A Worldbuilder's Guide to Magic: Essentials for Writers, Game Developers and Dungeon Masters

by Brent A. Stypczynski

Constructing a functional system of magic that helps readers suspend disbelief is a crucial part of worldbuilding in the fantasy genres. Yet creating a believable, compelling and original fictional universe can be daunting. To help inspire writers, this guide provides an overview of how magic has been understood in history and used in myth, legend and modern fiction. Different forms of magic are explored and a broad range of stories--from Nordic myths to modern novels--are described and referenced. Discussion explores how magic as a concept shapes, and is shaped by, fictional worlds and societies.

207 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2021

About the author

I am a writing instructor/tutor, freelance writer/editor, and father who dabbles in writing fiction from time to time. I have also been an inventory control specialist/tech writer for a NASA contractor, a cashier in a university food court, and a library employee. My first publication came courtesy of Rick Silva (Kinships). Since then, I have published a book of literary criticism (The Modern Literary Werewolf: A Critical Study of the Mutable Motif), A Worldbuilder's Guide to Magic: Essentials for Writers, Game Developers and Dungeon Masters, and A Worldbuilder's Guide to Societies