Once you have a concept for how your magic works and a naming convention, it’s time for you to actually create the spells themselves. This involves answering the following three questions:

• What does the spell do?
• How does the spell look, sound, and feel (other senses are good if you can figure them out)?
• What did the caster have to do to make that happen?

Depending on the world you are trying to create, spells could theoretically do anything. A specific spell should do a specific thing. For this question, I usually start off with something generic, like it immobilizes someone, deals damage, creates a wall of some sort, allows the caster to control someone, whatever you can imagine. Embedded in this question are who, what, and where. Who was affected by the spell? Was it the caster, someone or something else, or perhaps an area? What happened to them? Where did it happen? Was it right in front of the caster, a specific body part, or halfway across the world? This is the spell’s effect.

Now that you know what the spell does, you need some way to describe it. You know that the spell deals damage in circular area seventy feet away, but what happened in that area? Was it a column of fire, toxic gas, or the suppression of life force via demonic forces? Walls are made of something, what will it be for your spell? If your spell allows you to know something for ten minutes, do you have a glow around your head, your eyes turn a strange color, or something else? What does a summon sound like when it comes out? What does its voice sound like? Does your fireball actually burn people, or does it feel more like a concussion? If your damage spell was demonic in nature, is there the smell of brimstone in the area afterward? Does the poisonous gas have an acrid taste? Embedded in this question is the question how. How did the caster know you were lying? Was it the pricking of his thumbs, or did he literally hear the ring of truth? Think of this like a special effect in a movie.

Finally, you need to determine what the caster did do make that spell do what it did. This goes back to the concept for the magic itself. For example, one caster may do something like this:

Pretty much all he had to do was have a wand and wave it in a particular way. He may have had to say something (typical in the world), but while the spell was active, he just had to direct it.

Compare that to a similar spell in Skyrim:

And this “spell” from real life:

Each has a different feel, even though the effect and the special effect are the same in each case.

Embedded in this question are the why, how, and when of your spell. Does the spell work because of the flammable liquid, the mana used in the spell (the blue bar), or because you know how to manipulate your wand effectively? Can you cast this spell anytime? Only during the holy days of your god? As an example, Katara can only use this power of control during a full moon:

Next week, I’m going discuss the relationship between spells in your magic system. See you then!