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Q&A Is it bad not to explain things?

My only objection to It Just Happens is when you overload the suspension of disbelief. You can draw on the power of the ancients for magic? great. You can draw on said power for flight, telekine...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:42Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26551
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:04:25Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26551
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:04:25Z (almost 5 years ago)
My only objection to It Just Happens is when you overload the suspension of disbelief.

You can draw on the power of the ancients for magic? great.

You can draw on said power for flight, telekinesis, telepathy, physical transmogrification, healing, fighting, blasting fireballs, warding off someone else's fireballs, wayfinding, animal telepathy, and mixing the perfect Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster... all at once? by the same person? without paying a price? Now I'm going to need an explanation.

So as long as you don't strain your minimalist explanation with maximalist results, you should be okay. Each person can do one thing at a time, or maybe each person can only tap one kind of magic: sure. That's reasonable. You don't need to go into details about how you contact the gods or which gods bestow which power etc. It's when It Just Happens becomes Dei Ex Machinae Happens that you need to prop up the Dei with worldbuilding.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-06T17:55:21Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 9