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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38802
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Both is the way to go**

Your story will be influenced by the world it plays in. For example, lets say your story starts in a desert. If magic requires eating certain plants that only grow in marshes, your story will look vastly different than if you need to absorb magic from sunlight.

Your story **needs** to interplay with your world, or else readers will feel a disconnect between them. Therefore, you can't really write your story if you don't know what your world will look like. Sure, general lines aren't a problem - boy can meet girl regardless of the existence of dragons - but down to the details, it needs to fit together.

On the other hand, your world will need to provide what is required for the story to be interesting. If there is a final showdown between Mr. Hero and Mr. Villain, you might want awesome flashy explosions, and the magic/bazooka's need to make that possible.

I'd think it's best to first think of a general, one-page explanation of the world and it's magic. No details yet. Then grab a story and see how it fits in the world. Introduce magical possibilities that you think enable the awesome moments of the story. Then rewrite the story completely to make sure that there's nothing impossible early story but possible late, or the other way around

For example, Harry Potter is a great story - mostly because JK Rowling is just that good at writing a compelling story. However, there are legions of plotholes between different books - things that were possible in book 2 might not be possible in book 7. In my opinion, this is sub-optimal. On the other hand, a writer like Brandon Sanderson pays closer attention to world building, and keeps his rules like a law of nature. There's some awesome blog posts he wrote [here](https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-second-law/) and [here](https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-third-law-of-magic/). (And by the way, checking out everything Brandon writes about writing itself might be a good idea to read, IMHO.)

Original score: 3