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As did Cubist artist Pablo Picasso, fracture reality a little. That is a good place to begin writing a science fiction novel. Look at the jagged edges of the broken shapes. Mark how they wander precariously round new substances of reality. Explore this new dimension of "what if" and "what could be".

Know your science fiction landscape well. It will drive the plot, atmosphere and believability of this alternative reality. Ask yourself questions about the landscape and jot down preliminary ideas.

1. Is there a time frame for this landscape?
2. Where is it?
3. How did it evolve?
4. Why did it evolve?
5. What distinctive features identify this physical, social, political and cultural landscape? What are buildings like? How are they made? Describe modes of transport. Is humanity a vital ingredient? Do people have specialized jobs? Is money as we know it outdated? Are people identified by microchips genetically connected to generations of their family tree?
6. Who or what rules this landscape?

Know where you are taking this landscape. Be conscious of linking major themes and minor themes holding the whole fabric of your canvas together.

1. Is it a utopian world doomed? Or a dystopian world doomed? Or is it a higher order of thinking about "what is progress"? Thomas More's "Utopia" was one of the first writings in this field.
2. Is the landscape a possible extension of current realities or a replacement world?
3. Is this "reality" how history could have been e.g. Germany won World War I or Atlantis still exists? Historian Niall Ferguson is one of 9 writers who offers a great introduction of possible outcomes in this newer sub genre of science fiction in "Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals".

Carefully check out your ideas. Has another science fiction writer used them before? It is worth the research, in case you are charged with inadvertent plagiarism. Perhaps you may like to challenge another writer's ideas on the same topic. But always be aware of what has been said before you (to the best of your ability).

If you are a writer who enjoys in depth, psychological character studies, ensure your characters suit your landscape; ensure they act and react to your science fiction world and not just according to our own conditioned perspectives. If they are outcasts in this world, what distinctly makes them outcasts and what processes do they employ to deal with the situation? Do some characters comply with the landscape and others rebel?

Consider concepts in this world.
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