This episode previously aired on Book Career Network.

Magic systems are the foundation of fantasy fiction. By design, removing magic from a core fantasy story means the world and the plot fall apart. From elemental manipulation, runes, wand work, and bending light into physical form, we’ve seen countless magic systems and spellcasters over centuries of fiction. As authors, how do we make our magic unique, believable, and captivating?

Enter Clark Rowenson, aka the Magic Engineer. Clark turned his background in the sciences to creating a practical, analytical system. His methods break down magic systems, design new ones, and strengthen existing ones.

Author of “The Magic Systems Blueprint: A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Building Magic Systems” and “Restrictions May Apply: Building Limits for Your Magic System”, Clark is an industry leader in magic systems. In addition to a wealth of free resources on his website, and his YouTube channel The Magic Engineer, Clark also offers one-on-one consultation services.

In Part Two, We’ll Discuss:

• H.Y. and Shady geeking out over Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series

• Starting with a magic system vs starting with characters or other story elements

• “Seed crystals”: single points of reference and inspiration for magic and world development, and how to narrow down your starting points

• An Uninvited Guest

• Our favorite immersive world details

• The Magic System Blueprint: how to break down and analyze your own systems

• • Hard vs. soft and rational vs irrational magic systems

  • Magic transference, prevalence, source, and flux

  • Naturalness, ease of use, reliability, and consistency

  • Use of perspective to view different aspects of magic

Resources and Guest Links:

• https://crrowenson.com/

• https://www.patreon.com/crrowenson

• The Magic Engineer on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw4TcDjakQUUFyGXTm7ZF1Q

Join us in thanking Clark!

We met Clark through the writing conference circuit, and he’s a great friend, writer, teacher, and all-around person. Magic systems are so nuanced and exciting, and Clark was on our short-list for Worlds Asunder while the podcast was in its pre-recording phase. We hope everyone has enjoyed this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Host Links:

• H.Y. Gregor: https://hygregor.com/

• David Shadoin: https://www.davidshadoin.com/

Credits: (all assets licensed through the sites listed)

• Intro: Music- Cinematic Epic Trailer by PaulYudin on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user- kazim hussian; from pixabay users-davidfoxx, DavidGallie, olenchic, stefaniejockschat, AiVreaSaStii, RuneSnow, duyen-nguyen, EnchantedStudios,

• Outro: Music- Good Night by FASSounds on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user-onlydesignz; from pixabay users-olenchic, Placidplace, Evgeniy_Z, Dantegrafico, Shayea_Kim,

Magic systems are the foundation of fantasy fiction. By design, removing magic from a core fantasy story means the world and the plot fall apart. From elemental manipulation, runes, wand work, and bending light into physical form, we’ve seen countless magic systems and spellcasters over centuries of fiction. As authors, how do we make our magic unique, believable, and captivating?

Enter Clark Rowenson, aka the Magic Engineer. Clark turned his background in the sciences to creating a practical, analytical system. His methods break down magic systems, design new ones, and strengthen existing ones.

Author of “The Magic Systems Blueprint: A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Building Magic Systems” and “Restrictions May Apply: Building Limits for Your Magic System”, Clark is an industry leader in magic systems. In addition to a wealth of free resources on his website, and his YouTube channel The Magic Engineer, Clark also offers one-on-one consultation services.

In Part One, We Discuss:

• Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

• Clark’s background in engineering and chemistry

• The integration of magic in storytelling and making stories dependent on magic and fantasy themes

• Getting started: finding intersections in worldbuilding and deciding on which core elements to include and how to connect them

• Implications of magic in the larger world: how does magic change or impact your characters lives, social and government structure, and environment?

• Getting through the weeds: the art of presenting new terminology and concepts, and how to determine what to include in your manuscript and what’s a side quest

• Uses of magic to highlight and contrast different aspects of society, and how to get it to enhance

Resources and Guest Links:

• https://crrowenson.com/

• https://www.patreon.com/crrowenson

• The Magic Engineer on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw4TcDjakQUUFyGXTm7ZF1Q

Join us in thanking Clark! We met Clark through the writing conference circuit, and he’s a great friend, writer, teacher, and all-around person. Magic systems are so nuanced and exciting, and Clark was on our short-list for Worlds Asunder while the podcast was in its pre-recording phase. We hope everyone has enjoyed this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Host Links:

• H.Y. Gregor: https://hygregor.com/

• David Shadoin: https://www.davidshadoin.com/

Credits: (all assets licensed through the sites listed)

• Intro: Music- Cinematic Epic Trailer by PaulYudin on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user- kazim hussian; from pixabay users-davidfoxx, DavidGallie, olenchic, stefaniejockschat, AiVreaSaStii, RuneSnow, duyen-nguyen, EnchantedStudios,

• Outro: Music- Good Night by FASSounds on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user-onlydesignz; from pixabay users-olenchic, Placidplace, Evgeniy_Z, Dantegrafico, Shayea_Kim,

New content on Worlds Asunder! This week we can’t wait to introduce you all to Griffin Barber. Author, Baen editor, host of the Baen Free Radio Hour, Griffin is also a polyglot, recently retired police officer, and a lifelong player of tabletop RPGs and science fiction and fantasy fan.

Join us in talking with Griffin about narratives–where they come from, how we tell our own stories, and how we interact with them. Storytelling is an age-old tradition, and isn’t restricted to formal formatting. We’ll also touch on writing as an outlet for personal experiences, and a way to address the darkness and process things we encounter in our real lives.

In Part Three, We Discuss:

• Aliens

• How dark is grim dark and what does it really mean for your characters.

• High Stakes in every POV

Resources and Guest Links:

• https://griffinbarber.com/

• https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B06XFSJTGQ/allbooks

• https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/4816

Huge thanks to Griffin for giving us his time! He’s a busy man, and we weren’t able to buy him drinks this time, due to him living on the other side of the country.

Host Links:

• H.Y. Gregor: https://hygregor.com/

• David Shadoin: https://www.davidshadoin.com/

Credits: (all assets licensed through the sites listed)

• Intro: Music- Cinematic Epic Trailer by PaulYudin on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user- kazim hussian; from pixabay users-davidfoxx, DavidGallie, olenchic, stefaniejockschat, AiVreaSaStii, RuneSnow, duyen-nguyen, EnchantedStudios,

• Outro: Music- Good Night by FASSounds on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user-onlydesignz; from pixabay users-olenchic, Placidplace, Evgeniy_Z, Dantegrafico, Shayea_Kim