Many folk without any visible means of support have asked how do you Tom write a 100 word story
Anthropomorphizing is good. What better way to get your hero on his hero quest then a talking rock. Or sing sword, magic mirror. Even low level attributes work well. The River rises up or lowers down as needed. A hyper living world is the writes friend gets you out the damnest plot dead ends. It softens up the skeptical monkey mind so you can lay in some major improbable plot lines. Take Lord of the Rings if it hadn’t been for talking eagles you would have had one downer of a story. Come follow the white rabbit down the hole.