I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Once you have your character sitting right there in your head, all you really need to do is wind them up, put them down, and simply write down what they do, say, or think.

You have to start out learning to believe the little lies. "So we can believe the big ones?" Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.

Shadwell hated all southerners and, by inference, was standing at the North Pole.

Sergeant Colon of the Ankh-Morpork City Guard was on duty. He was guarding the Brass Bridge, the main link between Ankh and Morpork. From theft. When it came to crime prevention, Sergeant Colon found it safest to think big.

The hippo of recollection stirred in the muddy waters of the mind.

We're on a mission from Glod.