There's a lot of different types of fantasy out there. So many, that it's no surprise a lot of writers get their chosen niche wrong. If you're reading this, it means you wanted to do things right, right? You don't want to make the same mistakes everyone else is doing. Here's 5 big subgenres that everyone seems to be writing wrong, one way or another. I'll go over the mistake and I'll even tell you how to avoid it.

5. Urban Fantasy

You already have the image in your head: a girl with a "too cool for school" attitude with a fancy gun and sword, going around a concrete jungle, killing demons or vampires or whatever Hell can throw her way. She's a witch, a detective, or a halfbreed of something. Sounds very simple, right? But then, we get these incredibly long books and series that seem to go nowhere. Why so much fluff?

Urban Fantasy is simply fantasy set in a more urban, or modern, setting. Everything should be the same as a classic medieval fantasy, only instead of knights and dragons, it's police and druglords.

The problem with Urban Fantasy is that most writers, who are women, portray them as romance novels. Not like, they are supposed to be all about romance, but they are written like a romance novel. Of course, we have things like The Dresden Files as an outsider and a new inspiration, but it doesn't get rid of the mass amount of people still doing it wrong by trying to take a setting, rather than an idea.

How you can do it right

Understand what urban fantasy means to you, not to the masses. Do you see it like fantasy only in an urban setting? Is it more like noir or a greek epic? Could you include something new, like a bank heist or some kind of thriller aspect? I think this is what a lot of urban fantasy gets wrong, is that it doesn't take a modern tone for its plot or world building. I rarely see a spy thriller urban fantasy or a "we have to save the world from magical nukes" kind of story, and its a shame. There's all these ideas that could be made, yet people want romance mixed with vampire hunting.

It's not at all about thinking outside the box. It's rather taking another kind of fantasy and giving it an urban spin, which most people surprisingly don't do, and it's a shame.

4. Sword and Sorcery

This is actually one of my favorite genres ever, yet it's the one I have to be the most embarrassed about, due to the fact that it has a terrible rep for being bland, basic, unnecessarily convoluted, and usually being all about showing skin over actually having a plot.

But what's amazing about this genre is that it portrays down to Earth characters in a magical land. People don't have "get out of death free" spells like in other genres. There's tension and doubt and a big journey that's bigger than the character should endure.

The problem is that there is no tension or thrill most of the time. This problem started because of the movies like Conan the Barbarian and Lord of the Rings showing our heroes more like super heroes, rather than humans. I understand they are not humans, they are a fantasy version of a human, but this doesn't mean we cannot get some actual tension rather than artificial tension.

How you can do it right

Think of action movies as inspiration. You have the macho tough guy shooting up everyone like in Commando, right? Well, no more Commando, unless you're doing a parody. Instead, think more like Die Hard, where you have a John McClain struggling to even walk on his way to the end goal. I'd rather see a story where the hero dies or nearly dies than see someone win without a scratch on them.

3. Medieval Fantasy

Or otherwise known as classic fantasy, it's where we get our classic setting, medieval Europe. There's a lot of stories in this genre, so it's a pretty big target to go after. What I don't like about it is how everything involves royalty or assassins. There was so much more to the medieval days, that most stories that talk about it aren't even really talking about the medieval days. Instead, they are writing about the fairy tales about medieval days.

It's fine if you want to portray a war related to the War of the Roses or 100 Year war, but we also have to understand the culture and life styles in those days. There were big BIG religious struggles, there were genocides, there were merchants with huge mercenary armies. It was a time similar to ours, only without the tech we have now, as well as more freedom to do things.

How you can do it right

Actually look up what the medieval ages were all about. You can start by going here. If you also look up about things other than kings and queens, you can see that most villages and towns lived under what is known as feudalism and we had other cultures under the same style of living. Why not combine all the European and Chinese and Japanese styles?

You also don't have to bog yourself down in historical accuracy, since your fantasy world doesn't have to relate to our world. You can have Aztec temples and dinosaurs if you want. Nobody will stop you. All you have to do is understand what the big conflict and mindset was during such a time, a time of discovery, religious unrest, and vulnerability.

2. Gothic fantasy

We all know this one, and we all love this one, even if we don't realize it. Gothic fantasy is the type of fantasy that is both horror and fantasy combined; full of classic monsters like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. But with so well established creatures, it's difficult to actually get anything new from a new writer. We've seen it all, we know what they want to offer. Gone is the surprise of a vampire villain. The fear is replaced with "how will they change it?" and if we don't see a change, then there's nothing really being offered other than flavor and cool clothes.

Gothic fantasy has the problem of being too similar to one another to the point of being forgetful or unwanted. If you've watched any of the classic Universal horror films, or any Hammer Film, you know the plot to any Gothic tale. And it's a shame, since I love Gothic stories, but I cannot put it as my favorite since it's so diluted with repetition.

How you can do it right

I'm sorry to say this, but you're actually going to have to read the inspiration sources. This means reading boring books like Dracula and slightly hard to read stories from Edgar Allan Poe. After you do, you'll realize that people are taking the setting and mood, but not the plots and ideas. Gothic fantasy is supposed to be all about symbolism and rhythm. If you haven't heard of it or don't play games, I would highly recommend looking up the video game Silent Hill 2, where all of the monsters in the game portray the fears and evil within the character himself. The setting and world should represent the evil within and the horror held in the hero's heart, and that is what makes Gothic fantasy so beautiful. Not the clothes and makeup.

1. Any of the -punk genres

Be it steampunk, dieselpunk, cyberpunk, even mythpunk, anyone who is anyone has done it wrong by falling for the biggest mistake ever. The mistake of putting their setting before the plot. almost every punk writer thinks of the atheistics first and the intention second. Or never. There's a lot of books and movies out there that have almost no real plot or reason for being made, other than showing off a cool world. It's all world building, but there's nothing to make that world go round.

How to do it right

It's so simple, a caveman could do it: make your plot first. If your plot could stand on its own, without the setting being a crutch, you have yourself a good story. The atheistics of steampunk or dieselpunk or cyberpunk should only be icing on the cake, and nobody wants a cake full of salt with frosting hiding its faults. It's like trying to sweep the problem under the rug, and nobody will trust a writer that does that. It shows insecurity, and I don't want writers to be insecure, I want them competent and understanding of their subject.

And I hope you understand your subject more after reading this.

Anything I missed or didn't point out? Feel free to let me know in the comments below. And if there's a subject you'd like for me to cover or talk about, don't hesitate to ask.