This is a little idea I had a few years ago. I come back to it now and then, tell myself it's a cool idea and I need to do something with it, and then forget about it for another year or so. Basically, there are rings that let you see the words describing everything around you. "Wall" "door" "bed" "car" etc. By focusing harder, you can expand those words to be more specific. "Blue car. 2008 Kia. Windshield. Bumper. Dent. Key scratch." But the real power is that you can add and subtract letters from those words, and change them to different things. Example: I use the ring on my toaster, take away T, E, and R, rearrange what's left, and it turns into a pile of oats. I now have a T, E, and R in my possession. I go to my car and add the T to the end, and it turns into a horse drawn cart (without the horse). Fights between Wordsmiths would revolve around who can transform things most effectively to defend themselves and attack their opponent. I just felt like sharing that. What do you guys think?
Could work nicely as a satire. It reminds me a lot of the Xanth stories by Piers Anthony, filled with word puns.
Yeah, it's a good idea but it probably doesn't have the legs for a full length novel. One of those gags that probably won't hold up to much scrutiny, but would work great in a short story. There's the old line (from Roger Ebert, I think) about how a plot hole is only a plot hole if you notice it while sitting in the theater while the movie is still playing. But if hours later you kind of look up and say, "Hey, wait, that didn't make sense it all!" it's all good because it didn't lessen the immediate experience. Not saying the idea doesn't inherently make sense or anything, but the logic behind the magic could fall apart fairly easily if the reader is forced to think about it for 90K words.
Piers Anthony has used it quite successfully in I don't even know haw many books now—30 or 40 or some ridiculous number. people love it! Of course, IIRC the stories also have good characters and decent structure. Without that it would just be short material.