I've always said that a good story is about an interesting somebody, who wants something badly, and is having trouble getting it. The "wanting something" is the objective and the "having trouble getting it" are the obstacles along the way, but none of that matters if we don't care about that "somebody" – your protagonist. When creating an interesting protagonist, it's essential that your audience cares about the character, hoping the character will do the right thing, but constantly fearing that the character will make another bad decision. It's this yin and yang of…

Set your story in a small new world. Be specific. Be exact. Take us to a place we've never seen before. Make the audience experience something truly unique and new. Imagine: one story occurs on the city streets of any urban metropolis and another inside a submarine at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Clearly, the smaller world is in the sub. And because the sub is so specific, we have the opportunity to really experience it in all its complexities.