Some Thoughts About Magic

As you know, I write fantasy. Which, of course, often contains magic. (Yes, there is magic in The Cloud Lands Saga. It’s just not very obvious.)

And I have argued often with other writers who insisted that I had to map out a magic system (often they were role players, too), or that I needed to finish creating my world before I could write stories in it.

I prefer a more relaxed approach.

You see, I like to step into my world and discover it through my stories. That is a never-ending adventure. After all, we’re still discovering new things right here on Earth.

And I’m the same with magic.

I like discovering what my characters can do – sometimes, they even surprise themselves!

I just think that magic has a price. Just like learning any skill has a price. And like doing anything with focus and concentration, magic takes energy. Big magic takes big energy.

You see, I like things simple.

And I trust my instinct for writing and world-building.

So go and enjoy magic, either by writing it or by reading about it. It does exist even here on Earth, in its own special form, after all.

 

About Hannah Steenbock

Hannah Steenbock is an author, dreamer, and coach. She has published several short stories in English and German, as well as one novel in German. In 2013 she started self-publishing her work. In 2014, she has won two awards for her short story "Sequoia".
This entry was posted in Musings and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Some Thoughts About Magic

  1. Markus Walz says:

    Your approach is very much the same as mine 🙂
    Hence I didn’t set up a big system of rules, which I laid under my forthcoming novel “Nordfriesenkönig”. I only determined the price of each magic interaction and set it’s boundaries. So I could write with a maximum of joy and al my test readers were enjoying the read.

Leave a Reply to Markus Walz Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *