In the spirit of the Hugo awards, if you had to nominate a story, any story ever, what would it be and why? Can you incorporate what you like about that story into your own?

In Starrise at Corrivale, Duane takes some common sci-fi tropes and subverts them. Pick your favorite trope and write it in a new and unexpected way.

Following in the footsteps of Terry Border‘s art, animate an inanimate object and have it share its secret desires and ambitions with us.

Evanovich’s problem is that her characters never learn from their mistakes. Go back to your writing and make sure that your characters actually move forward and develop in a realistic fashion–for the better OR the worse.

In the vein of Dresden, disguise something magical in the everyday. Brownies with a cleaning service? Unicorns at the zoo? Go as big as you can.

Take a deity, and for funsies, pick a relatively unknown one. What is it doing today? What kind of job does he/she have?

Characters that have lived together for a long time have set routines and expectations. Set those up for us, then shatter them with an unexpected scenario!