Review Fix Exclusive: Brent Stypczynski Talks ‘A Worldbuilder’s Guide to Magic’

Review Fix chats with “A Worldbuilder’s Guide to Magic” author Brent Stypczynski, who discusses the book and how it was created.

About the Book:

Constructing a functional system of magic that helps readers suspend disbelief is a crucial part of worldbuilding in the fantasy genres. Yet creating a believable, compelling and original fictional universe can be daunting. To help inspire writers, this guide provides an overview of how magic has been understood in history and used in myth, legend and modern fiction. Different forms of magic are explored and a broad range of stories—from Nordic myths to modern novels—are described and referenced. Discussion explores how magic as a concept shapes, and is shaped by, fictional worlds and societies.

About the Author:

Brent A. Stypczynski is an independent scholar with specialties in medieval, YA, and fantasy literature. He teaches and tutors college writing part-time in Columbus, Ohio, and has written articles for Extrapolation and The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

Review Fix: How did this project begin?

Brent Stypczynski: The full answer is that it started many decades ago when my cousins introduced me to red box Basic D&D in the very early-1980s. But, the shorter answer is that several years ago, I put together a series of blog posts about magic in fantasy/urban fantasy (UF) settings. Those got buried for a while, before I came back to them, dusted them off, and decided that there was enough of a skeleton there to flesh out into a book length work. From there, it really began as an idea for a personal reference piece for my own worldbuilding and expanded out into something for others to use.

Review Fix: What made this a captivating subject for you?

Stypczynski: I have been involved, at least peripherally, in tabletop gaming (TTRPG) for roughly forty years now. One aspect of gaming that has always drawn me is worldbuilding. Even in elementary school, I’d draw maps and name the places/countries on them with some intent to use them while DMing. Most, of course, never came to anything. My undergraduate capstone project also involved doing and analyzing my own worldbuilding (and poor attempt at fiction writing). During grad school, my dissertation topic choices kept moving between magic and shapeshifters, before the latter was locked in by my adviser and committee. In the last maybe 10 to 15 years, I noticed that I was focusing more on, or starting world ideas with, magic systems and I was noticing the systems that authors I read (mostly UF) were constructing. So, now I’m coming back to worldbuilding through a few avenues.

Review Fix: What do you want to add to the conversation?

Stypczynski: On one hand, I think exploring the history of a concept in fiction back to some of the earliest written works in English (as well as historical practices and beliefs) and linking it to modern expressions has always been an interest of mine. I think that adds to how we approach worldbuilding and thinking about worldbuilding. On the other, I have found that many, if not most, “how to write fantasy/build fantasy worlds” guides, whether in print or online, seem to have a prescriptive tone (“You have to do X”). That may just be my take on them, but I wanted to bring a, hopefully, more inspirational tone to the conversation, more of a “here are some things others have done or thought about to play with and get the ideas flowing”.

Review Fix: What was the research process like?

Stypczynski: Thanks to my previous work with werewolves, it was fairly straightforward. There’s a lot of historical crossover in the European medieval and early modern eras between werewolf/shapeshifter and witchcraft/magic thought, lore, and trials.  It also helps that there has been a lot of work done by both academic and non-academic writers on magic, both in history and in modern fiction. The former mostly done by academics, the latter by a mix of academics and fiction authors themselves. On the fiction side, the only research was really refreshing my memory occasionally, since I was mining decades of reading in the fantasy genres from Fritz Leiber and L. Sprague de Camp to Ilona Andrews and Naomi Novik. The growth of social media and access to authors through blogs, social media sites, and other media as well as fan wikis was extremely helpful in clarifying details. 

Review Fix: What did you learn that you weren’t expecting?

Stypczynski: No much about the subject matter, aside from the fact that the Church in Rome really didn’t care much about the practices of magic throughout the medieval into the mid-Renaissance eras. Which meant many of the early Renaissance witch trials were being conducted without Church approval. Even the Inquisition was focused almost entirely on heresy until near the end of the Renaissance (and even then the most “famous” of witch hunters were by and large repudiated by bishops and often banished from diocese). What I wasn’t expecting was that I learned more about my own writing process, than about the subject in some ways. As it developed, I found myself unconsciously changing how I approached the writing and research process into a very different method that I’m now applying to another book project.

Review Fix: How did the book change during the writing process?

Stypczynski: Initially, I was thinking of it as a project simply for myself. Something I could refer to during personal worldbuilding projects to save time. Then, I started thinking about others possibly using it. That changed my writing, during the revision stages. I also wasn’t sure if I wanted it to be a guide or an historical view, or something else entirely. Eventually, I came to terms with it being a hybrid. On another level, I was reading in the genres continually while writing, so that kept the book adapting as well with new examples and new ideas flowing in.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this book?

Stypczynski: Ideally, that someone will find it inspiring for their own worldbuilding, whether for gaming or writing. But, I’ll be satisfied if someone reads and enjoys it.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this book the most?

Stypczynski: That’s a good question, and one I haven’t really thought about much. Since the book came out in October, I have had some positive feedback from some TTRPGers. So, I suppose a combination of RPGers and budding fantasy/UF writers.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Stypczynski: Currently, I’m about halfway through a first draft of what will hopefully be my third book. This one will expand on the theme of the magic book, but looking at worldbuilding and societies. So, a guide for creating fictional societies with a focus on the fantasy and urban fantasy/paranormal romance genres. I also have some rough ideas for two other books on shapeshifters and alternate histories for the far future, possibly some others.