Alright, so I have this idea for a completely original story. It has the potential to turn into a full blown epic novel, and people, places, and events are already coming to life in my head.
The problem is that I have no idea how to begin. So I'm going to write about it here and see if it helps me organize my thoughts.
The setting is a made-up place that I haven't named yet. On this planet there are two wildly different societies. One is almost exclusively made up of magic users (not called "magic" in the story; I need to create a name for it), and the other has no magic, but has excelled in technology, and has cities that would be futuristic even by our standards.
Technology and "magic" cannot exist side by side. Anything that creates an electromagnetic field disrupts the flow of "magic", and vice versa, to where fields of equal strength end up canceling each other out.
A thousand years ago, there was only one society, where the magic users dominated over those who weren't born with the gift. Then, the giftless discovered electromagnetism, and suddenly they had hope for the future.
Over time, cities developed that harnessed the power of technology to mimic the "magic" that they had been denied access to. However, as more and more giftless moved away from the magic-powered societies, those societies became less and less diluted, to the point where it is now very rare for someone to be born with no magical ability within those societies.
Now, we follow the journey of one young man from a magic society who was born without the gift. His family wants him to stay with them so they can take care of him, but ultimately he decides to make the journey to the nearest giftless city, whose landscape he's always been able to see on the horizon from his village.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the continent, a young woman is being pursued by governments from both societies. Somehow, she is able to use her magic powers even in the presence of electromagnetism without any disruption. As the only known person in history who has been able to do that, she is wanted by everyone. But maybe she doesn't know that that's why she's being pursued.
There will also be diplomatic intrigue between the leaders of these two societies, leading up to a potential war.
That actually did help, typing it out like this.
