How do you create a magic system??
Hello, I'm aware that might come off as odd for a fantasy writer but I am sort of stuck in a daedalus labyrinth here.
I have been working on a specific project for about three years, it's more like a hobby than anything else, hence why I allow myself to take so long but I worked on everything except the magic system for now and since what I'm going for falls more into the cosy fantasy/found family type of story I've decided to not make magic a very prominent stake of the story.
I developed the characters and their arcs more then anything else, which lead me to decide I'd make a magic system based off of emotions and physical state in general, except I feel like my approach might be too vague so I would love to hear advices on what to improve or cut off.
Like I said, my main idea was to first closely tie magic to one's emotions in the sence that the "quality" of it would vary depending on how the person feels while performing it. For instance if the wielder is feeling rather calm its magic will "obey" them and do just what it is being used for, like if they're summoning an object like a pair of shoes as they get ready or something, it's mostly ised for day to day activites. Then there is the middle ground where they're either calm but with greater intent or simply feel happy or even slightly frustrated, then the magic will sort of work alongside them and be a bit fiercer. You can say the magic takes some kind of initiative while still remaining in the restrictions of the person. However, if the emotions of the wielder are too submerging it starts to take over them and slowly acts on its own to the point where it continuously builds up to an overload waiting to crack open. For example my MC has an outburst in her office after having to handle a crisis amongst her class (she's a teacher and was holding her first "duel practice" and the kids decided to to make two teams and jinx eachother, and my MC is triggered by loud noises). Thus bringing me to limitations, the first possibility is the direct outburst like this one or the person can also overuse their magic. For example using it on ends while ignoring that they're not in the right mindset for it, thus gradually draining the magical energy and the person itself as they're forcing on their physical strength in order to perform. In both cases, it ends in what I like to call a "flatline" where the person is temporarily stripped of their magic, it kind of blocks itself to prevent any further damage. The person has to meditate to re-enable it while still ensuring to stabalise their emotions to prevent anything going south and can also take a restauring potion in order to bring back the magic to a stable level faster if that makes sense. They can also very much continuously do grounding exercices to make sure they avoid the worst case scenarios.
My friend also told me I could have the characters use objects to store their emotions in vials/objects as a means to keep them from interfering and harming them, thus avoiding the outbursts. The thing is I assume those emotions would need a purpose later on instead of trhowing them away and I don't really know what, if not been used for potion making...
I also wanted to use elements but I don't feel it fits in my system anymore.