Goodreads asked Mab Morris:

How do you get inspired to write?

Mab Morris It’s like being in a relationship. Ideas try to woo you—like an idea is asking you out. You have to accept the invitation or not. Do you want to date this person (idea)? You can try it out for a while, see if you can be in a serious relationship or not. The only way that relationship will ever work, however, (in real life or writing) is if you fully participate with it. I’ve put myself in this intense, sometimes glorious, sometimes frustrating relationship with writing. I’ve opened myself up for the possibilities, and I give time to do the work of writing as well.

I had a fascinating character pester me for years between books and during lulls in the writing process. I would tell him, “You truly are interesting. I already adore you—but no plot, no book.” I was only a matter of time. I was patient, and it wasn’t as if I didn’t have anything to work on. Surely a character that interesting would have a story. I read books like Sam Kean’s _The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons_, or Campbell’s Mask of God series, just participate in life as best as possible… and just be *available* to any ideas that come. Like any good relationship I participated in it, in joyous times and tough. And that works. That character did have a story.

One day the plot came. It could only do that because I put myself in a position to be open to its… advances.

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