I agree about letting characters drive the story, rather than the other way around.
When I am in the zone for writing, which is very rarely these days, I sit down to write to "find out what happens next", and I feel that I'm watching the characters and taking notes. Otherwise I'm sort of pushing the people along: when that happens I find it's much easier for me to play with someone else's story - the characters can tell me "I wouldn't quite do that" much more easily than they can tell me of some open-ended scheme. In a sense, of course, this is why I'm drawn to fanfic when I want to write: if my characters could speak to me from a blank slate (which happens now and then), I wouldn't even need the structure of P&P, etc..
When I am in the zone for writing, which is very rarely these days, I sit down to write to "find out what happens next", and I feel that I'm watching the characters and taking notes. Otherwise I'm sort of pushing the people along: when that happens I find it's much easier for me to play with someone else's story - the characters can tell me "I wouldn't quite do that" much more easily than they can tell me of some open-ended scheme. In a sense, of course, this is why I'm drawn to fanfic when I want to write: if my characters could speak to me from a blank slate (which happens now and then), I wouldn't even need the structure of P&P, etc..