World Building - How I Created the Wizard Hall Chronicles

It started in 2008. Well, it really started in 1975 when I decided I wanted to be an author when I grew up.

I didn't come up with the idea until I finished the Harry Potter series, after I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed multiple times.

The idea grew slowly. It grew loudly. It grew fully.

I daydreamed for two years, creating the characters and developing the world in which they live.

It started with the magic. How would it work? Do they use wands, their hands, their minds? Can they teleport? What are the rules?

The stories began to develop. I'd think of them in the quiet moments, daydreaming about the characters, their actions, their thoughts, their relationships.

Rules became clearer, and the Wizard Hall, in which my newly created Wizard Guards Department was formed. The hospital, the schools, and the types of jobs my wizards could have developed.

Even the professional broomstick racing league became a reality.

I knew I wanted the magical world to remain hidden in the non-magical world, with the threat of exposure hanging over it. I wanted a police procedural with a magical twist.

It's not an original idea. There are current stories out there about magical private investigators or police departments. Mine's not original, but it is different. It's very much entrenched in the real world. How does the magical police officer known as the Wizard Guard deal with magical crimes when they butt up against the police departments and the FBI in the non-magical world?

World-building is one of my favorite things about writing fantasy. When you open up your mind and let the ideas fall out without having to be so exact, without having to research jobs and how things are done in the non-magical world, the writing becomes an adventure I can't wait to return to.

World-building, create to your heart's content, and hope the reader likes what you created.

Enjoy!