text: if you want to write a fantasy story with norse gods sentient robots and telepathic dinosaurs you can do just that want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while you re at it go ahead nothing s off limits but the endless possibility of the genre is a trap it s easy to get distracted by the glittering props available to you and forget what you re supposed to be doing telling a good story don t get me wrong magic is cool but a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house that s a story handled properly it s more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be