I am outlining a new work and I'd be interested in your view on one particular dilemma. The scenario is a contemporary post apocalyptic setup. The very few survivors are gathering into groups, the better to survive. Because honestly, it's a lot easier spare someone to make beer and pear schnapps full time if there are more of you in the group, that could be a motivation for some. It would certainly do it for me, straight away. Anyway, I'm wondering how long I can hold off telling the dear reader that my principle character has 'magic'. If the setting were more 'desperate apocalyptic' or perhaps alien, or a fantasy world, I'd be less bothered, but as the setting is very recognisably early 21st century western society, I'm kind of thinking I could easily leave the reader feeling cheated if, maybe in chapter 2 or 3, Alice suddenly starts waving a (metaphorical) magic wand around, perhaps while they are in the middle of looting another supermarket, or connecting up some marine batteries to power the sound system so they can listen to early Rolling Stones music. One point perhaps, the characters are actually living it up a bit, there is plenty of food, they play monopoly with real money, they have electricity and clean water and they are in a relatively safe place. There is no immediate threat and it would actually be quite feasible to get a good way into the story before mentioning the the rest of the world all woke up dead one morning. I'd be interested in your comments, particularly if you've noticed someone else do this well, or badly, or how you would feel about it etc. Thanks for reading
What kind of magic are we talking about? Does it involve some kind of sense? I'm picturing a phrase along the lines of "As Alice walked down the street, an energy current vibrated around the burned out remains of a Chevrolet van." Maybe follow with something like "Magical hotspots had become increasingly rare each year. It was a surprise for her to find such a high concentration close to home." And just like that, you've added a limitation to your magic system. Maybe at some point she'll need to use magic, but there won't be enough energy around her.
You need to think hard on what's necessary for your story world. Real money has no value in an apocalypse, your magic will have to be present from the beginning if it's not to be seen as a convenient cop out half way through when the magical character whisks away their enemies in a flash of light. If you want to hold off on revealing the world is a mess then I'd suggest having your characters live in a state of denial made available by the magic of your MC right up until the end of the story but leave hints about the state of the world. Make it subtle. For example, you have, let's call them Jacinta, Jacinta walking down the street. She's cheery in the morning, heart as light as the sun, weaving quickly in and out of the crowds that seem to try and pull her in. She waves and calls a greeting to a man with no legs who smells positively rancid, like rotting flesh and bad eggs, and snarls viciously in return. Jacinta carries on with her day, unperturbed, that old man, you see, he's really not a morning person. All of this is very subtle if you have no idea that this character is living in a zombie apocalypse. The crowd is literally trying to pull her in and eat her but the way it's written it could just be a regular packed street and she's fighting against the flow of it. You can drive two meanings from 'man with no legs', he either has no legs, or he's crippled. If you haven't made the situation obvious people will assume it's a flowery way of saying he's crippled. He smells rancid, like rotting flesh and bad eggs, geez that old man really needs to wash up every once in a while. Jacinta is a queen for not recoiling from that immediately. She's even nice to rank old men who are nasty in return. Point is, if you can run with this the whole way through the story, many readers will be genuinely shocked that it's actually an apocalypse and not just a city with a cannibal problem and nasty old men. For this sort of story I'd suggest watching Saw 2. Obviously that sort of horror is not for everyone but this one is probably the least messed up in the entire series and has the best plot twist that is hinted at in the words of Jigsaw.
It depends on just what her magic can do, and if anyone else in the world has magical talents. One way to set it up could be to show the effects of her magic, but in such a way that it could be something else. For example, if she can see the future, maybe there's an accident or attack that she's improbably unaffected by--it looks like a strange coincidence at the time, but later on she reveals how she really did it. You could introduce things that seem like logical inconsistencies in the setting, but which make sense when the reveal happens. Wait a minute, how does she know what's happening on the other side of the city if nobody's left the compound for months--oh right, she can talk to birds, she was using them to spy. Another option could be, have other character mention magic, establishing that it exists (or is at least rumoured to exist) in this setting. Maybe someone else has a smaller talent, or maybe they're just talking about people they met (or heard wild rumours about) who can do freaky things.
Thank you for that, Magic as a cop out is one of my pet hates, probably why I'm reluctant to use it usually. I like your thoughts on the zombie apocalypse too, I'm thinking I'm going to show that there might be magic in the first couple of pages. At least with the thought 'out there' it will be easier to work in later. I've watched most of the Jigsaw series, I'll have another look Saw 2, can't offhand remember it. Thanks for you thoughts.
Thanks for your thoughts, I'm veering towards going with introducing the idea or possibility of magic very early on and then allowing 'stuff' to happen a bit later on. I've never written this kind of fantasy before and ideas and snags are coming up all over the place, I'm beginning to think it's a genre I could really enjoy writing. Thanks again.
