Writing a fantasy novel - Magic system?

Question

I've asked way too many questions concerning this novel xD

So, I've just started writing a medieval fantasy novel, but I've hit a major snag: How should the magic system work?
The only requirement that I need is as follows: Not everyone can posses/know how to unlock the powers of magic.

(Any questions that present themselves will be answered in the details)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

To answer LJ K's question: Yes, everyone in the story is aware of magic.

SW: While I find that idea very interesting, and may use it as the story progresses, there is one very crucial part in my plot (a curse, specifically) that could never be believably explained by a trick of the mind.

Answer 1

The apprenticeship is a good way to keep magic in the hands of the few. If a character has to spend years toiling under the guidance of a master, it would be more believable that fewer people can harness the power. However, this idea has been done to death. If you can find a fresh way to use it, then it's a gem.

Another good path is an awakening. The character has no idea they're able to use magic until their force of will is great enough in a certain situation to bring it to the surface. From there, you might, again, go the apprentice route, giving the character a guide to help them realize their full potential. This one's a little cheesy.

There's always the idea of imbuing items with magical properties and requiring a character to posses that item in order to use the power. Also a little cheesy and goes against the idea that not just anyone can use magic, because it would allow just about anyone to use magic.

Answer 2

Something I did once for a magic-heavy Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I was running was that everyone had one innate magical ability that they could use whenever they wished, over and over. For instance, one character could instantly make dough cook and rise into a perfect loaf of bread every time. Not great, but it tended to sidestep a lot of drunken bar/tavern fights - if the party wandered into town hungry or broke, she could always get a temporary job at the local bakery and kick out ten times as many loaves as any other baker.
Now in your case, you could say that not everyone figures their talent out, and if you haven't found it and used it regularly by the time you're thirty, then the talent atrophies. There was a really good book with a similiar idea, by Mickey Zucker Reichart, called "The Legend of Nightfall" or maybe just "Nightfall". In that book a person was born with one talent, but if you killed someone you could "add" their talent to yours - if you knew how. I didn't like that idea - too vampiric for me, so I would take a working power and add three or four more additional powers that could be discovered once you had mastered the basics. Nothing too earth-shaking, mind you - in D&D the real magicks are reserved for wizards, clerics, and druids, but if you don't have any of those as part and parcel of a magic system then you need to be able to "upgrade" your abilities (esp.for your antagonists) - possibly by vampiric means as stated earlier, a boost from an outside source such as a magical item, or as a divine or otherworldly gift or blessing.

Answer 3

Why not write the novel without magic. Do what magicians of old (and current) did, use tricks and natural phenomena to fool others into thinking they use magic. Sure, this is harder to write because you will need to do some research into tricks, but it will give an interesting twist to the book and bring it above the endless magic rings and staves that populate books of the genre. Using magic to solve every problem is such a cop out for the writer.

Answer 4

As in the Camelot tales, perhaps the magic can be traced back to one person... and that person teaches some of the people his or her powers as your story progresses. I would imagine the magic and its powers would be used to further some cause in that medieval time... at least to cure, or possibly hurt, other people in the story.
Is everyone in the story aware that magic is around them?

Answer 5

I just began writing a paranormal and asked several of my writing groups whether or not there are certain rules I must follow. The general response was anything goes in the magic/fantasy/paranormal realm. That's what's so great about it. As long as you make it believable, people will believe it....

Good luck : )

Answer 6

Pretty much what the dude before me said and you could make them go through some test in which they prove theirselves capable of magic.

Answer 7

Hmm...well you can make it hereditary or come from some kind of object or talisman which is actually stumbled upon accidentally, or make it taught if they have the talent. Or bestowed upon them from a god or higher being..

Answer 8

If you need help with a detail like this perhaps you're not fit to write a novel.

And, this should really be something you do months before you begin writing anyway, sit down and think more about your plot before you start writing.