Stop Summoning Eagles: How to Write Coherent Magic in Your Story

I’ll start with a disclaimer. I don’t write realistic or historic fiction for the same reason I don’t watch drama movies—I have already been to reality.

So, yes, I haven’t visited all possible places or experienced every situation that the human experience can offer, but I’ve been here long enough and I think I’ve got the gist.

Writing fantasy, however, is different. And while at the end of the day your characters go through the same emotions as the rest of us regular people, have similar relationships, and value similar things, it’s still different.

Namely, there is one significant difference—the world around them. Your elves and goblins might be suffering the heartache of a breakup—a feeling we boring mortals can definitely identify with—but they do it while coexisting with dragons and wielding cursed swords. Most importantly, they do so while being subject to laws that don’t exist in our modern reality—the laws of magic.

There’s nothing quite like diving head first into a world of wonder vastly different than our own to help us forget our everyday concerns and responsibilities. In a fantasy world, the rules are not as strict, and almost anything is possible, often thanks to the existence of magic.

Magic is not a “must-have” requirement for writing fantasy. You can build a unique world with its own rules and inhabitants, without a single character that’s able to bend reality to their will and conjure things out of thin air. But for most of us fantasy writers, adding a little bit of magic into the mix tends to make things a little bit more interesting.

The only thing we need to consider when adding that wonderful spice into our fantasy writing is whether the possibilities are truly limitless? And should they be?

Suddenly—Eagles

One of the most prominent pieces of criticism I’ve heard about The Lord of the Rings concerns those very same eagles. They arrive precisely at the right time to save the day, and it’s never explained why they didn’t show up at any other critical moment.

It’s also unclear why, if they are always available and ready at Gandalf’s call, they don’t rescue our heroes from the myriad of other life threatening situations?

Magic often appears in stories much like the eagles in LOTR—used at just the right time to save the day (and the heroes). The problem with that is that it feels cheap. It raises questions, and most importantly, it disappoints your readers.

Humble Demigods

Another problem with magic arises when there are no laws, limits, or systems that govern it. This becomes an issue when we meet a character who can use it seemingly without restriction, resorting to it whenever a challenge arises.

This kind of depiction of magic leads to internal plot holes, such as: if the character has such powers, what’s to stop them from taking over the world? How do other people feel living among those with unlimited power, and how many times have they tried to get rid of them? Also, why would these omnipotent characters play by the rules like the rest of the regular people inhabiting their world?

What’s lost in this scenario is internal consistency, and even if your readers can’t pinpoint the problem directly, it will nag at them like a smudge on the very edge of their sunglasses.

Mental Gym

If you work out, you know there’s a limit to the number of repetitions you can do in any exercise. Whether it’s a burpee, a pull up, or a run, you don’t have unlimited energy to keep going all day.

Magic is similar—it requires resources from the character practicing it.

When building the magic framework for your novel, consider what resources would your characters draw from to use magic, and how those resources are replenished. Does casting a spell require the same focus as solving a complex mathematical equation? And how quickly would your characters tire if they had to cast one spell after the other?

Questions that can help define the magical framework include: can magic wielders cast spells without pause until they hit a certain limit, or do they need a pause between each one? Is their spellcasting ability restored after a good night’s rest, or do they need to perform a special ritual to replenish it, like pray to a deity, connect to an energy source, or dance around with the toad-fairies?

To avoid turning your characters to demigods, who would be both unrelatable and simply improbable, decide on the origin of their magical powers and define their limits.

Magical USB Cord

Magic might not make sense in our world, but it can make sense in the novel you’re writing. The name of the game is not to explain it in a way that matches the physics we know here on Earth, but to make it logical within your story’s own framework. We may not have magical crystals that charge the user with otherworldly abilities, but the world you’re writing might.

This doesn’t mean turning your book into the fantasy version of a hard sci-fi—you don’t need to break down the exact mechanics of how spells work until your readers feel like they're reading an instruction manual.

All you need is for magic to have a source in your world, an explanation, and some general knowledge people share about its origin.

Embedding magic into your fantasy world’s own “laws of physics” gives it boundaries and makes it believable within your book’s framework.

Conclusion

Magic can be fun, but it’s not a solution to all of your character’s problems, and writing fantasy shouldn’t be an excuse to compromise your world’s internal consistency.

Whether you’re creating your fantasy world from scratch or using an existing framework (like D&D), consider the limitations of magic, the rules that govern it, what characters must do to use it, and when they can’t.

Make your magic believable, use it to enhance rather than instantly solve problems, and most importantly—leave the eagles out of it.