Being creative

A big part of making new and exciting things in the Creation Kit is doing things that haven't already been done. That is, making something that isn't just a rehash of something already elsewhere in the game. A good way to do that is to utilize capabilities of the Creation Kit that Bethesda didn't make much use of:

• More natural environments that don't rely so much on the modular kits
• Many colored lights, not just constant white or yellow lights throughout a space
• Use all of the NPC idle actions. Bethesda uses very few of them.
• Script static objects to move around with time as if they're floating or controlled by something.
• Use lots of FX objects. Vanilla Skyrim uses FX objects sparingly. Although it's easy to overuse them, there are a lot of cool uses for them that aren't in the vanilla game.
• Use image space modifiers as temporary effects as a result of the player's actions. For example, in magicSoulTrapFXScript.psc there is a Trapimod property that's applied when the player captures a soul.
• Modify sound based on the player's location. Use sound triggers for certain sounds in certain areas.
• Make non-linear dungeons! All of Skyrim's dungeons are extremely linear. Make dead-ends. Allow the player to make choices and have multiple directions to go. Don't make each path lead to the same location.