Creating a magic system that fits my story

[daydreamer]

I am working on a fantasy book at the moment and i can honestly say that i have never created a proper magic system. Usually the story comes first for me and then i loose my mind trying to think of a magic system that goes with it, i usually fail due to my stubborness with me wanting to create the most unique magic system since ever. I have learned my lesson now and while i have succeeded in creating good mechanics for my current one, i still have no idea what the magic does.
I am looking for something not too cliche like elemental abilities or time abilities or enhanced senses which i find over done but i am opened to modifying it so that it seems new yet i want my system to be compatible with my story. For instance say my book is story driven and maybe focuses on politics and maybe my characters ability to solve problems by being smart and tricky, i would make magic subtle and not too op like the power of persuasion.
My story is more war driven and will get a bit messy, might go with some blasts and hard hitting power. I really don't know what i'm asking but would love some of your thoughts.

 

[skip.knox]

I have a similar problem. I knew I wanted "magic" in my story because it's a world in which it previously did not exist. Or, more precisely, one like ours in which magic was either as superstition though believed in by a few fringe types. But it wasn't "real". Something happens, and now it starts popping up all over.

But how does that get manifested? Like you, I have a principal story line, so what I have done is to stick very close to specific events, whether it's a battle or need to communicate or to provide some backstory for an important character. I figure out the need of the moment and produce magic that fits only that.

I have a spin that I'm hoping make it a little more interesting. Magic doesn't always work in predictable ways and no one really knows how it works or why it fails. I think of a primitive discovering a firearm or something electronic. This lets me hide much of the mechanics of magic behind the narrative curtain. So, no schools of magic, no magicians guild, no council of wizards. Just individual people who discover fire in their hands. Sometimes literally.

This has worked well for me as an author (time will tell if it works for readers!) because I put magic out into the story world first, then figure out what limitations and conditions lie behind it. Those don't need to be in the story, but it lets me figure out my magic system in a more organic way. Trying to produce an entire magic system separate from story, or even in parallel to it, simply proved impossible for me.

 

[daydreamer]

Well all have our ways and if it works for u then great. I like the idea of magic no being understand but i sughest u keep magical acts sort of similar and not too ridiculous like today i can breath fire tomorrow i figure out that i can explode a planet with my mind and dont have magic coming in to save the day with some newfound power at the last minute. Thanks for the feedback

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

The first question that we should ask ourselves is what we want the magic to be able to do in the story. No, I don't mean whether it can conjure fire or beasties from the Nether. Rather, whether the magic can be used to solve the main conflict or whether it only causes more problems. To answer this question I turn to Sanderon's First Law of Magic as an analytical tool.

The first law of magic is that "An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic." So, if you want to solve the central conflict with magic you had better make sure the reader understands that magic well. However, if you want humanity to solve the problem with their own wit and without magic I would suggest turning to less well defined systems. Brandon Sanderson is the poster child for solving the central conflict with magic. He did that in his first published book Elantris. Spoiler for a ten year old book. Stop reading here if that is important to you.

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Spoiler

In Elantris the MC becomes a zombielike Elantrian. This is because somehow the magic of Elantris, the titular city where the Elantrians live, has ceased to function properly. Raoden discovers that the magic symbols that cause magical things to happen are based on the country's geography. There was a cataclysmic event that happened several years ago that substantially changed the geography and thereby changed the symbols. However, the biggest symbol, the city of Elantris, did not have that change either. It wasn't until Raoden made that change to the city itself that the magic began functioning properly again.

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(Non-spoiler time)He resolved the conflict by explaining how the magic worked in detail and it felt like a good pay off. However, Tolkien never explains his magic. And everytime the magic does something things get worse. This is particularly evident in Gandalf's death. Any and all story centric problems are resolved not by magic but by the characters doing non-magic things. The payoff here is great as well because we connect with that. Elantris works for the same reason, someone figured out a problem and solved it with magic. The magic was well known to us and them.

Once you have asked the question of what you want the magic to do in the story that is when you can turn to the mechanics of who gets the magic, what it does, how it does it, and why it does what it does. So, I ask, do you want to solve the conflict with magic or not?

 

[skip.knox]

What does the Law say about sometimes a little of this and sometimes a little of that, and sometimes both?

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

The law recognizes it's a spectrum. So it's not a this or that but a consideration of how well the reader knows the magic and how far that knowledge will let the author solve the conflict. With the magic.