: Re: Is it important to research the topic of your novel/story before writing it? Let's say you're writing a story about magic. Does it have to be based on real facts and real magic or can you

Your question can be read in two ways: are you talking of stage magic, or of a fantasy world with actual working magic?

If you are writing about stage magic, you should very definitely do your research: existing stage tricks and how they're done, industry practices, etc. This isn't to say that you cannot make up your own tricks, or suggest something impressive being done on stage without explaining how it's actually done. But you wouldn't want to invent a convoluted explanation for a trick that's actually very simple, for example, right? And you wouldn't want to unknowingly write about practices that the industry would consider unethical as if they're the norm. Research provides you a foundation, on top of which you build your story. Research isn't meant to limit you - there's no reason why you shouldn't invent your own whatever. But research helps you avoid mistakes, as well as sending your imagination into new directions.

If, on the other hand, you are writing about a fantasy world with functioning magic, the magic system itself is your playground, as other answers point out. You can base it on some existing folklore, or you can make it up from scratch. You can give plenty of details about it, or very little - whatever better suits your story. However, there would be other aspects of the story you'd probably need to research. Are you planning a big war between Good and Evil? You'd need to find out about warfare. Would your characters be dealing with hostile terrain? You'd want to find out about survival in those conditions. Etc.

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: Writing a character who is an expert in something that I can't know I'm writing a story where the main character comes back from the dead. The character is fully lucid, knowledgeable and articulate

: Re: Is it important to research the topic of your novel/story before writing it? Let's say you're writing a story about magic. Does it have to be based on real facts and real magic or can you

More posts by @Steve161

: Breaking the Fourth Wall in Creative Non-Fiction I went to see Deadpool 2 at the weekend and it got me thinking about fourth wall awareness in my own writing, specifically in creative non-fiction

: Sensory Information Overload I'm reading The Book of Human Emotions by Tiffany Watt Smith (good stuff if you want to inform the use of emotion in your writing), and I've just come across Overwhelmed

: Should I take breaks, or focus harder? I often have trouble deciding whether (or how often) to take breaks from writing, or to "double down" and try to write, and try to eliminate anything

: Writing a character who is an expert in something that I can't know I'm writing a story where the main character comes back from the dead. The character is fully lucid, knowledgeable and articulate

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