In the reading by C. S. Lewis called "It all began with a picture..." I found there to be some real truth from my own personal experience with creating stories. He was explaining that when he was coming up with the ideas for his Narnia books, he had a picture in his mind, not really knowing what it meant. He worked with those pictures and developed a story out of it. He says that making up things is a mysterious process.

For some reason, when I first read this it really connected with me. You can look at all sorts of technique, analyze plot structures, and intellectually consider what makes a successful character. In the end though, from my experience, ending up with a story that really excites me or connects with me is a bit of a mystery. It is as if I am in some other place while I am creating it and then afterwards I look back at it and wonder where it came from. I can remember times when I was working on developing a story and an image would come into my mind that would blow me away. At that point, I did not know all the details of how that image would exactly work into the future parts of my story, but as odd as it sounds, I was looking forward to finding out. It was as if I was looking forward to reading it after I wrote it. If there was no mystery to the process of creating a story, then I certainly would not have the feeling that the story I was developing was somehow coming from a place that was beyond me.