How do I convert user input into a list?

Use the built-in list() function:

magicInput = input('Type here: ')
magicList = list(magicInput)
print(magicList)

Output

['p', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n', ' ', 'r', 'o', 'c', 'k', 's']

gtlamber is right. But you don't need actualy to do anyting as the string has most of the list interface (means that you can treat string as a list). You can do for instance:

print(magicInput[1])
print(magicInput[2:4])

Output:

'y'
'th'