why MAGIC USERS are more interesting than magic systems

Will they go that far?  This also affects whether their ability is innate or not, whether there is still a learning curve after that, whether

magic

is even teachable.  Innate abilities could explain why it is impossible to acquire

more

knowledge, you just have to have it. Which could be supported by other spheres of world-building, such as class

systems

, politics and races. Think of lore as playing a video game where you develop your character and each of these three questions are sliders that change how you interact with the story, at least around

magic

al themes.  And there are other questions, also other sliders.

How reliable is the knowledge?   What is the limit of ability a person can achieve and what affects that limit?   Can competition be measured and how?  I'm sure you can think of

more

.  These three are the ones I have considered most important to my stories. Your stories may take precedence over others, simply deduce what the answers to those questions may mean to them.  That being said, the third layer is what you probably had in mind when you heard me say magic

users

and that is logistics. Isn't that the word you thought I was going to say?  This is the plain, simple, and straightforward, part of the user-related magic that you would naturally go over when you're first coming up with a system.

Is there a user classification? How are they called? A structure for learning? Different sources they draw from? Methods they use?   Different races by extension? How strange is it then to be a user? Questions upon questions.  But what I think has the most impact on the story is: what is the scale of power? It is something simple but it frames the entire structure of the story related to magic. If

users

throw suns at each other, it becomes harder to script a gang war in an alley where everyone has powers.  Also remember when I said I would reveal how I arranged the layers, yes this is that part.

And the order is the "scope of impact".  The fact that these are the questions that many writers naturally ask by default doesn't make them any less valid. These three layers are practically equally important to the magic and the story as a whole. But its effect on the story differs and narrows along with the pyramid. Logistical questions impact on a much broader scale because they are practically set for the entire story when you answer them. Some answers can change and lead to

interesting

results, usually for plot, not just world-building. But for the most part they are constant, firm structures that all these sliders can play with and when one changes, it's usually a big deal.  Imagine a magic system where everyone draws power from the same sources.

We want it to be a fairly rare race that uses this magic, but its demand is high and resources do not always meet it.  Those are our constants, now we apply the knowledge sliders.  They know a lot, but not everything, about the magic system: they have a decent number of puzzle pieces. However, knowledge is quite varied: not everyone has the same pieces and getting more is feasible, but not always easy. So far we have created a situation where each user fends for themselves, maybe even a small war for resources.  But what does the spectrum of diversity contribute?  As we think about how this magic is used for the plot, if at all, we decided that it will be a more difficult system, which would mean that the puzzle pieces that the users have are shown to the reader.  And since we already have this battle for resources going on, we could amplify that feeling of scarcity by giving everyone the same skills.  Readers are then told exactly why those resources are important and what a user can do with them, because we decided that the nature of the story necessitated a more complex system.  And at this point there is a pretty clear understanding of strengths and weaknesses, which creates a dynamic where readers can problem-solve alongside the characters.  The magic system I just described is a deconstruction of Mistborn Allomancy.  And that's another thing I want to touch on: writers tend to start with the answer first.  I don't know where Sanderson started from, but I can guess it was something like: I want a system where people ingest metals to gain different abilities.

I want this skill and this skill to be tied to these metals, and it would be cool if some metals, some skills were rarer than others. Maybe Tolkein started by linking the word "great" to each magic user and figuring out what it meant from there.  Whatever it is, you have preconceived notions about the magic system itself and how it is applied. That gives us the base of our pyramid, our constants. Then you can move up the pyramid, ask all these questions, play with the sliders, and discover what the answers mean for your story. Then, discover which answers can elevate that particular piece even further.  Because even if you have what you want to do in mind, this is not a formula to connect a few parameters and the result you get is a complete and attractive magic system.  No.

It works together as you develop the system, an effort to recognize what you are doing in the moment so that it becomes increasingly intuitive. Taking users into account, rather than just what the system can do, is a big step towards that.  And as always, the goal is to inspire through understanding, not to have all this stuff stuck in your head while you're trying to write. And in vain to understand it, this video talks about why you want to have a magic system in the first place. I hope I made some sense. Well bye.