a secret behind them, else you fall into the trap of the magic feeling like a cheat, which undermines your stakes. But when you think in terms of forcing your protagonist to wrestle with the magic, or the consequences of the magic, throughout your story, you’re better positioned to maintain consistency in the behavior of the magic.

You can treat any mysterious aspect of your world in the same way. Have your protagonist collect clues that can lead them toward the truth, as well as clues that they misunderstand and that mislead them, and then add them up to the reveal of the mystery. This will add an additional layer of narrative drive to your story (who doesn’t love a good mystery?!). The result? Your world isn’t just a cool place your reader wants to spend time in, but it’s actually propelling them through your plot as well, and keeping them hooked on your story.