WorldBuilding Wednesday Magic Systems

When worldbuilding for fantasy novels, it is a good idea to figure out the magic system at least by the second draft, or so I would think. Like with many aspects of the fantasy world, there are many things to consider when adding a magic system. And the two novels I really need to worldbuild both have magic but the systems are very different, which is important because the stories are very different so I wouldn't want the magic to be the same.


The steampunk-inspired one (needs a title so I can stop calling it that) has a fey main character and the magic is elemental. The elements in the story are water, fire, earth, wood and metal. Wood is the main characters element, so he can't control the others like he can control wood. Limits are good to have because having a character who is all powerful with magic can make the character a little boring and unrealistic. His magic is part of his trade, because he is a wood fey he loves to travel and gets work on a wood airship because he can magically fix the ship which is much easier when flying than having someone fix the ship by hand. But give him metal and he can't do anything with it, can't even really use metal weapons.

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The epic fantasy series is very different. Sure, it has a non-human main character that does magic, only instead of a fey it's an elf. But there is more than one elf and not all elves are capable of doing magic, that they are aware of at least. The other elf will eventually be able to do minor magic because all of the elves have a certain level of magic abilities but most are minimal. Only one type has strong abilities and most of those don't exist anymore in the series as they were killed out of fear. The one main character does have those abilities but it's not easy for him, having to hide his abilities because of those that would act out of fear against him. And while he is technically very strong in his magic he is very careful about using it to the point of being self-conscious about what he can do. I'm still working on figuring out this magic system since it's not an elemental type.



Here is some thoughts on building magic systems that I found on a blog that has advice from Holly Black. These are six questions (posted here) to help with the developing of a magic system.


1. Who has it?

2. What does it do?

3. How do you make it happen?

4. How is user affected?

5. How is world affected?

6. How are magic users grouped & perceived?


These are questions I am considering when it comes to the magic systems that I am creating. So, what about you? Does your story have a magic system? What have you done to develop the magic system?

pick what I read next

I am trying something a little different. I thought it would be fun to do a poll on my blog to let the blog viewers help me pick which book to read. So, I have a poll up on this blog and on http://dawnembers.blogspot.com for people to vote. I have 5 books available, and if people vote, which ever one that wins will be the one I read next.

But I need votes.


So, it is up to you, readers: Which book should I read?

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Ice Land by Betsy Tobin
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
XVI by Julia Karr
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Year Plans and January Goals

First, some of the goals I made for 2011 and whether I succeeded or not. Then on to goals for 2012 and for January specifically.

2011 Goals/Reflection

Tattle Tell - Finish second draft. Edit. Send to beta readers by the end of February. Work on query.
-- Did finish the second draft. Have a couple attempts so far on the query but have work to do on it. Didn't send to readers yet but will after a round of editing.

Fantasy/Steampunk - Finish Worldbuilding and find a work in progress Title. Maybe start writing.
-- Still have a lot of world building to do but have a couple of scenes written, character profiles and outline done.

Angel/Demon - Finish first draft, edit and then send to beta reader.
-- nope.

Other potential books: Pick which ones and start writing them. This also means write one of them for NaNoWriMo 2011. Also make sure to write for MarNo with either a started novel or one of the new ones. List includes: TT book 2, Fantasy/Steampunk, I'm Sorry I Forgot You, XXY, Border Patrol dystopian, or Blood Prophesy book 1.
-- Did start the border patrol one in March and it's called Lighting the Wall. Also wrote Against the Grain and finished even though it wasn't on the list, and started OttoHahn in E Minor, also not listed.



Now for 2012 Goals.

I would like to finish at least two first drafts that I have already started out of Angel/Demon, Thomas/Kyle, OttoHahn in E Minor or Lighting the Wall.

Edit two novels, both mutant ones with already finished drafts. There is an editing challenge happening in February that I'm going to try.

Be ready to submit to an agent by the end of the year. I think that I'm close enough for this to be a realistic goal finally.

Reading goal = 50 books for 2012 at least and 10 of them being the first 10 in Wheel of Times series by Robert Jordan (though not 0, that one I will wait on for now).

Keep track of all fiction written, word count wise, and see how many words I write for the year in total.


January Goals

Blog at least 4 times
Read and write notes for mutant novel edits
Write 5k in Angel/Demon, Lighting the Wall, and OttoHahn in E Minor



What are your goals for January and/or 2012?
Hope everyone has a great year!

Progress Report

I have worked on a number of different novels over the years and 2011 was no different. So many novels that sometimes it is hard to keep track. So, I figured before I posted my goals for the year and for the month, I thought it would be appropriate to post a status report of all the novels I have at least started in some shape or another.

Young Adult

Tattle Tell - Second draft made it to 50,795. Will edit this year.
Lighting the Wall - Started in March and made it to 15,196
Ottohahn in E Minor - NaNoWriMo that I wrote 25,000 words in so far.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Standing Ground - First chapter fixed, so draft is still slightly over 90k.
the fantasy/mystery with steampunk elements - worldbuilding and have remnants of an outline and other notes
Gathered at Dawn - didn't write any in 2011, so still have the 50k from nanowrimo 2010

Romance/Erotica

Angel/Demon - not much progress but hope to finish this year, currently at 32,753 words.
Thomas/Kyle- would like to get done this year as I have 22,549 so far.
Against the Grain - NaNoWrimo book that made it to 100,000 words.

Books started but on the back burner:

Blood Prophesy series - chapters started for 2 of the books. (1 or 2 each)
Against All Evidence - 5 chapters started
Luigi - couple chapters/scenes done


I hope to finish a few of the ones I have started in 2012 and maybe start a couple. But that will be talked about more on my goal post, which will be the next blog post. ;-)

Success on 11-11-11

I made it to 50,000 words last night, during the 11th hour on 11-11-11. Holy goodness that was a lot of ones. And I beat my record from last year where I wrote 50k in 13 days. Only this year, I have a bigger goal. I'm not going to stop at 50k as I have two novels going this year, so I'm going to keep writing until I make it to 100k at least.



How is NaNo going for you?

NaNoWriMo Approaches

And I can't wait to start writing!

I'm almost done with the prep challenge even though the month isn't over yet. I keep doing things ahead of schedule and that's good because I also have other writing to do before November starts. And that writing will help me since I really want to start writing already and writing other things will keep me a little distracted until the very minute November starts, when I plan to start writing.

I have picked what I'm going to write at least.  I picked the Young Adult novel. It was a bit unexpected considering it was one I had put on the "to do later" list with a few novels being set as ones to write first but I'm really looking forward to writing the story. I think even though I didn't win with young adult stories before, this time I'm going to make it.

Plus, I am going to do something different this year. I am going to work on two novels. One I prepared using the NaNoWriMo Prep Challenge and the other is just in my head. No preparation at all. With any luck and a lot of hard work, I should write 100,000 words this year or more, and if I get burned out from one, I can always work on the other, which is something I struggle with when I write 50k really fast; burn out. I even have titles to use for now on both of the novels, Yay!

The current plan is to write:
OttoHahn in E Minor (YA futuristic type novel)
Against the Grain (Adult Romance novel)



Are you ready for NaNoWriMo?
What are you writing?

IWSG post on Finishing and NaNoWriMo

It's that time again, Insecure Writer's Support Group is up and ready to talk today. The topic I've chosen is the "can I ever finish anything" insecurity that I often have since I write so many novels at one time and have nothing ready to submit after 5+ years of writing. I chose this topic because even though I did basically the same topic, there is a special portion this month because NaNoWriMo is just around the corner and is one where I've both succeeded and failed in finishing novels.

Last time I focused on finishing in order to send out, but let's pull back the reigns a little bit. Writing anything above 50,000 words can be difficult to finish and I'm so easily distracted. When I first started writing the goal for NaNoWriMo of writing 50,000 words in one month seemed daunting and in less than 15 days down right impossible. Back in 2006 I had only written poetry and a few attempts at short stories, nothing much past 1,000 words. So, the task of finishing a full length novel was hard to figure out and it showed in my few thousand total the first year. I haven't finished that story either. But what I've learned from the failed years at NaNoWriMo is simply to keep writing.

Because my third year I not only wrote 50,000 words in 30 days but I also finished the novel a couple of weeks later. I had my first finished first draft ever back in 2008 and it was awesome. I haven't edited it yet but I still love the story. And it proved to me I could finish a draft.

Then I wrote 67,000 words in March of 2010, proving to myself that with the right characters and story, I could do even more words. That novel even is finished and waiting to be edits with the highest word count I've finished in one story to this date (90,000). Woot! Sure, in 2009 I wrote basically nothing but it's okay.

Last year I managed to write 50,000+ words in 13 days. Sure, I haven't finished the novel yet but it's one that I'm writing just for me. Being an epic fantasy novel, I've still got another 50k to go and I plan to but being stalled is okay with me.

And here we are again. NaNoWriMo 2011 starts in less than a month and I will admit, the doubt is still here. Yes, after 67k in one month and 50k in 13 days, I still doubt that I'll finish. That doubt surfaces every year. I wonder if I will make the 50k goal and I wonder if I will finish the story either during the month (which I have never done before) or at least some time after.


Do you have any insecurities with finishing and NaNoWriMo?

Check out the other IWSG members: