Magic--or not
I'm fascinated by the discussion of the various systems of magic and how each author came up with his or her own. I love reading about all the behind-the-scenes stuff.
I don't use magic in my werecat books, unless you count being able to Shift back and forth from human to cat form as a kind of magic. Which I don't. In the books, Shifting is seen as more of an illness (though only the strays think of it in such negative terms) that you're either born with, or you catch. But there are no spells, or potions, or anything like that.
However, I'm working on the first in a new urban fantasy series, and this new one will have some kind of magic in it. I don't have all the details ironed out yet, which is making me kind of nervous. I feel like I should know more about the magic than I do, considering that I'm more than 96,000 words into the novel. Fortunately, the world-building in this one concentrates more on other aspects, and basically only sets the magic up to figure more heavily in the sequel. So I guess I have a little time to get all the kinks worked out.
In the mean time, I'm paying close attention to how everyone else develops their worlds (for technique, not substance) and hoping to pick up some pointers. Thanks for sharing!
Rachel
I don't use magic in my werecat books, unless you count being able to Shift back and forth from human to cat form as a kind of magic. Which I don't. In the books, Shifting is seen as more of an illness (though only the strays think of it in such negative terms) that you're either born with, or you catch. But there are no spells, or potions, or anything like that.
However, I'm working on the first in a new urban fantasy series, and this new one will have some kind of magic in it. I don't have all the details ironed out yet, which is making me kind of nervous. I feel like I should know more about the magic than I do, considering that I'm more than 96,000 words into the novel. Fortunately, the world-building in this one concentrates more on other aspects, and basically only sets the magic up to figure more heavily in the sequel. So I guess I have a little time to get all the kinks worked out.
In the mean time, I'm paying close attention to how everyone else develops their worlds (for technique, not substance) and hoping to pick up some pointers. Thanks for sharing!
Rachel