I think it would be cool to try to be original with this. For example, the talking with animals thing has been done in Harry Potter, the random firestarting when angry thing has been done a lot too, and the idea of having visions is very familiar to all who read fantasy. Why not come up with something really neat and original instead. I know that this is easier said than done. But for some examples –
– your urine sparkles when you pee
– the hairs on your arms and fingers start falling out for no reason
– your voice gains power when you speak – causing other people around you to react as though you had a +3 charisma (to put it into understandable terms)
– your dexterity increases (for you to do spells), so you accidentally smack things around you sometimes before you learn to control it
– you develop a strange abhorance for things technological, that even you can’t explain
– you develop easy familiarity with shapes and colors and smells
these are just some ideas – but do you see what I mean – you might use something that hasn’t been done as much so that you can use it in your book and the reader won’t automatically realize ‘oh, he has some innate magical ability’.
Here is an idea based on the discussion on Too and some of the random tracks my trains of thought tend to jump to:
* Some sort of learning disability/savant pair; for instance the magically inclined person may not be able to read, but can play any instrument the moment s/he picks it up. Or something similar to AD(H)D or anything along those lines — the people learn things at a different pace and act somewhat weird; antsy in a laid-back world (ADHD), or laid-back in an antsy world (ADD only recently identified and seen often in females; daydreaming as opposed to hyper).
I think it would be cool to try to be original with this. For example, the talking with animals thing has been done in Harry Potter, the random firestarting when angry thing has been done a lot too, and the idea of having visions is very familiar to all who read fantasy. Why not come up with something really neat and original instead. I know that this is easier said than done. But for some examples –
– your urine sparkles when you pee
– the hairs on your arms and fingers start falling out for no reason
– your voice gains power when you speak – causing other people around you to react as though you had a +3 charisma (to put it into understandable terms)
– your dexterity increases (for you to do spells), so you accidentally smack things around you sometimes before you learn to control it
– you develop a strange abhorance for things technological, that even you can’t explain
– you develop easy familiarity with shapes and colors and smells
these are just some ideas – but do you see what I mean – you might use something that hasn’t been done as much so that you can use it in your book and the reader won’t automatically realize ‘oh, he has some innate magical ability’.
just some thoughts!
Here is an idea based on the discussion on Too and some of the random tracks my trains of thought tend to jump to:
* Some sort of learning disability/savant pair; for instance the magically inclined person may not be able to read, but can play any instrument the moment s/he picks it up. Or something similar to AD(H)D or anything along those lines — the people learn things at a different pace and act somewhat weird; antsy in a laid-back world (ADHD), or laid-back in an antsy world (ADD only recently identified and seen often in females; daydreaming as opposed to hyper).