How to Write Magic

Magic will make or break your book. There is no in-between. How you handle magic can mean the difference between an epic and just-another-fantasy-book.

Know Your Limits
Magic must have limits. Your characters can’t snap their fingers and have everything they want appear from thin air.
The other day I was critiquing a friend’s rough draft. A battle occurs between the magical bad guys and the relatively unarmed good guys. The bad guys were hurling everything they had; sending shockwaves through people, shaking the ground, uprooting slabs of cobblestone street and flinging it through the air, ect. Then, out of the blue, one of them turns a good guy into dust.
What?
If the antagonists had that power all along, why didn’t they use it? Turning your enemy into a pile of dust sounds a tad more effective than a shockwave.
Decide where your book’s magic is limited. J. K. Rowling created several rules for her own writing, such as “magic cannot bring dead people back to life” and “whatever you conjure out of thin air won’t last”.

Counteract
“But for heaven’s sake − you’re wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out − well − anything!”
“…The trouble is, the other side can do magic too...”
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Where there is light, there is darkness. Your protag can’t be wandering around with invincible magical powers.
Either the villain has magic too, or the protag’s magic comes at a price. Or both.

Supernatural Villain
If you’ve got a magical antagonist on your hands, you’ll probably end up writing an epic final battle. The battle should never be won because of magic. It’s not about who’s got the stronger firepower, it’s about good triumphing over evil. The main character should win because of a clever plan or an oversight on the villain’s part.

Supernatural Problems
Nothing gets handed to your character with no strings attached, least of all magic. Your character should make mistakes and possibly get hurt because of it.
Take the classic example of Frodo and the ring of power. It’s not just a cool ring that can make you invisible, it’s an evil artifact that slowly poisons and manipulates you.
If your character has a power, it doesn’t have to kill them. But it should weaken them or occasionally backfire.


Believable Magic
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but your magic must be believable. If a modern day kid starts seeing fairies, he’s gonna think that he’s gone crazy. Normal people wouldn’t think, “I can see fairies! Magic is so cool!”
In Alice in Wonderland, Alice thinks the whole thing’s a dream from start to finish, which is exactly what a sane person would think.

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World-building: Creating a Caste/Hierarchy System

You may not be as important as you think. Throughout the ages, countries have had systems regarding who is more important than whom. Even in today's society, there are upper, middle, and lower classes. Creating such a system is essential when world-building.

Top

The top of the food chain is usually monopolized by the government. At the highest place is the leader of the nation, such as the pharaohs, tribal chiefs, presidents, and kings.
Depending on the level of religion in your world, priests tend to be next in line, followed by the rest of the government officials.
If you're "world" consists of one group, perhaps just a family or crew, there are few rules to building. However, the more experienced, useful people usually end up on top.

Middle

The people here are skilled in a way that profits them. These are the merchants, artisans, trades-people and whatnot.
It should be noted, that merchants tend to be above artisans. It seems if you don't have to get your hands dirty, that makes you higher up than those that do.
Of course, not all people here are skilled, such as the wealthy of Victorian England. The wealthy more likely than not had an ancestor who made a fortune that lasted for his future generations to sponge off. In other words, "old money".

Bottom

The unskilled, the homeless, those made poor by corrupt governments. The bottom isn't a pretty place to be and there are few countries that offer the chance to rise up from this level with hard work. For the majority of caste systems, where you're born is where you stay.

Outcasts
In some cases, societies have those that are considered outside the caste system. In India, people born into families who do "impure" jobs (i.e. leatherwork, latrine-cleaning, butchering) are known as the "untouchables". They have next to no rights and are shunned.
This group can include exiles, outcasts, and foreigners.

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