Dig deep rather than go wide. Having one or two cultures that play off of each other in an interesting way — where you’ve considered a lot of the ramifications — are going to be better than trying to create 30 different cultures. Try to keep focused on what’s going to be important…
It depends on the book, honestly. For a thick, multi-volume epic fantasy, I take years working on the world. Such was the case with The Way of Kings, and a few of the other massive Epics I’m planning. Mistborn had about a year of planning ahead of time. Some books,…
The calling of a fiction writer, particularly a fantasy writer, is to know a little bit about a lot of things–just enough to be dangerous, so to speak. I tend to read survey books that talk about history–things that give overviews, such as the history of warfare, or the history…
One or two really powerful sentences, let the reader fill in the rest.
When I finished the Mistborn trilogy and WARBREAKER, I felt that there were a few things that were becoming Brandon clichés that I needed to deal with. I don’t mind being known as the magic system guy. But when I become known ONLY as the magic system guy, that worries…
Thanks! It took a lot of practice. Keeping them straight for myself isn’t so difficult–it’s like keeping characters straight. The more I’ve written, the easier it’s become. What is more difficult is keeping it all straight for the readers. This can be tough. One of the challenges with fantasy is…
How do you decide that a magic system you’re working on is done? When I feel like the stories I’m telling are working, I go with it. That doesn’t mean I have every little thing worked out – I’m a planner, so I have a lot of them, if I…
Yeah. It happens all the time, absolutely happens all the time. Here’s one that I wrote a scene for and even did some readings from. The pitch on it was, what if viruses and bacteria evolved to give people magical talents when you caught the disease. This idea that a bacteria…
I look for a couple of things in a magic system. The first thing I usually look for is interesting conflicts within the magic system; interesting limitations, interesting flaws in the magic. The question “What can’t the magic do?” is more interesting to me than what the magic can do….
Quick answer I am happy to share some of what I have learned. One caveat, my ‘advice’ is just that and you will need to adapt it to what works best for you. I am glad that you are interested in magic systems. Like you, I feel that a good…