on Writers Helping Writers:

If I started breathing fire today, it would bemagic.

Ten years from now, researchers would have dissected why it happened. Then it would be science.

When I write fantasy, or any genre incorporating magic, I live and die by this premise, because no matter the depth of study in your plot, when you use magic, it needs reason, method, and understanding to back it.

Magic is a catalyst for thousands of amazing stories, but also ten thousand more flat, unoriginal ones. The key is to make magic seem “real,” in the context of your world. One surefire way to help you do this is to make sure the concept of magic stands alone in your story.

What helps your magic stand alone? Its origin, uses, and how it changes the world.

Of course, no idea is entirely original, but borrow from others only in inspiration, never in execution. Build your magic from the ground up, and it will be as real as the pages (or screens) under your readers’ fingers.