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Kai, so it was suggested I shove my own wee guide to making your own spells up here for you wonderful people -- bear in mind, this is how I personally write spells and/or rituals. Other folk are very likely to have their own ideas and systems, and they'll probably work just as well, if not better.

1) Statement Of Intent
This is what you want to happen, the outcome you want to acheive, the thing you wish for, and so on. Think long and hard about it, then write it down on a bit of paper. For some psychologically-related reason, it seems it's better to begin it "I will" rather than "I want"; for example, "I will get a new car" rather than "I want to get a new car". As well as that, /don't/ write out your intent with negatives, for example, use "I will be healed" rather than "I will not be sick anymore". The reason for this is apparently the conscious mind has trouble not imagining things its been told not to imagine. Don't think of a glass of purple water, for example.

2) Fulfil the 5 Key Components
To me, a spell is a symbolic act that manifests a desire. As such, you have to make everything you do in your spell symbolise what it is you want to happen -- I've divvied all the possible things you could think about into five areas; Physical, mental, verbal, somatic, and symbolic. Each of these things (to me, anyway) should be represented in a spell to give it the oomph! that's needed. I've assigned each of these (rather unoriginally) to the pentagram-shape, to give you an idea of what you're going for -- bear in mind everything you do in each of these areas should be symbolically tied to your intent in some way.

[Earth] Physical
Physical is about space, area, tools, and so on. Things to think about here would be:
Placement: Is there somehere you can go to make your spell a wee bit more effective? For example, it'd be easier to summon a bunch of dryads in a natural place such as a forest.
Sound: Would it be appropriate to use music during the ritual? Maybe ambient background music would help, or Buddhist chanting?
Lighting: What kind of lighting will you use? Candlelight? Moonlight? Natural-light only, or maybe tinted lightbulbs?
Circles: Is a circle necessary or desirable? Generally speaking, you won't need a circle unless you're calling s**t up, but it's good to play it safe.
Equipment/Tools: What equipment will you need? If you're using a circle, probably the ol' Pentacle-Athame-Wand-and-Chalice shtick. What objects could work as a focus in your spell? For example, a "get a new car" spell could utilise a toy car as a focus. Maybe you could even use some sensory cues, like incense.
Clothing: Is ritual clothing needed? If not, could you colour-coordinate your clothing to tie in with the spell, for example, wearing white for a healing spell?

[Air] Mental
Mental's all about your mind - this includes astral sight and psionics.
Visualisation: Picturing your success in a spell is usually a vital ingredient; even imagining or meditating on something related to your spell will work. For example, in the "get a new car" example, you could visualise the exact kind of car you want.
Astral/Psi Sight: Will you need it? Are you going to be prancing about on the astral plane? Will you be making some sort of psi-object that you need keen psychic vision for?

[Water] Verbal
While not all spells require an incantation, they're always fun to have. Perhaps write up some sort of rhyming chant that will help you focus on the thing you're wanting.
Intonation - How do you want to sound when you say your incantation? Forceful and commanding? Meek, humble, and petitioning? Sexually alluring, husky and with a come-hither growl? How you say the words is almost as important as the words you say. Bear in mind that you may be talking to higher powers, demons, gods, or whatever, so how you present yourself could be the difference between Loki putting nails in your enemies' tires, or yours.
Incantation/Chant: Mantras are especially useful in getting your focus going; as such, chanting a simple phrase or poem will help keep your intent clear. Is there a phrase, word or poem you could continually chant?

[Fire] Somatic
Actions! Almost all spells are made up of actions of some kind. While there're no subdivisions here, that's only because there's a whole range of things you could do; from tying someone's hair around an appletree branch seven times, to burying the ashes of a bit of paper, to simply snapping your fingers.. The objects you selected in the Physical section may play a part here.

[Spirit/Quintessence] Symbolic
This is probably the most important part - whip out your favourite table of correspondances for this one. Crowley's '777' may help, but I much prefer Bill Whitcomb's 'The Magician's Companion' (Buy it now! Supercheap! 8D!). Basically, build up as many symbolic ties as you can. There're a wide range of symbols, far too many for me to subdivide this section into, but you're looking at the likes of deities, days of the week, moonphases, colour, astrological correspondance, essential oils, and so on.

3) Figure out a series of steps for the spell
If it's just a quick, on-the-fly kind of spell, everything can be done at once - holding an image in your mind, intoning a two-line incantation, concentrating on the intended target and snapping your fingers or something.

With a bigger spell, work out a set of steps to take. A good one may be: cast circle (physical), invoke gods, concentrate on image (mental), perform action (somatic) while saying incantation (verbal), banish gods, close circle. The steps for Symbolic aren't there simply because everything you're doing should be symbolic of your intent.

Et voila, ein spell. Comments, suggestions, questions and critique, plz.

Cheers, chief, it's an honour. I read a couple of your articles/theories a while back, you seem to be pretty on the ball with just about everything - here's hoping with your recent return, you'll be posting moar :3~

(sorry for the late reply here)

As per sending energy out, I don't think it really matters what shape it takes. One person I was talking to about warding suggested I make my energy "weave" in and out of the walls. Other folk have mentioned bubbles and whatnot - really, do whatever takes your fancy.

For closing a ritual, I'd recommend performing a banishing ritual (like the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram or something similar). Your after-ritual mentality can be pretty much whatever you want it to be, but I usually go for an excited "Zomg, ritual =D" for a half hour before going to do something else, like writing down what I did in my book of shadows while watching TV. If there's something that discourages you, tell it to ******** off. You've done the ritual, and if you think you could've done it better, leave it a week or two if you can, then do it again, and put as much effort as possible into it.

I'm not sure what you mean by longing versus having thing... if you elaborate a bit, I'll try to help there.

Connections to people can be hair, toenails, a photograph, a signature, a bank statement, a t-shirt they own, a bit of paper with some facts about them written on it (I use that when I'm in a clinch for stuff). Visualisation works if have no choice, but you'll probably have to put a lot of detail into the image.

Singing's a lot similar to chanting, so yeah, I'd bung it under water/Verbal -- In fact, I'd say singing is perhaps a lost magickal art. There's something about the power of song that can make any ritual really strong.

Sigils... I don't really have. I'd need to scan up the ones I've actually recorded in my BoS, and that'll have to wait.

The person doesn't need to be in the vicinity for you to cast a spell on them, provided you have a connection to them.

Hope that helps!

1) Putting yourself in the mindset that you will definitely /get/ the car helps.

2) I guess the fact that most psions have a bit of extra control over their will/thoughts/consciousness will somehow benefit any magick they may do, but on its own, I doubt having "more psi" really affects it at all.

It's an interesting take on statements on intent. I suggest you give it a whirl, see if it works, and if so, post it on the Subforum - I might give it a try myself. |D

well magick used to be called grammarye... so your word choice has to be precise and deliberate.