My Messy Magic Experiment Notebook
Alright, so I wanted to get a real handle on this "contemporary fantasy" magic thing everyone's talking about. You know, magic but with smartphones and traffic jams? Figured the best way was to do it myself, see what actually clicks for modern stories. Started simple: grabbed a bunch of recent books off my shelf – Sanderson, Maas, that Shadowhunters stuff my niece loves, even skimmed some urban fantasy ebooks I got on sale.
First thing I noticed? It's never just pointy hats and latin gibberish anymore. Seriously felt like every writer was bending over backwards to explain why the magic works. Like it had to fit into the real world somehow. So I tried to make my own system. Big mistake number one: Sitting down with a giant notebook thinking "I'll design the perfect magic rules!" Spent hours trying to map out energy sources and limitations. Got a headache. Pages looked like a mad scientist's shopping list crossed with bad math homework.
Felt stuck. So I tried something different. Went for a walk downtown, honestly. Sat in a crowded coffee shop with my rubbish notebook. Started really looking around. Saw people glued to phones, the barista tapping that complex espresso machine, traffic lights blinking, construction noise… and it hit me. Maybe the magic should feel like that. Not ancient and dusty, but more like… tech or city rules? Instead of grand elemental forces, what if magic was:
- Leaking wires: Like faulty electricity buzzing under the sidewalk, unpredictable.
- App glitches: Spells that mostly work, but crash your phone if you push them too hard.
- Graffiti symbols: Tags that actually do something if you know how to draw them right.
- Shared WiFi passwords: Knowledge passed in whispers, hidden in plain sight online.
Felt way more interesting! Started scribbling ideas about symbols being scrawled on subway ads, or a spell requiring the exact frequency hum of a subway train passing. Got weird looks from the guy next to me. Didn't care.
But then came the big headache: The Cost. Everyone's magic has a price tag now. Found myself arguing… with myself. "If this magic uses city energy," I thought, "who pays the bill? Does it blow transformers? Drain batteries nearby?" Tried writing a scene where a character casts a minor finding spell. Easy part. Hard part: figuring out the backlash. At first, it felt too cheap – "Oh no, they get a little tired." Yawn. Made it harsher – "Boom, phone explodes!". Too dramatic, felt silly. Settled (for now) on it leeching power. Lights flicker down the block, maybe a neighbor's security cam glitches out. Annoying, noticeable, vaguely techy. Still needs work.
The biggest fight was trying to explain TOO much. Draft one sounded like a technical manual. "Per city ordinance 7B, subsection magic drain…" Snore city. Realized nobody wants that. Stripped it way back. Found one rule I liked: Magic amplifies sound. Simple. Cast something loud? It gets LOUDER. Suddenly consequences are obvious and messy in a city. Helps with sneaking around too – silence becomes super important. Way better than my twelve-page energy thesis.
And the jargon! Holy heck. Read something using "thaumaturgical matrix convergence" and nearly threw the book. Decided my characters wouldn't know fancy words either. They call it "City Juice" or "The Buzz" or "Wiring." Fits better. A street kid isn't gonna say "I sense arcane energies." They'll say "The streetlights are humming weird again."
End result? Still feels messy. Definitely not perfect. But I finally wrote a halfway decent scene where a character uses this noisy magic trick in a library. Let's just say it ended badly. Shattered a "Quiet Please" sign. Accidentally funny, felt grounded. More importantly, it felt like it could happen right now, outside my window. Still figuring out the cost thing, though. Maybe next experiment involves my wifi router… probably shouldn't. Landlord wouldn't be happy.
