How to Build A Magic System

I love magic. When magic is well-designed, I feel it, picturing myself as a user, unleashing its power through my fingertips alongside the characters. To me, reading a well put-together magic system lights up my imagination and places me firmly inside the story.

Creating a magic system, on the other hand, isn’t always as fun. It can either be extremely difficult or deceptively easy. It’s a process where your imagination can run wild, but that’s what makes it easy to go off the rails and create a system that ultimately serves no purpose in your story.

The trick to creating a magic system that draws readers in and adds depth and value to your story is to make sure it’s closely tied to your story’s message. Let’s take a look at how to use your story’s core theme to create the foundation for a kickass magic system.

Magic systems should be an extension of your story’s point.

Your Story Point is what you want your readers to take away from your story—it’s a specific message about how the world works and it should drive every choice you make about your world, including your magic system.

The point of your story should drive what purpose your magic serves, how your characters interact with it, and what problems it creates or solves in your plot. By considering why you’re creating this magic system for this story and putting it in conversation with your Story Point, you will inevitably construct a system that makes sense and feels cohesive with the story as a whole.

Let’s explore how to tie the point of your story to its magic. Use the three questions below to create a solid magical foundation.

1. What is your Story Point? Why are you writing this story?

If you haven’t already, you need to determine your Story’s Point. Be as specific as possible, while also keeping the message to one simple idea. This idea will influence every decision you make as a writer. The more focus it has, the more focused your story will be.

Example: The point of my own fantasy WIP is “embracing emotions makes you stronger, not weaker.” As I move forward with developing my story and my world, I want to make sure that everything ties back to that central idea.

2. How can the magic system work with your Story Point?

Your magic system should be created in direct conversation with your story point. These two ideas should relate to one another in some way, but there are so many ways you can play with this. Brainstorm some ideas that force your magic system to contrast with or bolster the message you’re making.

Example: Since my story is about emotion, I wanted to create a magic system that is strongly influenced by emotion. I chose to create a system in which magical power is essentially determined by emotional stability and focus. If a magic user can control their emotions, their magic becomes more focused and more powerful. If they cannot, their magic will remain ineffective and can be dangerously unstable.

3. What purpose will your magic system serve in your story? What role will it play?

Once you know how the magic system works together with your point, you can determine its purpose in the story. Will your magic act as a hindrance to the plot, creating problems which must be solved? If so, what kind of problems and how do those problems impact the story point? Will it hinder your characters goals? If so, how? Or will your magic system challenge your character’s Internal Obstacle, the false belief they have about the world? If so, in what way?

Example: The magic system in my WIP forces my main character to confront her Internal Obstacle in order to recognize and control her own power.

(An Internal Obstacle is the lie or misbelief that a character has to confront and unlearn in order to achieve their goals. Only when they confront and unlearn their Internal Obstacle will the character experience the inner change required to achieve their goals.)

My main character’s Internal Obstacle is that she believes emotions make people weak, and therefore she must shut her emotions out. This results in unfocused and unstable magic, and presents a danger to herself and others. Only by learning to embrace her emotions and recognize them as strength does her magic finally become controllable, and unstoppably powerful.

Why My Magic System Works

Even just from answering the 3 questions above, my system already has substance. It doesn’t matter what the magic actually is yet; what matters is that I understand why it exists.

The system I created presents plot problems where my main character is forced to make decisions like: Should she use her magic, or not? Does her magic help her achieve her goals, or not? Do her emotions make her magically stronger or weaker? I tied it directly to her goals (avoid using her powers), the stakes of those goals (suppressing her emotions makes her power unwieldy), and the plot problems she’ll face (problems that force her to decide whether or not to use her powers). Now, her magic is inherently tied to her character arc as well. I knew that was the best way to prove my Story’s Point.