Skipping today's review in favour of this little guest post: Here are some good tips for writers whose stories contain magic. The first writing tip to be featured on Numinous Publications as well as the first guest blog, though hopefully there will be more of both to come in the foreseeable future.
Written by fantasy author, Rayne Hall:
Does your story have a magician - a shaman,
a sorcerer, a necromancer, a ritual wizard, a theurgist, a miracle worker or a
witch? The traits which make them effective magicians shape their personality.
Here are ten tips for their characterisation. Your magician should have most -
not necessarily all - of these character traits.
Although I'm using the female pronoun for
this article, everything applies regardless of gender.
1. Intelligent
Magic requires a sharp intellect, critical
thinking, critical analysis, the ability to make difficult decisions, and a
good memory.
2. Creative
Magicians need to adapt existing spells and
rituals to new situations.
3. Self-disciplined and focused
A magician needs to be able to concentrate
and shut out distractions, even under difficult circumstances. A good magician
possesses enormous self-control and is able to resist temptations. She is
probably the kind of person who can stick with a diet and never goofs off to play
computer games until the current job is done.
4. Patient
The study of magic requires endless
practice and repeats, most of them boring, so impatient people drop out of the
training before they achieve much. A good magician can spend hours sitting
still, watching a candle flame or listening to the sound of the wind in the
trees if that's what the spell requires.
5. Highly trained
Mere talent is not enough. Magic requires
intense, prolonged study and practice. If she's a powerful magician, she has
probably studied magic for many years.
6. Specialist
She is probably highly skilled in one
particular area such as improving livestock, changing the weather, building
wealth, protection or healing.
7. Musical
Many forms of magic involve drumming or
chanting; it helps if she has an ear for tunes and a strong sense of rhythm.
8. Spiritual
Most forms of magic are linked with
religious practice. Your magician may be devoutly religious and begin every
ritual with a prayer. Even if she's an atheist, she probably engages in
spiritual practices such as meditation.
9. Studious
Magicians are always keen to learn more -
expanding their own skills range, acquiring new spells, understanding other
forms of magic, exploring natural and philosophical subjects. Whenever she can,
she seeks instruction in some subject or other. She can often be found with her
head in a book, and if your story is set in a pre-literate period, she listens
avidly to bards and storytellers.
10. Well-organised and methodical
The best magicians always have information
and ingredients at hand and know where to find them, and they have their
equipment assembled before they begin the ritual. They keep careful records of
the ingredients and exact wording used in every spell, and they measure the
results.
11. Introvert
Most magicians like quietude and solitude.
Given the choice, your magician probably prefers spending time alone in nature
over partying with noisy crowds. After a night in close company with many
people, she needs a day alone in nature to recharge her energies. She may even
be a loner.
12. Ethical
Magic gives a person enormous power, and
requires moral judgement to apply this power wisely and for the good. All
magicians have ethic codes of conduct, and they take them seriously. These may
be based on their religion, the principles of their form of magic, the rules of
their coven, or their individual conscience. Modern magicians often follow the
principles 'Harm none' and 'Don't interfere with someone's free will'. Some
consider it wrong to accept money for magic. In other cultures and periods,
different rules applied.
If you're writing about a fantasy world, you can
invent rules. You can create powerful conflicts if your magician's goal
conflicts with her ethics. Perhaps the only way to help her child/rescue her
lover/save the world is to do something against her conscience and against her
magic's rules. Even the villain of your story, the evil sorcerer, abides by
strict ethical rules. You can have fun inventing them, for example 'Be kind to
animals' (hurting humans is ok), 'Never harm a minor' (wait until they're
eighteen), 'Never sacrifice a virgin girl' (deprive her of her virginity
first).
13. Sharp senses
Your magician probably has keen eyesight
and good ears, and her senses of smell, touch and taste are more refined than
those of most people. This natural ability has probably been refined over years
of practice. Now she can recognise barks by how they feel in the hand, and
identify crumbs of dried herbs by their smell.
14. Descended from magicians
Magical talent is often, though not always,
genetically inherited. Perhaps her parents and siblings are also magicians, or
perhaps her revered great-grandmother was a famous witch.
15. Psychic
Although magical and psychic gifts are
separate matters, many magicians have a some psychic abilities as well.
16. Day Job
Few magicians can make a living from their
magic. Most have day-jobs. Surprisingly many modern magicians work in the
healing arts: nurses, doctors, aromatherapists, complementary medicine
practitioners, massage therapists. Others are employed in scientific or
engineering fields (using their analytical minds) or they work the arts (using
their creativity).
All magicians are different. You can choose
which of those traits suit your magician's character profile and your story's
plot.
Questions?
If you're currently writing a story about a
magician, tell us about it in the comments section. If you have questions,
please ask. I'll be around for a week and will reply. I love answering questions.
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| Rayne Hall as a Wizard Author portrait by Leah Skerry |
About Rayne Hall:
Rayne Hall has published more
than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in
different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction.
Recent books include:
Storm
Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel),
Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3
(mild horror stories),
Six Historical Tales (short stories),
Six
Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories),
Writing Fight Scenes, The
World-Loss Diet and Writing Scary Scenes (instructions for authors).
She holds a college degree in
publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she
edits the Ten Tales series of multi-author short story anthologies:
Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales
of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft,
Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies and more.
My WIP has a necromancer, any tips?
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