The Ripple Effect

As you create your world and the laws that govern how it works the world will begin to seem as though it were forming around you, each law will influence how characters will react and how events will unfold. This is what is known as the ripple effect. If you were to throw a stone into a body of water and watch as the ripples flows outward to the rest of the body of water that is the ripple effect. For every law you create, for ever action that a character makes and every decision made within your world, the entire outcome of your story will be influenced. For example, lets say that I was to create a world in which magic is extremely rare. Now i have to think of the complications that this law creates. So why is magic rare? What do others do when they see magic being used? Does the world see magic as an ability to be envied, or to be feared? Why do people think this way? If your story is to become great you need to follow each and every ripple to make your story consistent from the beginning to the end. If Magic is a rare ability in the begining it should still be rare in the ending. Once you crate a law don't break it the reader will notice and it will break part of the foundation of the story.

- Jon Begg