Whether your protagonist is the prophesied chosen one destined to save the world or a lowly street rat who gets taken in by the empire's local assassin's guild to be trained in the deadliest arts, or perhaps the heir to the throne of an ancient kingdom, chances are your fantasy world has some form of hand-to-hand combat.

Characters are the basis for every story. The motivation behind every plot. The force behind every system of magic. They are the viewpoint by which we experience the stories that we love. In many ways, they are the reason we love those stories in the first place. 
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For this reason, characters are arguably the single most important element of your story. A good character can make up for a half-formed world or a cliche magic system and questionable plot. But no amount of amazing world-building or fancy, flashy magic and twisting, exciting plot lines will make up for a bad or unlikeable character. 

This blog is a summary of my Character Creation World-building Workbook. The full workbook is available on Etsy (where you can also get a sneak peak of the full content). 

Even though this is only a summary (and doesn't cover everything that is in the workbook) this post will cover everything from a basic overview of their personality, emotions, family, backstory, skills, goals, fears, theme, and plot. By the end, our goal is to have a unique, engaging, and relatable character who will stand strong and drive your story through its plot.

​I recently started world-building for a new story idea (I know— bad when I'm supposed to be in the middle of revising my current project) but in trying to figure out the level of technology and feeling of my new world I got lost in google searches about the different punk genres. 

So I decided to make a master list. Mostly for me, but also because I needed a subject for my (very very late) monthly blog post. (Seriously, it’s becoming a bi-yearly blog post at the rate I’m going). 

So punk genres. 

Magic. It’s one of the defining characteristics of the fantasy genre. A writer has unlimited possibilities to choose from when building their world and the magic that shapes it. Flying. Shapeshifting. Characters wielding fire or healing with a touch. Magic potions and runic spells. Demon magic and necromancy. Witch marks and superheroes.

This is an abbreviated blog post of my booklet guide to creating a magic system. Sign up to my blog mailing list (to the right) to get a downloadable PDF of the complete booklet, which goes into a lot more detail on each step, with a ton of room dedicated to examples and ideas to get your juices flowing. Or, if you'd prefer, keep reading this post for the highlights. Either way, hopefully by the end, you have a working draft of your magic.