Worldbuilding-a-day

Long ago Phil and I used to do story-a-day competitions where each of us had to take a few minutes and brainstorm up a story idea first thing every morning. It was an exercise designed to get the creative wheels a-turnin and to discourage self editing - the ideas were literally throwaway content. That said, after a month, you’d have thirty or so of them, and some of them would resonate with you or would have struck a chord with your writing partner.

I’ve started to the same thing for worldbuilding - thing-a-day competitions with the BSP creative group. Last month it was nobles of a particular kingdom, which meant there needed to be a quick refresher on fantasy feudalism and what a mess it can be, and then we started making quirky and interesting nobles of all types, from the uncouth country knight without table manners (who can fight) to the black sheep count living in isolation on his great estate … is he lonely and ill, or is something sinister going on?

Doing these kinds of little creative exercises every day, with partners (so you have accountability and instant audience) can really help you flesh out any creative thing you happen to be working on, and the committment is small enough you really have no excuse not to do the work every day.