About what you said: If, however, your protagonist comes from one of the few races with intrinsic and/or powerful magic, or is the only one in his/her family to have magic, then it makes him or her special, and would understandably be key to his or her success.

Well, that is true, but I still really don't like a story where the hero wins because of their magic, even if it does make him/her special. If it makes him/her special, it is probably something they are born with. Now, what's the use of that? It's much better if they win because they conquered their fear of... spiders. Or because they were patient. Something. But if he/she wins because of an inborn talent, then it's not as much fun.

That said, isn't courage, or patience, or whatever something you're born with too? This argument goes around and around, so I guess it's something you have to let go, and not think about it. Still, I'd rather the hero win because of their patience, thoughtfulness, friendliness... anyways just thought I'd say that, it's a rant that's been waiting a long time to get out. I guess that's all.

I've read your column since the beginning (I think), and I like it very much. I looked forward to this issue, since the last two short stories I wrote... well, I can't tell what genre they want to be. They might be magical realism, or maybe just strange fiction, but reading your thoughts on magical realism versus fantasy has helped a little.

Oh, and I would read this offsite. Even if you blogged it, like through LiveJournal, I'd read it. (That, like posting the last few issues as stories, would also make it easier for readers to comment.)

Hi, I've never read your column before but after reading this I felt I needed to review. Excellent work, you're quite good at getting your point across. On another note, on the topic of this column, I have found this site: http://w.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm,has a series of questions for writers creating a magical world and is quite useful. Again, keep up the great work.

i was wondering if i might post your poem in my livejournal for my friends to see.

ill credit you and link to your fictionpress profile of course.

-Becca

This was a very interesting column. Though i rarely, if ever use magic in my stories, i will keep this in mind if I do. Thank you for writing this column because i truly do enjoy your insights.

You know, I have to say that this is the first time I've read your column, and I'm thinking that it's not going to be the last. Finding it now seems to be due to some kind of cosmic guidance, though, as I am just starting work on a story which seems to want to involve magic, and you have some good advice! =) I may just sit down and map out on paper just how I want magic to work in the little world inside my head, instead of just sort of making it up as I go, which is what I've been doing until now. ...It's interesting to me that you mention Bewitched, actually, because I was wondering something along those same lines when I saw it. I was wondering what a world in which *everyone* could do things like that would be like. Good things to think about... And I like the idea of, "Break a spell in the middle, and it snaps your fingers like a rubberband."

It's also interesting to me that you included Kafka's "The Trail" with the magic realism stuff... I'd never thought of it like that, and it puts a new perspective on it to try to. But I guess that's why magic realism is, as you said, a controversial label.

(I was also happy to see that Oscar Wilde quote in your profile. I actually have it in my fanfiction.net profile. =) It's such a pretty sentiment! Er, well. Not "pretty" exactly, I suppose, but something along that line.)

A very familiar topic you presented here. I love to see it pop up every now and then, just because the reaction from authors is both amusing and gratifying. A few years ago magic realism was a "say what?" issue to me, but I've gotten better. Hurrah for grueling practice. Putting together a functional world with realistic restrictions for magic is difficult and time consuming, but it's so worth it in the end. Very beneficial indeed.

This article brought to me a musing of sorts, as I was thinking that perhaps magic could be all powerful in a rare circumstance and still be realistic. Of course, that would mean that every single individual in the story (including the antagonists) would have this godlike magic. Then of course, logically they would have to be the only ones existing on the planet in that story, because any normal human would eventually be caught in a crossfire between the good and bad side. And then still, the world would have a hard time keeping its appearance, as the opposite sides would be shoving their magic against one another to compare the strength, resulting in obvious and inevitable damage to the earth around them.

Heh, a bit of a ridiculous concept, but it may work if done properly. I guess we could all stick to the easier stuff, though, and stick with magic realism. You never realise how much of a friend it is to you until you start pondering about what I did. Well, excellent article. It really got my thoughts going, although after this you probably don't doubt that.

I don't really have any constructive comments to give, but I enjoyed your column immensely, and found it very useful. =)

I've never really responded to any columns before, but I liked your discussion of magical realism, and felt like I should comment.

Actually, I was wondering what you felt of stories like Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. It might actually be more of science fiction, but what I remember especially about the story was that while many of the events seemed rather fantastic, most of them were probably possible. What do you think of "magic" that isn't magical in and of itself, but that takes on a fantastic scope within the context of a story? Would you consider that magical realism?

As You Like It is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays...loved the quote at the end. The poem on evolution was SO TRUE. Really funny too...

I would submit something for the insomniacs central option 1 thing, but i leave for Scotland in 4 days, and i don't think i would really be able to finish anything in that amount of time...at least not anything that made sense to anyone other than myself.

I wish that you had you had included more specific magic systems from different sources, and maybe discussed your opinun, to give the reader some ideas. I have actually though a bit on this subject myself though in a different way then you it seems. I have tried my best to qualify magic from different sources. I have grown attached to the idea of power vs form. What gives the magic its power (the source of the magical power) and what gives the result a form (what makes a spell produce a ball of fire as opposed to anything else). The other question is which of these things is more important in your work. For example, in "The Kingless land" by Ed Greenwood the source of the magic is the focus. The wizards use magically imbued objects as a source of a huge variety of spells that they don't seem to do anything else to preform. However in The Dragon Lance series by Margaret Weis the form is the focus. The wizards must preform specific acts to produce effects without any specific magical source. I would like to list some of the magic systems that I know of, it is my hope that you might discuss them mor ein depth in your next chapter because as you said, magic is the heart of fantasy. The first form is the idea of true names. That there was same ancient language and all magic stems from it. Idon't like this idea because it suggests that ancient people went around accidently casting spells.The second is the idea of incantations. the idea is that (like in Dungeons and Dragons) that a specific hand motion and word of power will cause a specific thing to happen. My only problem with this is how the people know the spells, and how do they learn more? Do they wave there arms around and make sound until somthing happens?The third is an idea of magical source. That there is magic everywhere but not everyone can tap into it. This is somthing like Star Wars. Everyone is touched by the force but not everyone can controll it. I like this idea because it gives magic more of an acidemic quality. I can envision people in schools learning to use it. It also gives a better explanation for how people learned about it (they did something by accident and then practiced) and idea of where magic came from originaly.The fourth is that the power comes from a God. For example a God of water allows its followers some degree of control over water. This is a bit odd simply because it gives magic a mind of its own. Thats all for now, I feel that I am rambleing and may have board you by now. However to answer your challenge: The type of magic I have allways enjoyed was from the Xanth series by Pierce Anthony. In that world every person (and animal and even some inanimate objects) have some specific power. For example the main character can walk on water, thats all they can do, whuile there neighbor can walk through trees (and perhaps only trees). This may be rather limiting but it does give a sence of finality. The person has only thier own abilities which they must learn to use effectivly. There is also the knowledge that the author won't save the character with some strange, freak, magical occurence that they added just for that (for example the Harry Potter books).