by Joseph Lallo

Fans of speculative fiction have no shortage of things to argue about when it comes to dividing fantasy and sci-fi into subgenres. If something has wizards and takes place in Boston in the year 2003, is that Urban Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, or Contemporary Fantasy? But one thing that reliably separates fantasy from sci-fi is the presence of magic.

Some people prefer fantasy over sci-fi both as readers and writers because magic is a one-word solution to making any fantastical thing possible and plausible within a setting. It takes the limiters off, allowing a shortcut into exactly the sort of story you want to tell. But anyone who relies too heavily on “a wizard did it” runs the risk of removing the stakes from a story or frustrating readers with inconsistent, unsatisfying plot elements.

So what do we do? Do we avoid magic entirely? Do we stick to the most minor of mystical elements? No! All we need to do is make sure we construct our magic system with drama and consistency in mind. Today, we’re going to talk about how to avoid the pitfalls of bad magic by going through elements of good magic. Because all it takes is some consistent and compelling rules and limits, a reasonable bar of entry, and some well-thought out components.

Let’s start from the top.

Rules and Limits

Some of you may look at this requirement and scoff. What’s the point of magic if you’re going to go slapping limits on it? But hear me out. If magic is truly unlimited, truly all-powerful, then the only story you can realistically tell is the story of someone trying to acquire it. Because if the villain already has it, the world is instantly their plaything. And if the hero has it, there are no challenges, no obstacles.

Now don’t get me wrong, the story of a hero trying to acquire unlimited power, or to stop a villain from acquiring it, is extremely time-tested and compelling. But when you’re working with that, you're looking less at a magic system and more at a McGuffin. Apply some rules and limits, though, and now magic is just one of the tools in the toolbox, one of the weapons in the arsenal.

An Example

An example, as usual, is helpful here. Disney’s Aladdin, despite featuring a being of phenomenal cosmic power, lays out some pretty classic and rigid limits right up front. Only three wishes, no killing, no resurrecting, and no making someone fall in love with you.

• A wish limit provides us with the all-important “rarity” which we’ll talk about later.
• The no kill rule prevents the genie from simply seeming like a weapon and installs some basic morality to its actions.
• A no resurrection rule makes sure that threats to life and limb is a genuine threat. The no resurrection rule ensures that any threat to our hero's life and well-being is genuine and irreversible.
• And the no love rule–aside from avoiding the unfortunate implications of taking away someone’s free will–also ensures that the main plot of the story can take place. Aladdin will need to find some way to get Jasmine to fall in love with him, and so the story can be told.

Consistent = Believable

If you do nothing else with your magic system, make sure it has rules, and it follows them. The people who hate stories with magic often hate them because they view magic as being “anything goes.” We're all familiar with the quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” For our purposes, we’re reversing that. The best magic systems are effectively their own new science. And science isn’t just a set of rules, it’s a set of rules that we didn’t make. These are rules we can’t break, because they are enforced by the universe itself.

Your job in creating a good magic system is to play the role of scientist. Your job is to discover the unbreakable rules and limits. It will make it feel more real, more like what we’re accustomed to from reality, and it will keep you from using magic as a crutch.

What makes for a good rule or a good limit? A key consideration for the rules of your magic system is how they will make the story more interesting. You want the rules to create weaknesses which the heroes can exploit to conquer the villain and which they must overcome when using the magic themselves.

An Example

A classic limitation like this is the inability for shapeshifters to change their eyes. By installing a simple rule like that, a thousand storytelling elements open up for you. Suddenly anyone with their eyes hidden is suspect. Maybe it’s just a normal person who likes to shade their vision. Maybe it’s a changeling with glowing red eyes hidden behind that blindfold. Another limitation is the requirement to know someone’s true name to target them with a spell. Now, before we can strike the villain, one must go on a quest to learn their name. Or maybe the hero, to prove their bravery or hubris, proclaims their name for all to hear. You want rules that aren’t insurmountable, but that take a clever mind to overcome. It means that magic can’t solve every problem, and sometimes solving the problems of magic becomes a big part of the story.

Bar of Entry

Once you’ve established what your magic can do, it’s time to figure out who can use it. This is a bit of a sliding scale, because you want to match the power of the magic to its rarity. If something can shape the world and rewrite history, you want it to be profoundly rare.

A world where the ability to poof one’s enemies into ash wouldn’t last very long if you could acquire the means to do so at the nearest market. If magic is equivalent to nuclear weapons, it should be as tightly regulated as nuclear weapons.

Conversely, if magic is little more than parlor tricks–minor illusions and the like–feel free to dye it into the wool of the universe. Think about it, in modern times we have the ability to contact virtually anyone we want at any time and access the sum-total of human knowledge with a rectangle in our pockets, and life is STILL anything but easy, so a little widespread magic isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Something you do want to think long and hard about is through what means magic is made inaccessible.

An Example

A popular one that I’m not terribly fond of is to have only certain special individuals capable of it. It’s very effective and provides you with story elements like a society split between the haves and have nots, but personally, I don’t like the idea of magic being utterly inaccessible to some people simply by a trick of fate. I prefer to make it akin to singing. Some have a natural affinity for it, and some are uniquely bad, but few are willing to put in the time and effort to learn to be truly phenomenal at it.

Of course, you could also make magic dependent upon artifacts or materials that are hard to come by, which takes us nicely into…

What about Mechanics?

How does your magic work? While it can be a mystery in the story itself, it’s useful if you know where the arcane power originates. There are two broad options here, and they each have their dramatic value.

The first is for the magic to have an exterior source. Perhaps spirits must be called upon to perform the spell’s effects. Maybe magic is simply an ambient power that can be harnessed. Ancient artifacts, not fully understood? Mystic herbs or minerals? These forms of outer strength can help drive the story in a number of ways. A limited source of magic can make it a valuable and sought-after resource, creating a conflict.. If it isn’t limited, it has the effect of putting all of the characters on a level playing field, with the skilled application of the magic determining who will be victorious.

Alternatively, the source of magic can come from within. The soul of the caster. A mystic bloodline or arcane heritage. This allows the story to focus more on the innate or intensely trained skills of the individual. It harkens back to the limitation talk earlier, allowing you to apply magic only to those who have the knack, or who have trained over a lifetime. It makes the caster more important than the spell.

Putting it together

Now that we know what it takes to make a good magic system, let’s follow the steps and see how I made one of my more recent systems, “Paper Magic” from The Greater Lands Saga. In that story, a paper mage is able to produce magic by writing in an arcane language. The words must describe in precise detail the effect of the spell, the time it will be cast, the place it is being cast, the target of the spell, and the nature of the one casting it. Paper mages can cast spells using any ink, paper, and quill, but the more potent each of those components, the more potent or concise the magic can be. Casting a spell destroys it, consuming the ink and/or paper in arcane flame. There are shortcuts, such as replacing the ink with the blood of the target or the caster, but they take a terrible toll on the caster.

The limits here are many and varied. Because the spells must be written, and the timing of their casting is a part of the spell, one cannot simply cast a spell spur of the moment. The spell must be prepared, its need anticipated in advance, but not too far in advance. Because of the complexity of the language, while anyone can learn paper magic, few can master it. Consuming the materials with each casting means one can realistically “run out of magic” by consuming all of their paper or ink. The limits on the power are actually fairly broad, as if there is adequate time to prepare and enough expensive paper and ink, a paper mage can assemble a truly remarkable effect, but such will be a rare occurrence.

Spread the Word

A final point to consider, related to the creation of a magic system but not directly associated with the magic itself, is how you’ll teach the reader about the magic system. You don’t technically have to teach the reader anything. It’s entirely reasonable to shroud the mechanics in mystery. The fact you’ve laid out the rules for yourself means the magic will still be consistent, though you should take care to demonstrate its approximate range of power and its relative rarity early on, lest your well-crafted magic system suddenly show some of its more powerful aspects late in the tale and come off as a deus ex machina.

If you want the reader to understand it, so that they’ll be in on the struggles and challenges of the spell casters, there are a few ways to do it. The most thorough way is to have one of the characters learn the magic as a part of the tale. Making a character an apprentice, or having them discover a knack for magic along the way, will provide an organic way to lay out the nitty gritty details of the magic without it sticking out. This was basically the entire purpose of my first book, The Book of Deacon.

Another tried and true technique, which meshes well with the hero’s journey, is to have someone come into the world of magic as an outsider, such that they must discover the nature of the magic, and through their discovery we will learn. The last choice, one that is very dangerous, is to simply info dump by the narrator. It is not impossible for you to do this in a way that the audience will enjoy, but it is very tricky.

Have fun with it!

If you’ve absorbed the lessons of this essay, you’ve got all the pieces necessary to build a fun, dramatically useful magic system. All that remains is to put it to use! Come up with some frustrating weaknesses of the magic and have the heroes find clever ways around them. Have an apprentice become a master. Explore every last law of metaphysics and bend your own system into shapes even you didn’t think it could achieve.

What’s your favorite distinctive magic system, and what stood out about it to you?

* * * * * *

About Joseph

Joseph R. Lallo took a crooked path to authordom. He was educated at NJIT, where he earned a master’s degree in Computer Engineering, and paid his bills in the world of Information Technology until Sept of 2014, when he finally became a full-time storyteller. The international bestseller The Book of Deacon defined his early career, and he has since written dozens of novels, short stories, and novellas. These include the critically acclaimed Steampunk series Free-Wrench and the thrilling sci-fi adventure saga, Big Sigma. 

Outside of writing, he has co-hosted multiple self-publishing podcasts over the years, including the Six Figure Authors podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Andrea Pearson and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Wattpad

Top image by Deleyna via Midjourney.

by Janet Forbes

Who do you cry out for when you’re in pain? Is it God? Your mom? Or do you try to stifle your cries?

We’re all a product of our environment: of our parents, our education, our morals and taboos. And the same is true for our characters.

But when worldbuilding, writers often create characters before thinking about cultures and backgrounds. They tack culture on afterwards, like a precarious, florid hat. Not only does this make the culture feel superficial, it can make our characters feel generic and tropey.

If you know my Agile Worldbuilding method, a smarter approach to worldbuilding for writers, you’ll already know my favorite saying - your worldbuilding is the tapestry of your novel, weaving through your characters and plot. So let’s put this another way:

Your character is in love. Will they show it with a hug? With a Haiku? Will they rub noses? And if they kiss, how will they kiss? Will they press lips or suck them? Will they touch tongues? Is there nibbling involved?

Fictional and fantasy cultures can be even weirder than our real-world examples, and that’s saying something. So you can see how critical it is to understand your character's cultural background, particularly when interacting with others of different backgrounds. And this doesn't just bring characterization - it can bring character motivation and conflicts, plot points and drama to our writing too. 

The basics of worldbuilding a culture

When you’re worldbuilding cultures, there’s a lot to think about - traditions and behaviors, beliefs and taboos, symbols, language, costumes and artifacts. If you're looking for more guidance on worldbuilding cultures, World Anvil also has a culture worldbuilding template with a lot of prompts to help you cover your bases.

But assuming you’ve already done the hard work, and created a culture or two (or five!), here are some ways to develop interesting character traits, goals, biases and even conflicts from their background.

Character goals - their inherited vision of self

A lot of our goals and ideals are inherited from our parents, our background, and in a wider way, from our culture. There are several very fertile creative spaces to explore.

Favored professions

What were you supposed to want when you grew up? Because that's a cultural construct. Favored professions is a good place to start. What a culture interprets as a desirable or worthy profession reveals a lot about what they value. And that has a huge impact on your character’s goals, too. Did your character's culture pressure them into a money-making career (lawyer, stock broker)? What about an honorable career? Exactly what honorable means varies from culture to culture: from caring and educating (nurse, teacher), to putting yourself in danger (firefighter, soldier), to distinguishing yourself in the eyes of your god (priest, nun). And how did your character react to this pressure - with fervent excitement, tired obligation, or rebellion? 

Some cultures also prohibit careers for certain people - for example, non-working castes or genders. If that’s the case, how has it affected their motivations, and the things they strive for?

The defining moments of “adulthood” 

What defines “adulthood” in your character’s culture? Is it remembering to do your laundry before you’re wearing a bathing suit beneath your clothes? Does it mean you can protect your own from bandits and raiders? Does it mean financial independence, catching the biggest stag, entrance into the man’s tent, instead of the boy’s? The meaning of adulthood can be bound up in a lot of different things, but different cultures have specific markers and rites of passage which affect the way we view adulthood. And that can drastically affect our character’s motivations and understanding of self.

The issues of parenthood

And that brings us to parenthood. Is having children a right, an honor, or a duty in your society? How will people react if you don’t want to have children - and how many is the “right” number? Is a specific gender of child preferred? There are people whose life’s goal is to be a parent, and those who can’t abide the idea. While this can be personal, a lot is related to culture and background, or the rebellion against them.

Familial duty and kinship bonds

And speaking of families, familial duty - what our families expect of us - plays a huge part in our daily goals. If someone killed a member of your family in Ancient Greece, vengeance wasn’t just your honor-bound duty, it was a viable legal action. What about duty of care? Are you honour-bound to look after your parents? What about your second-cousin-twice-removed parents? How far does that duty of care extend, and is it with money, time or both? 

Whether it’s honoring the ancestors, giving our mother grandchildren, or crossing the earth for vengeance, our duty to our families forms a huge part of our motivations. And for characters of different cultures, this can be a massive and varied motivator. 

What is virtuous?

And finally, virtue plays a huge part in character motivations. Whether it's Xena, Warrior Princess, Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender, or Ebeneezer Scrooge, characters seeking redemption - a return to what they consider virtuous - is a compelling, age-old story. But virtue is considered different in different cultures. For example, getting up early, eating vegan, and praying, are all behaviors considered virtuous by some cultures, and meaningless (at least in virtue-terms) by others. Whether your character strives for their culture’s interpretation of virtue, or rebels against it, it's still a defining motivation. And sorting out your personal moral code from what’s been handed down to you is a personal journey that’s fuelled a great many memorable characters and powerful narratives. 

Language for building characters

Did you know that multilingual people exhibit different personalities in different languages? That's the power language has not just over our words, but over our thoughts. 

As writers we know that our characters are entirely made up of words. Dialogue, sure, but also thoughts, reflections, descriptions through the lens of a character's eyes. And this makes language a hugely powerful tool for us to convey character. 

How does your character's culture and background affect their language? Do they use the longest words possible, or keep it simple? Are there people who they refuse to speak to? Who are they polite to, and who are they rude to (and why)? What are their touchstones for similes and metaphors?

If they're speaking a language which is not their native tongue, how does this affect the way they communicate? Are they terse or long-winded, hyperbolic, rhetorical, or painfully literal? Greek, for example, is a hugely rhetorical language, and those speech patterns are baked into the way people communicate, even when they’re fluently speaking another tongue.

Idioms, sayings, and folklore

And speaking of language, idioms and sayings are a great way to convey cultural background, and make characters feel distinct. Game of Thrones does this with its mottos, although for me, the real gold is in sayings like " fear cuts deeper than swords" and, my personal favorite, "as useful as nipples on a breastplate". Both idioms mark the character as being from a martial or warlike culture; you could use them to reinforce the image of a warrior, or put them in the mouths of someone surprising, like a priest or a princess, to reveal deeper truths about where they came from.

Old wives tales, nursery rhymes, parables - all of these reveal the culture. The songs of our childhood become the touchstones of our nostalgia and, often, an emblem of innocence and safety. Working these into your characters, both into internal thoughts and into dialogue, will give beautiful depth and individuality as well as embedding them within your setting.

Embracing taboos & superstitions differently

Taboos represent what a culture finds too repulsive, offensive, or too sacred. Occasionally they also involve things allowed only for certain people - e.g. a specific caste, or gender group. 

Some of the key taboos to consider surround food, sex, religion & blasphemy, honor, death, and social taboos (what happens if you lick a stranger’s face, or refer to someone's baby as hell-spawn from the nether regions of Satan's underpants?). Depending on what genre you're writing, and on your worldbuilding focus points, choose some relevant areas to really dig down in for your cultural building.

But what's important for characters is which taboos they observe and which they don’t. After all, different people in our world embrace or avoid taboos differently, and their violation means different things to different people. Some people swear like sailors, and others never do. If you don’t swear, do you judge those that do (or vice versa)? That probably has something to do with the culture you’re from, and your background. 

Or what about hugging? In the western world, it's common to divide ourselves into “huggers” and “not huggers”, and hugging a not-hugger is a social violation. But for a Muslim, that could be a religious violation - after all, devout Muslim men are not allowed to touch a non-mahram woman.

You can see how this space can set up fascinating character interactions, and tell us more about characters too. Which taboos from their culture are important to them? Which have they rebelled against, and why? And how does that mesh with other characters they meet, both from inside and outside their cultural background? 

Make sure looks have meaning

I’ve left visual cues until last, because they can be very overdone. “The guys in the funny hats” is an obvious way to distinguish characters of different cultures. But this can also be done sensitively, adding layers of subtlety and meaning to dress, tattoos, piercings, haircuts and facial hair and the accessories. Some of these should be obvious to outsiders, but you can keep some differentiations only for characters in the know. 

Beyond dress, nonverbal communication can be a goldmine, too. Beyond physical trapping, gestures and facial expressions are an important part of culture it’s hard to get rid of. Raising eyebrows can mean, in different cultures and situations, surprise, mischief, evil thoughts, seduction, or disagreement. Nodding means yes in most cultures, but no in a few. Hand signals for eating in India are an expression of frustration in Italy. And while some cultures wave their hands and yell in casual conversation, others appear straight faced and emotionless. This brings confusion and conflict, but it also builds character differences.

If your character has disabilities or physically distinct differences, how are those perceived? And how has that affected them? Not all physical characteristics are considered the same everywhere. Consider, for example, this quote from a person with albinism in modern day Uganda:

Some say it’s a curse, others say albinos are blessings, others say that when you sleep with an albino, you get wealthy, others … [that it] cures AIDS; others consider them spiritual persons. Some communities can even worship us. Therefore, different people have different perceptions towards the concept of albinism.

Avoid cultural monoliths

And speaking of cultural complexity, it’s important to note that while cultural traditions can unite people, and cultural stereotypes can often prove true, not everyone is the same. For example, there's a stereotype in our world that Germans are always punctual. I know many who uphold the stereotype of punctuality - but I have friends who break the mold, too. 

When you’re worldbuilding cultures, you can certainly add stereotypes. But when making characters, present different people from the same culture with different personalities, traits, and proclivities. Not all dwarves in a fantasy world should quaff beer, have a beard as big as a badger, and be obsessed with gold. Introduce artists, rebels, wine drinkers... Anything to highlight the differences between people of the same culture. 

Culture is worldbuilding & storytelling gold

There’s a lot of worldbuilding questions in this article designed to prompt you - and I won’t apologize for it. I didn’t want to make assumptions about your culture, dear reader, and where you come from. After all, that can be a taboo all of its own. 

And that’s not surprising - our culture and background is woven into the very fabric of our psyche, from the way we swear, to how we coo at a baby. And as writers, we must embrace this show-don’t-tell, worldbuilding gold - it can speak volumes about our characters, without ever bloating our word count!

How have your characters (or well-known characters from popular IPs) been influenced by their cultures?

About Janet

Janet Forbes (she/her) is not just a multi-lingual, multi-cultural mongrel, but a published fantasy author, professional worldbuilding consultant, and game developer. In 2017 she co-founded World Anvil (https://www.worldanvil.com), the award-winning worldbuilding, writing and tabletop RPG platform which boasts a community of over 2 million users. 

by Eldred “Bob” Bird

Video has become such a powerful tool on social media that authors, whether independent or traditionally published, can’t afford to ignore the medium. In one of my previous posts here on WITS, I talked about building a Mobile Media Kit to make recording videos on the go easier.  But now that you have the raw footage, what software can you use to produce your videos without emptying your wallet?

Let me introduce you to some of my favorite programs to help you get started without busting the budget. This won’t be a tutorial, as there are online communities and hundreds of great videos on YouTube to help you learn the software, but more of a “why I like this program” article.

Why These Apps?

You may be wondering why these applications are so high on my list when there are so many choices out there. Here are the main reasons:

1. These programs are free to install and use. That makes them budget friendly for starving artists just trying to get a foothold in the industry.
2. Free doesn’t have to mean cheap. In most areas, these apps are just as powerful as their paid counterparts. Any gaps they have can usually be filled by downloading plug-ins, which are generally free as well. This allows you to tailor the software to your specific needs.
3. Being open source, there are whole communities online that support and constantly update the software. Most have dedicated bulletin boards where you can seek help with any questions or problems you might encounter.
4. There are versions of these software packages available for most operating systems. All of them run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. This means no matter what OS you use on a daily basis you can run these apps. You can also share the project files seamlessly across platforms. I run Windows on my desktop and Linux on my laptop without the need to do any conversions or exporting to other formats.

Shotcut

Most operating systems come with at least a basic video editor. This might get you by in the beginning, but there’s not much flexibility with them, and the finished product usually lacks a professional appearance. You need a proper video editor to give your videos a polished look and feel.

Programs like Adobe Premier are great at doing this but take a huge chunk out of your wallet. This is where Shotcut shines. It’s a robust program on the level with most of the budget breaking applications available on the market. Anything it lacks can usually be found in the vast user-supported plugin libraries.

The interface is clean, customizable, and intuitive. If you’ve ever used Premier or other software like it, you will be totally at home in Shotcut.

Audacity

Whether you’re producing videos or podcasts, good audio quality is a must. My top pick for free audio software is Audacity. It’s one of the most commonly used audio recording, processing, and editing apps out there for a reason. It’s simple, yet powerful, and it works.

Like Shotcut, there are multitude of plugins available online and a large support community to help you learn to use them.

OBS

When it comes to managing your live stream presentations, Open Broadcast Software (OBS) is a powerful tool that just keeps getting better with each update. This robust software allows you to combine different video, audio, still images and other sources in real time. The output can either be recorded or streamed live to the social media platform of your choice via the Virtual Camera included in the software.

OBS puts the power of a live television studio at your fingertips. You can do split screens, picture-in-picture, overlays, and virtual backgrounds via the chromakey function just to name a few. You can control audio levels and sources on the fly and the software is preloaded with several different transition effects.

Once you master it, OBS will be one of the most powerful and useful tools in your multimedia arsenal.

GIMP

If Photoshop isn’t in your budget, then the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is for you. It’s a powerhouse application that rivals any paid program on the market today. This software is perfect for editing images, creating thumbnails for your videos, or just about any other graphics job you run into.

I use GIMP to build book covers and promotional materials, in addition to enhancing up still images for insertion into my videos. The available plugins and community support are priceless, as with the other packages I’ve recommended here.

GIMP is a prime example of not having to pay professional prices to get professional results.

Final Thoughts

While there are a lot of software packages available, both paid and free, these are my favorites for a reason. They all produce great results, and a lot of support is available—all without breaking the bank. Being open source, they’re also constantly improving.

While they are all free, if you find that these applications meet your needs there are ways to financially support their development. You can also show support by joining the open-source communities and giving feedback so the software can continue to improve.

Do you use any of these programs? What are your favorite applications for audio and video production? Let us know in the comments.

 About Bob

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking, and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives).

His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.