What's Your Creative Process?

I mentioned a couple of days ago how my writing process works when all the stars line up in a perfect world.  Because–that's what we all have, right?  

Being a character-driven writer, I don't come up with the story first and then fill in with characters.  I let the characters find me, and the story will come.  I should have known my latest attempt was all back-ass-wards when I spent most of a day on name databases looking for the perfect name for my mc.  That should have been the first clue!

Because yesterday, as I sat on my front porch bench at home, staring across the street at my mother's old house…the one I grew up in and is now inhabited by strangers and doesn't look like the picture below anymore… my mc came and sat next to me, stared at the same house, and told me her name is Emily. 

I was full of happy…

Because even though I don't know what the story is yet, I know it's going to be about this house, and besides that, I'm getting to know her and that is where the good stuff comes from.

I knew Dani from THE REASON IS YOU long before I knew her story.  I knew her name was Dani Shane, and I felt the weight of the world on her shoulders as she drove down a highway in the heat of the summer in an old car with no air conditioning.  That's how she started.  I knew nothing else.

Now, I'll wait for Emily.

So tell me about you.  If you write, are you plot driven or character driven?  If you are an artist, where does your inspiration come from?  Whatever you do…what inspires you?

Tagged: characters, new book, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, womens fiction, writing