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@daeus-lamb thank you for pointing this out! I just read all three of Sanderson’s articles–so many good principles in them that I will try to apply. At some point, I will try to make a magic system that actually makes sense. XP (I’ve deleted all the magic from my books currently.)

As for the third one specifically, I love the idea of using what’s already there. In my current novel, I knew that my characters had to dive for pearls, but I didn’t know why. Then, I realized that they were diving so they could offer pearls to their goddess. The goddess had already been in place, but now that I connected the two very important aspects of the story, it made the story flow so much better and seem much more connected.

In another story, I also was able to apply this by expanding an idea I already had. I had come up with something called the lotus (either a drug or a magical plant, can’t decide atm) that makes you unable to feel negative emotions or pain. But I hadn’t really expanded on the implications of that. Now, I’m using it to explore what the purpose of negative emotions and pain is. For example, what things could we be capable of if we didn’t feel guilt? One of the main settings of the story is a brothel, where the head of the brothel uses the lotus to keep the prostitutes in line, and they say it’s humane because the prostitutes don’t feel the pain or abuse. But they still have the horrible experiences, and they know they shouldn’t be feeling happiness or contentment, so there’s this strange paradox that upsets them (at least some of them) when the lotus wears off. Anyway, it’s been interesting trying to explore what problems we’d have without fear or guilt or pain, among other negative feelings.

I wish you luck as you figure out your story. That’s an interesting idea about being able to see the glory of an object when you touch something. I hope it helps people look at the world non-materialistically.