Welcome to my perfumed garden

"as if you're an archeologist, not a sculptor and the story exists already."
Oh that's very interesting; so, you get the feeling that a story is already written and you're discovering, rather than creating it?

I like the sound of that! That's not what I get at all; my creative process is a barely controlled anarchy, in which I have the idea, the situation, usually a well-visualised environment and the characters, who I always know intimately before I begin; either because they're old friends, like Jim and Blair (and if I've changed their situation/background - whatever - as I usually have, I do know exactly what those changes are and how they're affecting them) or OCs that I seem to know well already (though they sometimes surprise me) so I'm quite happy to let everyone roam in their new world and see what they make of it.

I don't go in totally blind, I do know, more or less, what's supposed to happen (though rarely have an end) but much more often than not, the characters get away from my plans and take things in all sorts of unanticipated directions.As Jim just did this morning, bless him.