You’d think they were channeling the muse, but what’s really going on is even more amazing, because it’s something you can control, and therefore count on. It’s this: once you’ve created your story, and your characters have taken on the shape, depth, and complexity of a fully formed past, they begin reacting to the present as if on their own. The same is true of events, subplots, everything—they begin to suggest themselves, based on what has happened up to that moment.
