OK, so I’m revising my new story, and I’m discussing some story writing essentials with my friends online.
It’s good having someone to compare notes with, to discuss the finer points of the writing art.
Like…

Q: How can I have a 90lbs woman kill a 75ft-high iron monster in a satisfactory, credible way?
A: Easy. You get her an Atlantean sword of power descending from the skies, sheathed in lightning. That’s the way you do it.

And indeed, everything’s better with an Atlantean sword, only…

You see, I think magic causes problems, but can’t solve them.
There’s always a price to pay.
This is something I try to keep in mind when I’m writing my supernatural stories.
Spells don’t save you.
Because reality is not like that.

Exactly as I can’t solve my money problems by getting me a lottery ticket, so my character can’t defeat her enemies by the sudden appearance of a magic, Atlantean-made, lightning-shrouded, ultracool magical sword.

I like my characters to use their own resources.
Their intelligence, their instinct, their faith in humanity, their knowledge.
Yes, also their might and their resilience.
Even a thin scrap of their luck.
But not magic.

Now I can’t pretend I write to teach anything to anyone – I write to provide a few hours of fun to my readers, and that’s good enough for me.
And yet I can’t pretend with them that there’s any “magical” solutions out there, that you can wish upon a star or whatever, and your troubles will go away.
I live in a world where problems must be faced and solved, honestly, and with hard work.
My readers, I think, live in that same world.
And my characters, too.

Magic is a crutch, a shortcut.
It can be fun, and certainly it adds appeal and wonder to the story, can help get the plot more tangled and the menaces more dangerous.
But when everything’s said and done, I like to pitch normal humans against impossible odds, and see how they get out of it.
Sometimes this makes closing a story damn complicated, but it’s also oh, so much more satisfactory.
For me, at least.