The Ultimate Rule of Magic Part I

Magic is a fun thing to work with in your writing. In a lot of ways, it can make things easier. You can put people in situations that seem almost entirely inescapable, and then get them out of it. Oh, you killed the main character’s love interest? Just magic them back to life! But the thing is, then things get out of hand. If you can bring her back to life with magic, then why couldn’t you use magic to stop her from dying in the first place? For that matter, why is there even a conflict in the story? Couldn’t you just magic away any problems that show up?

And so you realize that for your story to be worth reading at all, your magic needs some rules. This being magic, you can choose to ignore some major laws of physics (although you can choose not to, as well). At the most basic level, I’ve found that all magic use in a story needs one specific rule:

A magic user can use magic to do absolutely anything they can imagine, provided that they have the magical energy required to do so.

That rule is what I use in my own writing. I apply it to any story I see that has magic in it. And if somewhere in a story with magic my rule doesn't fit, then I know that the author wasn't thinking about how magic works in their story.

The thing about the rule is that it's both restrictive and freeing at the same time. It forces you to make some decisions about how magic works in your world. But it gives you absolute freedom with those decisions. It doesn't even require that they be consistent (although if they aren't, you'd better have some justification).

My first series of posts is going to discuss this rule, and all the implications of it that I can think of. So for now, I'll see you next post.

Hello there.

I'm also a student, as well as a "retail associate" at a theme park, AKA I work in one of the gift shops running the cash register. I write, occasionally and sporadically. It's something I'd like to do more often, but the creative energy often leaves me when I have the time to do so, and shows up when I don't have the time to write.

On the internet, I am most often known as Ikaru. Sometimes the title OVERLORD is given (and this I do insist be put in all caps, simply because that is how the username is written), and sometimes the last name Kakou is added. I respond to all three, but prefer simply Ikaru.

In some circles, Ikaru is known to have a Mexican split personality named Carlos. Carlos is a bartender. I have no explanation for this.

As for what I write, most of my previous work was fanfiction, though I will proclaim that it barely counts, as in most cases I didn't use the characters or universes provided by the source material (it's fairly simple to do that with those fandoms, trust me). Currently, I'm writing what I supposed could be called comedic urban fantasy. I didn't set out to make it comedic (in fact it was supposed to be quite dark), but for the moment it seems to be coming out that way.

I'm a fan of magic in almost any form (NOT the card game). I play Dungeons and Dragons, and my first character was a sorcerer (though currently I play a monk). My stories often involve magic to some degree, and I often have a very strong opinion about how magic works in a specific story.

My thoughts are often very disorganized, as you can probably tell from this post.

And now I am done with this post, as it is 11:30 at night here and I have to be at work in less than 11 hours. Huzzah for screwed up sleep schedules!

- Ikaru