[Novel] How much should I develop my magic system?
In my fantasy story I’m not sure how much to develop my magic system. I’ve got it quite basic as it is, and not much is exlained, even when the characters are ‘taught’ about the magic.
It’s kind of one of those ‘you do this and this happens, it’s just the way it is’ things. But I don’t see how else to explain it — I don’t want to have to weave in some crappy backstory like ”when the olde Gods of Gundoolplar made the worlde theye made the worlde follow certaine rules, and so when ye doeth this, that happens”.
Should I just make it simple, and trust my readers to suspend their belief? (After all they’re not stupid, and the point of fantasy is experiencing something that isn’t real). Or should I create a set of rules and a source of power, along with an origin, and then have to reveal this carefully in a non-exposition way?
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As an author, you should always have at least a basic idea of how your magic system works: this will prevent you from abusing it to get your characters out of tight spots, etc. However, this does not mean that you have to explain it all to the reader. Just as you know more of the politics than them, more of the characters’ backstories than them, and more about the world than them, you do not have to tell them everything about the magic system just because you’ve taken the time to invent it.
For example, take Harry Potter. It’s fairly evident from examining the text that the ability to do magic is a dominant gene, but Rowling never bothers to tell us because it’s really not important to the plot at all.
Conversely, however, readers can and will spot inconsistencies in your magic system even if you don’t explain the rules. Therefore, you should know what the rules are, and stick to them – even if you never tell people what those rules are straight out.
First off, well done on realising that readers aren’t idiots – too few writers recognise that fact nowadays.
You can develop your magic system as much as you want in your planning and notes. You alone can develop your rules and source of power for your own reference. You can know it inside out and back to front – if you’re familiar with how J.K. Rowling works, she has tonnes of stuff the public has never seen and probably never will see. Because she’s planned out everything, if she’s asked about how a particular aspect works, she has an informative answer.
If you write about the magic as if it’s "the way it is" with confidence – which will come through knowing exactly how everything works – it’ll come across to your readers in your writing and tone. Simple explanations if they’re really needed always work best. An information overload makes readers doze off.
Good luck, you sound promising.
Why not just have a world where magic has always existed and is written into the planet as naturally as the soil and the sky? It follows a basic system of everything else – if you do one action, something will come of it.
Readers will understand it easily enough if you explain it. But in simple terms that don’t take too long.