Writing exercise: Come up with one assumption about your fictional world and then think of three things that logically develop out of it. For example, a planet entirely covered by ocean would have difficulty restricting travel between one point and another in a way that a land-locked planet might not. Perhaps its cities float; perhaps some are suspended in giant bubbles beneath the surface while the lower classes live above on great raft cities, subject to storm and danger. Write a 250-500 word scene that shows the three things in action.

Writing exercise: Once you’ve figured out the backdrop government, think about how it might manifest in a character’s daily life? What laws might they fall afoul of, what licenses might they need to get? Write a 250-500 word scene where your character encounters a bureaucrat bent on enforcing a law that highly inconveniences the character.

Writing exercise: Sketch out a room with 4-5 breakable things in it. Write a 250-500 word fight scene in which at least one of the objects gets broken while at least one other escapes a similar fate.

Writing exercise: Write a 250-500 prologue about your book’s backhistory that includes an explanation of why the narrator is telling the information that makes the reader suspect the information may be unreliable.