How would you describe a magician and his tricks? What would his daily routine look like?
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5What exactly are you stuck on when it comes to writing him as a character? As for his daily routine, that's for you, the author, to invent. He's your character.– F1Krazy ♦Apr 1 at 11:57
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3Could you please supply us with more information? Without facts that pertain to your magician's abilities or setting (where he is, what time period, etc.), I'm afraid no one will be able to satisfactorily answer your question.– Wyvern123Apr 1 at 15:54
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Harry Potter? The Illusionist? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illusionist_(2006_film) Gandalf? Houdini? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini– Boba FitApr 2 at 15:28
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2 Answers
There are no shortcuts
when resolving your challenges creating your characters. I would assume for your story you've concluded that the character needs to be a magician -- because of the details of your story. That's great that you've worked this detail out.
I also assume you don't have a problem with describing how your character dresses when they are performing as a magician, since the web is filled with many images of magicians from Houdini to Penn & Teller.
I anticipate that your challenge is describing the internal mind of a magician. How does a magician think about the world? How does a magician feel when performing a trick? If this is what you are asking, then you could just make it all up. Or you could read the autobiographies and biographies of famous magicians. They are often very interesting. You can also read the books on legerdemain. There are a lot of them about. You can find them online for purchase and in libraries. I've read quite a few of them and I think they reveal the mind of a magician - how they think about tricks, the effective mindset for performing a trick and so on.
That leads to how do you describe a trick? Do you reveal what is really happening and give away the trick -- in betrayal of the magician's code? Or do you show the tricks from the how the audience experiences it? This is challenging. Showing tricks performed works really well in visual media, but I don't think it translates well to the page. In many ways, it's like writing a fighting scene. A fight is the very definition of conflict and good writing showcases conflict. But a narrative of who punched who and when gets really boring. The sense of gain and loss, of pain and triumph, the emotions of a fight make for really engaging writing. So, I suspect that describing a trick needs to embrace the wonderment produced by the performance. There are a few stories about magicians that might be useful like Eisenheim the Illusionist or the Fifth Business.
Research. Lots and lots of research.
Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms is a useful guide for how he might set up his act in general, but much depends on the details of his life. Does he do children's birthday parts? Acts in a circus? Stage shows? It would turn on so many details that we could not predict.
