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Greetings fellow writers, I am in need of assistance.
I have this fantasy story, and I thought I had most of the magic system worked out. But, I ran into some problems.
How closely does a magic system have to fit in with the reality of how the human body works? Do I need to obey all medical laws, or can I change some?
How we chose to fight is just as important as what we fight for
@of_rainy_days, do you have any thoughts?
Fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi author. Mythology nerd. ENFP. Singer.
@kayla-skywriter I think if you acknowledge that it isn’t the way it works in our world it will be fine. Like it the magic related to the four humors or whatever they were, and a character explained, “Yes, I am interacting with bile right now and it will have this effect.” and then it has that effect the reader would think, “Huh. That’s not the way it works here but it worked for them so I guess that is how it works there.”
But on the other hand, if you tried to sneak it in there I think it would throw people off. Like a “Her blood has turned blue because it has no oxygen!” that is never explained or brought up again would have people thinking you just didn’t know how that worked.
It also depends on how off it is. The more off it is, the more people will think you are doing it on purpose and it is a worldbuilding thing. But something that is only a little bit off and never acknowledged as being off will make people confused.
The cake is a lie. acaylor.com
Okay, I get it. But what about the brain?
How we chose to fight is just as important as what we fight for
@kayla-skywriter I don’t think I understand the question. The brain is another body part. If you establish clearly how it is different than in our world then the readers will accept it. You could say, “Yeah, disembodied heads can still talk and be alive in this world even though there is no blood pumping through them and not lungs for breathing and digestive parts doing digestive things.” the readers would be like “Ok cool. That’s a thing in this world. I can suspend my disbelief about the fact that this is impossible. Talking heads!”
Of course, you want to change it in a way so that it still follows other rules of the story world and is consistent within that, but you could say almost anything as long as it doesn’t directly violate other stated rules.
What exactly are you thinking of changing? Maybe I could be more help if I knew more specifics.
The cake is a lie. acaylor.com
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