: Re: Gratuitous use of magic: poor writing and/or unenjoyable? Many of my characters, main, side, and recurring all have a suite of magic abilities. So will them constantly using magic be annoying?

@Annie587

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IMHO, characters who have magic powers are tricky, because:

(a) If the character can solve all his problems by just waving his magic wand, the story is boring. Problem comes, the hero waves his magic wand, problem solved, end of story.

(b) If the character doesn't solve his problems with his magic powers for no apparent reason, as a reader I just wonder why not. Like I know Tolkien was wildly popular but I found his stories boring and frustrating. Why couldn't Gandalf just use his magic to destroy the rings? Or magically teleport them all to the place where they could destroy the ring rather than having to make a long and tedious trip? All the problems the characters faced in the stories: why couldn't they just fix them with magic?

Sure, you could say, Well, magic doesn't mean the character can do ANYTHING. He's not all-powerful. Well fine then, you have to describe to me just what he can and can't do. Otherwise it sounds like you're just making it all up as you go along, letting his magic powers get him out of situations when that's convenient for the story and not being of help when it isn't. Frankly, I think a lot of authors of such stories DO just make it up as they go along.

Which leads to (c) You say how amazingly powerful this person is, and then you have to start coming up with limitations of his power. Often this seems very contrived. Like I always found Superman stories rather contorted: first they tell us how he's super strong and can fly and all these amazing powers that make him invincible. But then no enemy is any threat. So they have to come up with "kryptonite" to give him a weakness.

Not to say that it's not possible to write stories about people with magic powers that are interesting, just that there are pitfalls.

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