SANJIESAN LORE / Rules and consequences
Separate a fictional power’s limit from its price
An ability that cannot move stone is different from an ability that moves stone at a painful cost. Sanderson’s discussion of magic separates limitations from costs and weaknesses; these are his writing principles, not compulsory rules. The distinction is useful when a draft keeps changing what a character can do.
Give the inability a plain sentence
For an original workshop setting, imagine a craft that joins broken wooden objects but does not create missing material. Write that sentence without a qualifier such as normally, unless an exception is already part of the project. A missing chair leg and a cracked chair leg are now different problems. Make a small drawing of both. If the same demonstration solves both, either your visual explanation or the stated limit needs revision.
Let the price affect a possible choice
Now give the joining process a fictional expense: the worker must spend an uninterrupted hour holding the pieces together. This does not make the repair impossible; it competes with the worker’s other obligations. Write a short scene in which someone offers a shortcut that would abandon another task. Avoid substituting an unexplained headache for every consequence. A useful price changes a decision readers can recognise, even when its mechanism remains fantastical.
Remove the convenient exception once
Read the scene without the special exception you were tempted to add. Can a character bring the missing material, negotiate more time or choose a different repair? These responses preserve agency without expanding the power at the moment of need. If the exception is essential, establish its conditions elsewhere and reconsider earlier scenes that it would change. The goal is a clearer problem, not the largest possible list of restrictions.