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the lack of structure can also be your downfall. Don't overdo it. If too much of the story, and the world, is based in magic, it could become unintelligible, or worse, boring. Magic is fundamentally supernatural, fundamentally beyond scientific understanding, and thus fundamentally beyond evidence. When it comes to magic, your reader has to believe whatever he's told about it, because the inner workings just can't be explained. That means it's harder for the reader to get deeply involved. In the end, too much magic can destroy the suspension of disbelief - it'll look lazy if everything conveniently "just happens magically," and the Man Behind the Curtain (that's you, the storyteller and orchestrator) will be revealed. And that's bad.

6) CAREFUL WITH CLICHES

The daring knight as the hero, the three witches as the villains, the star crossed lovers: these are just a few cliches in the fantasy genre. Mean dragons, cute faeries, mischievous sprites, beautiful goddesses, and white-bearded wizards are a few more. When should you use them, and when should you try something new?

You should definitely do both, with caution. Expand on the popular themes, shocking the reader out of his expectations. The bearded wizard might have dementia, for example. Movies like Disney's The Sword in the Stone (Merlin bumbles comically) and The Neverending Story (Falcor the luck dragon is a good guy) show examples of this; the Harry Potter series was likely so successful due to Rowling's re-contextualization of so many classic ideas.

7) WHEN TO EMULATE?

Hopefully, if you want to write fantasy, you've read a lot of fantasy, and are already familiar with the basics. Make sure you read many different authors. Focusing on only one can lead to a desire to emulate a world so closely that you get into fan fiction - an enjoyable way to practice, but practice is all it is.

If you still want to emulate while writing your own story, be careful. You don't want to rip anyone off. At the same time, emulating things that stand out to you can be a great road to take, as what draws your attention in another person's work is a reflection of what you would like to write yourself. Learn from what you love, use themes you've seen before, but make sure you still make it your own.

8) KEEP YOUR STORY STRAIGHT

Creating a fantasy world is a huge endeavor: you should know everything from land features and travel times to political systems and cultural symbolism. While you don't have to, Tolkien made up more than one functioning

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