Yet Another Abstractions Thread

In the interest of avoiding thread necromancy, and given that BWG has been out for a while now, has anyone had a chance to play with abstractions? Any new ideas on how to make them work?

I really like the idea of using abstractions in place of pre-genned spells: it makes magic feel less canned, more variable; individuals will generate their own spells, uniquely suited to the situation (within the bounds of their own knowledge of facets), and only master mages will have distilled a true spell, which they’re likely to only share with a trusted apprentice, if that. It also makes finding a spell that much more exciting.

The current campaign my GM and I are tossing around is a world like this, where there’s no pre-set spell list, and you cast using facets and abstraction until/unless you distill a spell or gain one in play somehow. I just want to know if there’s a decent way to make this work. I don’t care if the character is somewhat weaker than a fireball-slinging BWG mage. Would an Instinct like “Always cast Carefully and Patiently” and the Driven trait be enough? Or going the cheaty Gifted Child route? I’d love to play a young mage bent on discovering new facets and learning to weave them together.

Hirram, have you see this thread? That’s how I would handle it.