Making magic in the open and making it perfectly clear (8,3)

'making' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to thinking as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'magic in the open and making it perfectly clear' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'magic' could be 'spelling' (I've seen this before) and 'spelling' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'ou' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?