Creating Fantasy Systems for Your Book and Series • Reedsy

📚Overview

The best kinds of fantasy worlds are ones that feel lived in, with rich histories, cultures, and political landscapes. During this author interview, Lev Grossman will show you how to build fantasy systems that feel coherent, fresh, and emotionally grounded.

Drawing on his experience creating The Magicians and his broader work as a novelist and critic, Grossman will unpack how magic systems, worlds, and rules come together to make fantasy settings feel real. You’ll learn how to create systems that can sustain not just one book, but an entire series. The talk is aimed at writers working in fantasy, speculative fiction, and genre-blending narratives, but it’s open to writers of any genre.

Schedule

EVENT

6pm - 7pm EDT

Creating Fantasy Systems for Your Book and Series with Lev Grossman

During this Monday Masterclass, you’ll learn:

How to design magic systems that inform character psychology
When to explain the rules of your world (and when to let mystery do the work)
How to build systems that evolve across a series without collapsing under their own logic
Common pitfalls in fantasy worldbuilding and how to avoid overengineering your magic

The interview will be followed by a live Q&A where you can ask a bestselling author any question you have about creating worlds that feel alive rather than ornamental, writing a fantasy series, and getting published.

Speakers

Lev Grossman

Author

Lev Grossman is a novelist, journalist, and cultural critic best known as the author of The Magicians trilogy, which was adapted into a hit television series. He has been a longtime book critic and senior writer for Time magazine, where he covered literature, technology, and popular culture. Grossman’s fiction is widely praised for blending classic fantasy tropes with psychological realism, dark humor, and literary ambition.