Are you interested in learning magic tricks? Look no further! In this easy magic guide, Patricia will teach you some fun and simple tricks that you can amaze your friends and family with. Magic has always been a fascinating art form, captivating audiences all over the world. From card tricks to disappearing acts, there are endless possibilities when it comes to magic. However, many people believe that magic is too complicated to learn, requiring years of practice and skill. Patricia is here to prove them wrong. With her step-by-step instructions and clear explanations, anyone can learn magic tricks in no time.
With her step-by-step instructions and clear explanations, anyone can learn magic tricks in no time. No prior experience or special equipment is needed - just a bit of enthusiasm and a deck of cards. One of the first tricks Patricia teaches is the "vanishing coin.
Designing magic, part 1
A couple of years back, I was on a panel about magic systems and how one handles magic in fiction. Near the end of the session, someone asked a question about “magical maturity” stories – the sort where children go through a sort of magical puberty during which they develop greater magical power or control or specific magical gifts. The discussion turned to exactly when such a magical puberty ought to occur: at some arbitrary age, like 16 or eighteen; in conjunction with some outside phenomenon, like whenever the planet of one’s birth returned to a particular part of the sky; etc.
One gentleman opined that any magical maturity ought to occur at the same time as physical puberty, “because it just makes sense, you know?” The discussion began to get heated, and finally I looked at him and said, “You do realize that we are all just making this stuff up, don’t you?”
What this particular person appeared to want was a set of rules that he could apply, in order to determine whether a particular author had or hadn’t “done the magic right” in a particular story. The trouble is, it doesn’t work that way. Mr. X was and is perfectly capable of deciding that he doesn’t like stories that have a magical maturity which occurs at an arbitrary age, and he is certainly within his rights to avoid them and even complain about there being too many of this thing he doesn’t like. But he doesn’t get to impose his views on anyone else, and particularly not on writers.
Because when it comes to writing about magic, the writer is really, really making it up, to a far greater degree than they are with any other aspect of story. Characters, plot, setting, dialog, action, etc. all start with some kind of relationship to real people and the real world. They can be realistic or cartoonish, but they’re all recognizable to some extent, even when they are deliberate caricatures. Magic is far more flexible, because it doesn’t have one obvious real-life analog.
One can, of course, opt for one of the systems of magic that human beings have believed in at one time or another in the past or present. However, magic isn’t like physics or chemistry – there aren’t things that everyone in real life agrees work, or reasons why everyone agrees they work. There are four or five or seven elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water seem to be agreed on by many of the magical systems that go this route, but some substitute Wood or Stone or Metal for one or another, or add them and/or Spirit or Ether or Blood…). There are spirits or demons or elves to bribe or force to perform tasks. There are elaborate ritual systems, some of which require rare ingredients (dragon bones, unicorn horn) or tools and careful drawing of diagrams, others of which require nothing more than extremely specific preparations by the magician himself (e.g., fasting, sex, knowledge of certain languages). There are systems that require animal familiars (cats, ravens) and systems where some, most, or all magic is a specific gift that you are born with (the Sight).
Consequently, there isn’t a right way to portray magic. It isn’t like orbital mechanics, where there are actual calculations involved that have a right answer and a wrong one (and you will get cranky letters from fans if you put the wrong one in your novel). When you are writing a fantasy, you have a plethora of possible sources, many of them mutually incompatible and/or contradictory. There is no “right answer.”
Most of the time, this means the writer comes back to the story. What kind of magic does this particular story need in order to work the way the writer wants it to? If I want to write a story about a thirty-something-year-old-woman coming into her magic for the first time, I’m highly unlikely to look at a magic system in which there’s a magical maturity that’s tied directly to physical puberty. The point of my story wouldn’t be the same if I had to make the main character twelve or fourteen in order to accommodate the “rules” of a magic system that I am making up just as much as I’m making up the rest of the story. Mary Francis Zambino’s A Plague of Sorcerers wouldn’t have been the same without Jermyn’s odd familiar. The Lord of the Rings would be a totally different story if the magic system had been one in which everyone, Hobbit, Human, Elf, Orc, or Dwarf, was born with a specific magical gift or talent.
As always, how different writers work with magic in their fiction varies along a continuum, from the highly intuitive writers to the highly rule-bound ones. The difference from other aspects of writing is, I think, that when you’re writing about magic, even the most intuitive it-just-feels-right writers need a bit of attention to rules, and even the most methodical follow-the-rules writers need a bit of feel for what makes their magic magical. Because the other main way to come up with an interesting and effective magic system is to look outside the story, at the things in the real world that the particular writer finds magical. J.R.R. Tolkien started with languages; C.S. Lewis with “Northernness.” Other writers have based magic on everything from poetry to cooking or gardening – whatever gives them that little thrill down the spine, whether it’s watching the space shuttle launch or standing on the edge of a remote cliff overlooking the ocean.
In any case, one of the most important tools a writer has for getting the readers to believe in the magic in the story (at least while they’re reading it) is consistency. If the writer decides that fire-starting magic only works on Wednesdays, he/she can’t suddenly have the hero using fire-starting magic on Saturday – not without a really good explanation, anyway. It is perfectly possible for the explanation to be “Well, that’s how they thought it worked, but they were wrong,” but in that case, one has to at least think about how likely it is that every magician in this world, for however-many years magic has been working, has believed that they can only start fires on Wednesdays…and why nobody, not even some ignorant kid who doesn’t know any better, has never, ever tried to use fire-starting magic on any other day of the week.
Consistency can be achieved in several ways: by working out the rules for magic in advance and then following them; by writing the story and then examining every scene where magic is done or talked about, deducing the rules, and then making sure all those scenes work the way they’re supposed to; or by having a really, really good feel for what works or doesn’t work in this particular story. I doubt that the author of Like Water for Chocolate had an elaborately worked out set of rules for how magic worked in that story, but the scenes work…in part, I think, because the author makes no effort whatsoever to explain them. They feel right, so they are.
Intuitive and magical-realism writers do have to be a bit careful that they aren’t mistaking “What a super-cool idea; I must write this no matter what, and to heck with the rest of the story” for “This odd little scene just feels right for this story.” I’ve seen several stories that were, for my tastes, ruined because the author simply couldn’t resist writing a cool scene that was incompatible with whatever they’d said or implied about how magic worked. I find that even more unsatisfying than a deus ex machina, because one assumes that a god would have the power and ability to interfere if they wanted, it’s just that they generally don’t bother. If you absolutely love Fourth of July fireworks and want to write a magic scene involving them, find a story where that scene will fit; don’t stick it in the middle of your semi-historical tale about the building of the Pyramids (or at the very least, don’t call them Fourth of July fireworks, and give me some explanation as to how and when gunpowder got invented early in Egypt and what effect it’s had on your less-and-less-historical society).
Rules-based writers, on the other hand, run the risk of making magic look, sound, and feel exactly like science and technology. I’ve also seen stories in which the plot seemed to revolve around gaming whatever arbitrary magic system the author had invented – “These are the rules, and look how clever my hero is being at using them in unexpected ways!” They always give me the feeling that the writer deliberately designed the magic system with a bunch of loopholes just so their hero could exploit them, rather than that the hero was terribly clever and inventive.
Next time, I’m going to talk more specifically about what I have and haven’t done in making up the magic systems in my books, and then if there’s interest in some of the specifics of doing the actual writing itself.
Next time, I’m going to talk more specifically about what I have and haven’t done in making up the magic systems in my books, and then if there’s interest in some of the specifics of doing the actual writing itself.
" She explains how to hold the coin in your hand, secretly letting it slip between your fingers. With some practice, you'll be able to make the coin disappear right in front of your audience's eyes. This simple trick never fails to impress, and it's a great way to start your magic journey. Another trick Patricia teaches is the "mind-reading card trick." She shows you how to memorize a deck of cards and then asks a member of the audience to pick a card. By using your memorization skills, you'll be able to "read minds" and correctly guess which card they chose. This trick is guaranteed to leave your friends scratching their heads in amazement. One of the best things about Patricia's guide is that she encourages you to make the tricks your own. She believes in the power of creativity and encourages her readers to add their own twists to the tricks. By doing so, you'll develop your unique style and start creating your own magic routines. So, grab a deck of cards, follow Patricia's guide, and get ready to become a magician. With a bit of practice and a sprinkle of showmanship, you'll be wowing audiences in no time. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be the star of your own magic show!.
Reviews for "Patricia's Easy Magic Guide: The Secrets Behind Famous Tricks"
1. John - 1/5 - I was disappointed with "Easy Magic Guide" by Patricia. The tricks explained in the book were anything but easy. The instructions were unclear and difficult to follow, leaving me feeling frustrated and confused. Additionally, the book lacked visual aids or illustrations, which made it even more challenging to understand the tricks. Overall, I would not recommend this guide to anyone looking for an easy way to learn magic.
2. Emily - 2/5 - As someone who is new to magic, I was looking for a beginner-friendly guide to help me get started. "Easy Magic Guide" by Patricia was not what I expected. The explanations of the tricks were convoluted and hard to comprehend. The author didn't provide enough step-by-step guidance, assuming the readers already had some basic knowledge. This made it difficult for me to learn and execute the tricks successfully. I think this guide would be better suited for someone with prior magic experience, rather than beginners like myself.
3. Michael - 2/5 - I found "Easy Magic Guide" by Patricia to be quite disappointing. While the book claims to be an easy guide, the tricks presented were far from easy. The author used complex terminology and assumed the readers had advanced knowledge of magic principles. As a beginner, I felt overwhelmed and lost while trying to grasp the instructions. Furthermore, some of the tricks required specific props that were not readily available, making it even more frustrating. Overall, this guide did not live up to its promise of simplicity and accessibility.
4. Sarah - 1/5 - I regret purchasing "Easy Magic Guide" by Patricia. The title is misleading, as the tricks in this book were far from easy. The instructions were incomprehensible, and the lack of visual aids made it even more challenging to understand the moves. The photos included were small and blurry, making it impossible to see the finer details. Overall, this guide left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. I would not recommend it to anyone seeking an easy and beginner-friendly approach to learning magic.