From McCabe's Scripting Magic 2 -- Alan Moore's framework for writing: an idea, a plot, solid characters, a credible world, a hook, and unity. My revelation that my routines had effects but no ideas, actions but no plots, props but no world.
Read MoreFrom McCabe's Scripting Magic 2, borrowed from advertising: an ad can only communicate one idea effectively. If you try to communicate two ideas, you communicate zero. Each routine should have exactly one clear emotional or intellectual message. My mistake of overloading routines and the breakthrough of stripping each piece down.
Read MoreMost magic routines demonstrate an effect -- a card vanishes, a thought is read -- but have no actual plot. The distinction between effect and plot changed how I think about every routine I perform and exposed a fundamental weakness in everything I had built.
Read MoreMichael Weber's principle that 'the best story wins' reframed how I think about magic, consulting, and every interaction where influence matters. Story is not decoration on top of method -- it is the structural foundation that determines whether anyone cares about the method at all.
Read MoreMichael Weber's thought experiment -- if you could only show one trick for the rest of your life, which would it be? -- forced me to confront what I actually value in my own magic. The answer was not what I expected, and the exercise changed how I build my repertoire.
Read MoreDrama pulls the audience forward in time through suspense. Magic snaps them backward through astonishment. These forces work against each other unless you learn to harness both -- using dramatic structure to make the magical payoff feel earned rather than arbitrary.
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