Using Magic In Your Story - By Sean Michael Paquet

Ok folks news flash! I love magic in books! Seriously, I think a good well defined magic system in fantasy or scifi/fantasy crossovers (i.e. Shadowrun) just makes makes for excellent reading. Now I have read literally thousands of books and nearly all of them had some form of magic or paranormal system. The one thing I learned as I read is the thing about magic is you gotta make people believe in it. How do you do that? Again it boils down to research. Just as I have read thousands of fantasy and scifi books, I have also read hundreds of books on different religions and forms of magic that theoretically exist in the world today. I am a firm believer in using what is already available and familiar to people. No need to re-invent the wheel if it turns just fine. So yeah again research is vital. The next is consistency. Your magic system has to have set parameters and limitations, and they must remain consistent through the story. So the lightning bolt your wizard calls from the sky to blow up a tower had better be just as powerful the next time he or she uses it. If it’s not you better give the reader a damned good reason why or you are gonna get called out! For me it is part of my world building process. In my world, magic works because of the world I created. It also works because the world and its characters are not heavily influenced by technology. Yes the tech and science are there and sometimes the tech and the magic flow together. However, just like in Shadowrun and similar worlds, too much tech nullifies magic. You have to make it a seamless conjoining. I did and still do a LOT of research on magic and magic systems. In doing so I formulated something I thought would be unique for my story. A sort of blending of Eastern Indian spirituality and ancient Norse Rune magic. The thing is I didn’t try to half-ass it. I did research. So much research in fact that I could write a whole other book on just the one magic system used in A Game of Gods. The world as the backdrop itself has many more yet to be explored.

For me, I made my magic system more of a spiritual journey. That works for me. Not everyone can do it in my world, and for those that can it is a journey. Something that takes years to become proficient at even for the characters who have an affinity for such things. I don’t use the typical fireball and lightening bolt thing. I tried very hard to remain true to some Nordic traditions and Eastern practices. It’s weird, sometimes its cosmically weird, but you know what? I think it worked. Check out the book and tell me what you as the readers think.